ALTAIR: Solidworks Project

Figure 1: A front view of the ALTAIR Lander in Solidworks

The "ALTAIR Lunar Lander" is the lunar landing module that is to be used in the ORION space project that will take humans back to the moon. It has a very similar look to the lunar module used in the Apollo missions. This is NASA's new version of the Lunar Lander.

I always envisioned myself to build spacecraft. Thus I chose to recreate a simpler model of the ALTAIR. It is my dream to one day create a module that will take humans even further than the moon.

Figure 2: An Isometric view To create this model, I started by extruding an octagon, which is the body of the lander. Next I created the top tank by using the revolve technique. I drew half the sketch and revolved it around one line to get the tank. The spherical tanks were also made by revolving a tangent arc around a line. Very small cylinders were mated with the spherical tanks so I could then mate a rectangular figure to the sphere, which helped me connect the thrusters. The thrusters that are connected to the spherical tanks were made by extruding a rectangle and adding a cylinder like shape to the top and bottom. The cylinder like shapes were created by lofts. The thrusters had to be connected to the spherical tanks and the main tank. I created an extruded cylinder and added cones on the end of the cylinder (I call them, "rods") which would connect the thrusters to the tanks. Each rod was then mated to a corner of the thrusters and then mated the other end of the rod to either the spherical tank or the main tank. Next the legs that are attached to body were made in a similar way the rods except the ends were spheres. I then mated each leg to the body and to each other. Next I mated a bowl shape to the leg that is vertical to the ground. The bowls were made by lofts. Next came the ladder. I had made the ladder by creating three planes, a middle, left and right plane. I had swept the sides of the ladder by using a pattern that was created in the middle plane. Then I created each step drawing rectangles in between the sides of the ladders. Each rectangle was spaced at equal distance. I then extruded them and thus the ladder was made. Finally I mated the ladder to the body, and mated the body to the main tank to get a final product.

Figure 3: A top view

The most challenging part of this model was mating everything. Mating sometimes moves parts around and messes with the composition and build of the assembly. Eventually I figured out how to mate everything accordingly so the lander looks as best as it can be.

Figure 4: A side view

Solidworks allows anyone to create nearly anything they envision. From working with this program, I have learned that it takes time, patience, and practice to become really good at creating more delicate and extravagant objects. Solidworks is constantly teaching me new techniques to use when creating complex figures.

Figure 5: Drawing sketch of the Lander

Appendix A

The Original image

Figure 6: NASA’s vision of the ALTAIR lander.

This is the original image that I used as reference to make my own version of the ALTAIR lander.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Altair-Lander_(latest).jpg