posted 07-29-2011 12:19 PM               

A couple of years ago Kim Poor sold Ron Evans 32oz drink bag and straw that was carried inside his A7LB during the mission and on his famous spacewalk to recover the film canisters from the service module. This inflight drink bag was kept by Ron's wife in a bank deposit box for 30+ years. When it was removed to sell, the plastic bag deteriorated into small chips, leaving the 8" velcro strap, straw, rubber tubing and label intact.

Since the drink bag is already broken down into small pieces and I'm not a fan of cutting up intact artifacts, I would like to make 100-200 Apollo 17 lucites with pieces of this flown drink bag. Obviously the cost to produce these will be a big factor how many are made and what the display will look like.

I love Ken Havekotte's Apollo 17 kapton foil cylinder shaped lucites with the 45 degree slant top and the mission logo on the bottom, as well as the famous pyramid with Apollo 17 material embedded. While those shapes make awesome displays, I'd like to create something unique, that hasn't been done before.

One idea I had was to do a 1" thick by 5-6" long, CSM-shaped lucite with the mission logo and a few of these chips embedded in it. Another idea was to use the well known photo of Ron during his spacewalk embedded in the lucite with a few chips and a small mission logo in the engine bell. On the back of the display would be a small description of the bag w/provenance from Novaspace and the number of the individual piece in the edition.

The tombstone or hockey puck shaped lucites have little interest to me, I really would like to make something special and a fitting tribute to the last lunar mission.

Do you think there would be much interest in a lucite like this or is it too obscure of a piece to be considered desirable?

Since this lucite would be bought by the members of cS, I'd like your input so if I make this piece, it's something that you would want for your collection.

posted 07-29-2011 04:38 PM               

I'll be interested to see if other members can suggest a specific company that make good-quality lucites, with both a 3-D item and a small photograph. I did some research about a year ago, as I would like to make about 12 lucites of an item of mine that is in danger of deteriorating. Hopefully someone will be able to suggest a company that can do this for a little less than the several I contacted.

posted 07-29-2011 05:31 PM               

As for design, I would say to go for the Apollo Command Module "cone" design. There have been lucites like this in the past but I think it would be nice to bring it back. An Apollo 17 logo would serve as the bottom and on the reverse of the logo it would bear what the item is and such. A 3in to 4in diameter circle would make it fit perfectly with all other acrylics. I saw the photo of the "chips" and I suggest putting more than just one "chip" in each lucite; the ASF's ASTP acrylic had "crumbs" of the heatshield and I still think they could have added a few more "crumbs" to really make it one of the best acrylics out there.

Let's keep the ideas flowing! I think with everyone's input and ideas we can have a nice lucite designed

EDIT: I couldn't resist so I drew it out so it can make more sense:

posted 07-29-2011 07:31 PM               

This way, you are saved the hassle and expense of getting the acrylics made yourself, and of course, the proceeds go to the great cause of helping aspiring STEM students achieve their educational goals.

posted 07-30-2011 08:55 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by 328KF:
With that said, I might suggest that you contact the aforementioned ASF folks about possibly donating these to their Space Artifact Series and let them run with it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by garymilgrom:
Perhaps you could cast a sphere and have a crater-texture embedded on it.

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quote:

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Originally posted by MrSpace86:
As for design, I would say to go for the Apollo Command Module "cone" design.

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I was thinking of making a screw together clear baseball card size display like Jerry makes, but being a fan of the vintage CM shaped resins, I think that's the route I'll go. The other issue is I don't want someone to remove pieces to then make up their own displays.

Should I have the mission logo on one side with a photo of Ron during his spacewalk or should I have a smaller version of the Novaspace COA?

posted 07-30-2011 10:57 PM               

For the logo, I think you should do the Apollo 17 mission patch on one side and a simple explanation (I guess what is written on the Novaspace COA) on the other side.

I would mimic what was done with the Cernan Corp Apollo 17 Kapton Foil acrylic (if you need pics, let me know and I'll post them). It also mimics what was done with the ASF acrylics. I wouldn't put a mission photo; the mission logo would help the acrylic "blend in" with existing acrylics in people's collections.