Own Your Own (Replica) ISS Module

AMD-lover writes with word that you can purchase a museum-quality replica of the Destiny laboratory module used on the International Space Station. "Keep in mind the weight of approximately 20,000 pounds and the dimensions of 29 feet by 15 feet. But with a price of $1,650,000.00, it is really a steal."

Comments

authentic reproduction.

[tloh]

Ya know, I can only think of one way to simulate true microgravity in that thing. Too bad it can be done just once for at most a few minutes before you need to bail out.

Wait...

[Maljin Jolt]

...until some chinese clone makes it to ThinkGeek. It will be more affordable to avarage de-socialised hacker. Must say, all those WORF (World Observation Research Facility), TIVS (Treadmill Vibration Isolation System) and HRF (Human Research Facility) features may even improve a sexual life of an average geek...

The one that got away

[MajorDick]

In my life I have had a chance to buy some pretty odd things, some I bought some I didnt, of the many things I didnt buy there are a few that haunt me, a 1971 Superbird for 5 grand in 1988. and a full scale repilca of the Mercury Capsule in about 1985 for $800 , I dont think anyone except the flight engineers could have told it wasnt real, the fellow that built it spent 15 years building it then passed away, I had a chance to buy it and almost did, but I couldnt imagine where the heck I was going to put it, it was heavy as hell. I wonder what ever happened to it what a work of art

But has it been inspected by...

[Fiz Ocelot]

But has it been inspected by the Nasalnaut?

Actually if you did have this thing outside in a very warm summer climate, you could have some problems there.

Build Your Own, It's Cheaper

[max born]

Question for slash dotters: If you had 1.6M to spend on a lab, what would you buy?

Oscilloscope, vacuum chamber, some high quality microscopes (optical. electron), breadboard (and an entire Radio Shack to go with), a decent laser, spectrometer, a good chemsirty set, an atomic clock, some high grade uranium (for experimental purposes only, of course), a G5 cluster? Oh and how about a cyclotron?

What have I missed?

Re:Build Your Own, It's Cheaper

[dtl]

let us price this up.

'scope, HP do some nice 3GHz bandwidth models = 30k

Vac. Chamber = well, we were quoted 500 for a 6" by 12" alu chamber, so call it 5000 for something of a reasoable size for general work. (ours is specialised)

Microscopes, ebay suggests ~20k for a 10 year old SEM, expect another 5k on optical + decent lenses, etc.

Breadboard = 25, parts from radioshack, no idea, expect them to be as over prices as Tandy was in the uk. Allow 2k.

Decent laser, excimer UV laser pumping a dye laser should cover pretty much anything from UV to IR. Reconditioned excimer (LPX-100) ~15k Dye laser just happen to have a spare we want to sell (FL-3002, to be pumped by the LPX100), so ~3k

Spectrometer, probably not much change out of 20k for a low end good one.

Allow say 2k for chemicals and another 1k for glassware.

Atomic clock, Hmmm hard to say. Set aside 500 in beer money to research this...

Uranium, about 1k for 1gram + other ellemnts from : http://www.birdguides.com/estore4/products/browse. asp

G5 Cluster, 5 machines (dual proc) for say 15k

Cyclotron, cheap. I built one for 200. Wasn't very good though. I suspect if you had the time would could build something reasonable for ~5k

so the total: 124525.00

So double up on everything, get a nice big lab (or by the parents a bigger house and move into a big basement :-) ). You'll still have cash for a good lego set, the support equipment for the lasers, general running costs etc.

[please note very rough figures only]

Re:Why by a replica...

[bcrowell]

Why not a replica...
...when a replica can do just as much science as the real thing?

Or make your own - for FREE :)

[M0b1u5]

http://www.marscenter.it/eng/modellismoiss.htm

Raimondo Fortezza has done a great job of creating downloadable PDFs of the ISS components. It's cost me about NZ$220 to print them all, and I am most of the way through assembling them all.

http://www.mistaril.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=35 2

for photos of the parts.

The work is time consuming but rewarding. The parts are very detailed and not for children - but for model makers and enthusiasts.

I have done about 300 hours so far on it - and have maybe another 150 to go before it's complete (in its current state.)

We are still waiting for PIRS docking module and US Airlock components.