posted 07-20-2009 05:11 AM               

My wife Jackie and I had been trying to think of what we could do to mark this larger than life event. Once we had received our copy of Alan Bean's "A Giant Leap" giclee it hit us. We needed to do a full scale replica of that event to match as closely as we could Alan Bean's painting.

It was finished yesterday and now has a home in our home.

posted 07-20-2009 12:09 PM               

The main leg is 6 inch diameter for the top section and 4 inch for the lower end. The lower end is held in position with 1 by 2" pine strips and then the upper section is attached to the lower with long wood screws.

The outriggers are 3 inch PVC tube with an end cap that was a 3 inch grate. Jackie filled the openings with body filler and sanded it smooth with a 3/8" hole in the middle and painted it silver. A 3/8 inch threaded rod holds them to the main leg (bent at the correct angle) using wood squares along the length of the rod to stabilize it.

The foot pad is done the same way with 5/8 threaded rod. The lower end has two wooded balls that make up the pivot assembly as well.

The ladder is all aluminum and is 0.5 by 1 1/8" bar with 1 inch tubing. We drilled halfway through each bar using a one inch hole saw and this held in the rungs. The ladder is secured with bolts into the leg.

The covering is Mylar from some space blankets we picked up at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and the tape strips are actual Kapton tape we bought online. And the foot pad is a water heater overflow pan Jackie found at Home Depot that we attached to a piece of 3/4 inch plywood.

The plaque (although it would have been covered up for the first step) is a Creative Source replica.

We had fun figuring out how to put this together and finding material to make it work. Jackie made a support armature structure for the astronaut using galvanized pipe wrapped in foam to give it some bulk as a mannequin would have not filled it out as well.

There are some things we still want to do such as work on the helmet and add an antenna, but all in due time.