Even after over four decades, I still clearly recall my third-grade class field trip to the Boston Museum of Science – my first of many visits to come. For a kid like me with a voracious appetite for anything having to do with science (especially anything space-related), the Museum of Science with its many interactive displays was simply heaven. But of everything I saw, the one thing that stuck with me was the kid-friendly, full-size mockup of an Apollo Command Module (CM). Its extra-large opening allowed easy access to its interior with a pair of reclined seats and a wooden mockup of the CM control panels. That same CM mockup (presumably with many renovations after decades of use) survives to this day and is still part of the Museum of Science’s To The Moon display.
The kid-friendly Apollo CM display at the Boston Museum of Science as it appears today.
My only complaint at the time was that the CM display was quite crowded with kids (and adults!) waiting in line to check it out which limited my time inside when it came to be my turn. I could have easily spent an entire day inside this display preferably decked out in my Star Team space helmet and other astronaut regalia I owned at the time. But having seen what my father had done finishing the basement of our home, I figured that it might be possible to build my own mockup of the CM for my personal use.
Fast forward a few years later when I was a bit older but still occasionally dreamed of having my own mockup of the CM in my backyard. By this time I was regularly writing to various NASA centers across the country getting a wide variety of free publications and photographs on various space projects. In one of the packages I received in the mid-1970s was an unassuming set of photocopied pages that had obviously been pulled from some larger document. A closer look revealed that these were plans to build a simple model of the CM!!! I would obviously have to come up with details of the interior (hinted in the photo of a mockup control panel included with the plans) but my childhood dream of building my own full-size model of the CM was one step closer to becoming reality.
First of a set of drawings from 1964 for an early model of the Apollo Command Module. (NASA)
Of course, I never did end up building that model of the CM although the thought has occasionally crossed my mind in an idle moment as an adult. And now that I look at those plans four decades later I realize that the unmarked units of measure on the drawings were not feet but were inches… which makes sense given the materials and construction (after all, where are you going to find a 12-foot piece of wood for the heat shield never mind a lathe to turn it?). So what I actually received all those years ago were plans for a one-inch scale (or 1/12th scale) model of an early version of the CM from 1964. Still, with modifications to the materials used and additional internal structural support, the units in the drawing can still be readily switched from inches to feet and be used as a guide to building a full-size mockup of the CM by someone with a bit more skill (not to mention, a larger yard) than I have.
A (barely) grownup Drew LePage remembering a childhood dream in front of of the Apollo CM display at Kennedy Space Center in 1986.
In hopes of inspiring anyone out there to build their own model of the CM (one-inch scale or full size), I am providing a link to a PDF file of the plans of the Apollo CM I received four decades ago. If any reader decides to actually build the model (one-inch scale or otherwise), please feel free to share the results. Enjoy!!!
Postscript
After I originally posted this article, a reader kindly provided me with some more information on the origins of the Apollo CM drawings I received from NASA about 40 years ago. They were prepared as part of a project of the Division of Applied Arts and Sciences of the California State College at Long Beach (now California State University, Long Beach) in cooperation with NASA to provide educational materials for industrial arts teachers in secondary schools. Started in August of 1963, the project resulted in the publication of a book in 1964 that included drawings of not only a model of the CM but five other pieces of NASA hardware: the Saturn I, Explorer 12, the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO), the Relay comsat and Mariner 2. In 1966 a further half dozen drawings were added to the collection: the X-15, the Titan II GLV (Gemini Launch Vehicle), Gemini, TIROS, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory (OAO) and the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). As luck would have it, scans of all of these drawings along with a publication summary are available on line via Sven Knudson’s excellent Ninfinger Productions website which can be reached via this link. Enjoy!
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Related Reading
“When I Thought My Dad Was an Astronaut”, Drew Ex Machina, July 1, 2014 [Post]
“The Coolest Rocket Ever”, Drew Ex Machina, March 30, 2014 [Post]
“The Space Shuttle and the Dreams of a Ten Year Old”, The Space Review, Article #1879, July 11, 2011 [Article]
FINALLY! Someone who shared my own dreams…sort of! I never had dreams of building my own CM but I sure had dreams of building my own Mercury spacecraft. Even devised a design that would let me rotate the cabin 90 degrees in pitch so I could enjoy a good seating. Like you, I never built it but I sure did think about it. And still do to this day.
I shared your hopes exactly about wanting a Apollo CM of my own. I was luck to find an Apollo Boilerplate CM and later a Gemini Boilerplate CM that I have been gradually restoring over the past 8 years. I started a Facebook page documenting my efforts. My FB page is listed in the Website section above. BTW, which Apollo Boilerplate is shown above at the top of this page?
The feature picture is Apollo BP-23A which was used in the second Little Joe abort test flown on June 29, 1965. I used it because I always thought it was a cool CM shot when I was a kid.
Imagine building one of these and putting a PC inside of it to run an Apollo simulator (if there is one).
If not it would be a cool place to play Kerbal Space Program or Orbiter.
http://orbit.medphys.ucl.ac.uk/gallery_amso.html
I have similar issues with a lem.inspired playhous e for my grandson and daughter. They will both grow up dreaming of going to the moon.
If there are any SoCal peeps here, maybe we can collaborate.
When I was 12, I made a cardboard model of part of the CM main panel. I was stumped at how to do the FDAI and DSKY, so the project was on hiatus. I would still love to do one, at least for the interior, and a LM as well, with the LM being preferred But still, I spent many nights dreaming of my own CM!
Get a real working DSKY. This group is working on them now…
https://www.facebook.com/DSKY-444791405902888/
I bought an Apollo 13 module but I don’t have the instructions on how to put it together. I need to find out how to attach both pieces together including the landing gear.
Back in the late 60′ early 70’s I built my own CM and LM ascent stage. Between cardboard, wood and chicken mesh wire. I painted it up and it didn’t look half bad. We had many missions with these. Wasn’t full size but still big enough to easily fit 3 kids!
I built a sort of half scale LM for a school play in1972 plus a couple of spacesuits. The LM was basically a side-on cut-out, a painting on a stage ‘flat’ with added 3D elements, all very quick to lay out. The astronauts exited the LM down an aluminium ladder hidden behind the flat, and the legs were basically Mylar stretched between poles and sacks of sand. All that was brightly lit was the porch and the ladder. It worked surprisingly well!
I had one for a couple of weeks at my disposal
When I built a replica for an exhibition.
Must admit that I took some evenings to
Lie on my back and imagine myself
Up there…
Same with the lunar module I have built
About a decade ago, many times walking to the NYC subway from work, I walked past a building they were using as a fake for the Smithsonian and saw a Mercury capsule standing in the ‘rotunda’. I wondered how ‘real’ it was and if they had any plans for it after the filming was done. Never got up the nerve to ask.
Well, What’s the problem ? Clean out the garage and start building !
LOL!!! For starters, my garage is too small to fit a full-size CM. Secondly, as supportive as my wife of 20 years has been of my interests, I don’t believe she take too kindly to me displacing her car out of our heated garage… especially this time of year 😉
I got the complete plans as well as all the interior layout, including the displays and switches (many foldout pages) from The Manned Spacecraft Center in 1972. It is my most valued space-era collectable item.