Lunar Rover

thingiverse

This is a model of the Apollo Lunar Rover at approximately 1/25 scale designed for printing rather than to be a faithful reproduction. How I Designed This I grew up in the Apollo era and was always fascinated with space travel and exploration. A friend and I were looking for models to try printing with our new 3D printers, but we couldn't find a basic model of the Lunar Rover. So, I challenged myself to design one that could be printed easily, still maintain some key features, and looked reasonably accurate. I had to greatly increase the size of the suspension elements as well as TV camera and antenna supports, and leave out things like the arm for positioning the antenna. For the seats, I came up with a design that gave the impression of webbing, but simplified the seat bottoms with a solid box rather than trying to create the thin tubular design of the original. I also didn't curve the seat backs. In terms of the rest of the cargo, I was surprised while looking at photos that there were many configurations, so I took a basic version and created this design with its separate pieces for easier printing and allows customization. I originally designed this to print as one piece, but it required too much support and the delicate parts would break when trying to remove the supports. My friend suggested removing the wheels, but the suspension supports extend below the frame, so I ended up cutting out part of the frame and suspension along with the wheels while leaving enough of the frame to maintain its strength. With the pieces separated the way I did, and with my redesign if the undercarriage, everything can be printed without supports except the wheels/suspension and antenna.