Celestia Forums

OK, I took a crack at making the Messenger probe for Celestia. It's very basic, I based it on directions for building a paper model of the probe.

Anyway, here it is if anyone wants to play with it. This is my first model for Celestia, so let me know if I need to change anything.

Thanks

http://home.comcast.net/~mmarable/Mercury_Messenger.zip

Some shots of it.




It's a little dark, and I think the orintation might be off, but it's late and I just plugged it into the add-on released by granthutchison (http://www.lepp.cornell.edu/~seb/celestia/hutchison/messenger.html)

Remember, I've never done this before, so let me know how I can fix any mistakes I made with this.

The link doesn't work !

Hi!
the link contains these wrong characters at the end: "<br />"
you can simply copy the link (right click on the mouse) and then paste into your favorite internet browser. then delete the unnecessary characters and voil?

Ciao
Pierluigi

Try removing the <br /> that's attached to the end of that link, then it works fine. Or just use this one

http://home.comcast.net/~mmarable/Mercury_Messenger.zip

I fixed the link.

Sorry about that.

I tried your model.

I have many comments on it. It's a nice start, but in my opinion, the model is too crude for any use in Celestia right now, especially if we compare it to all the other satellite models from Jack's site.

First, the small details on the central box are too much colorised. I think the real satellite is all covered in a light gray glossy material. I saw some pictures on the web where it is shown all gray and shinny.

Second, the details are really not the same as on the real thing. There are some small spheres and reactors on the real object, and they should appears on your model.

Third, you should add the frame under the large cover, which fix it to the central box, like on the real object. This would make the model much more interesting to look at.

Fourth, a long antenna (?) is missing on the central box.

Here's a usefull link about the probe :

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission ... esign.html

Also, go to that page, to see many nice 3D representations of the real thing :

http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission ... ssion.html

I think it's a very good start. Jack's been making satellite models for a couple of years, so he has lots of pieces that he's developed that can be reused.

Making a new model from scratch is hard!

Cham,

In case you didn't notice, the pages you reference are "artist's impressions", not photographs of the real thing. While one can hope that they're close, they could have been created before the design was finalized, so you can't depend on their details being perfect, either.

Some photographs of the satellite are at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/the_mission/pictures/pictures.html
and a long list of annotated webcam images of Messenger being assembled are at http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/webcam/annotatedimages/annotated-20040727.html
They're small, and many of them are rather dark, but they should help in designing details.

selden wrote:I think it's a very good start. Jack's been making satellite models for a couple of years, so he has lots of pieces that he's developed that can be reused. Making a new model from scratch is hard!.

Hello Mmarable, I absolutely agree with Selden, your FIRST model is absolutely interesting, and moreover based on (in my opinion) very scarce information and images, even after checking Cham's and Selden's links.
So, please, go on along this way, try to make the suggested changes (I could add the lower launch vehicle adapter), and I'm sure that in the next future JH will have a serious competitor, for the joy of all of us, I'm sure.
Go on, please!

Andrea

I have made a model of messenger with blender3d,but the 3ds exporter I found can't export texture,these pictures shows my work,If you like it I'll continue to work with it and try to solve these promble.but now ,I don't have many time to do this.because a very important examination is near.I should to review my text book

this is a picture showing my work:

The heat shield on the Messenger needs to be toward the sun at all times. Does the trajectory in Celestia take that into account? Can it?

Edit: Just out of curiousity I put the model in and centered and locked it with the sun. If you run time real fast it spins very slowly. The heat sheild is about 90 degrees off from the sun at all times, but even it was towards the sun, it would rotate away from it. This would fry the electronics.

divine_vessel wrote:I have made a model of messenger with blender3d,but the 3ds exporter I found can't export texture,these pictures shows my work,If you like it I'll continue to work with it and try to solve these promble.but now ,I don't have many time to do this.because a very important examination is near.I should to review my text book

this is a picture showing my work:

This model appears to be very good. Please, can you make it available ?