Spectrometer & Instrument Box 

 

The next step was to build the spectrometer and the instrument box. I have produced a blueprint (figure 1) in 1/10 scale while I created 3D views with Gmax allowing to see precisely its positionning on the lunokhod body. The first step was to build the instrument box using 0.75 mm styrene sheet. Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 show the construction process. For this part, it was fairly simple since it was a simple square box with no specific detail on it except the connector.

I then built the spectrometer which construction is shown on figures 6. Although mostly made out of styren, the connecting tubes between the main instruments and the two plates are made out of small telephone wire (figure 6d). Once completed surface primer was applied to the part (figure 7), since the main part of the spectrometer is not painted in chrome it was necessary to use adhesive tape as a stencil to protect areas to be painted in different colors (figure 8). Eventually th spectrometer was installed onto the Lunokhod (figures 9). This completed all instruments on the front part of the lunokhod.
 
 

Fig 2 : Instrument box construction - January 2005
Fig 3 : Application of surface primer - January 2005
Fig 4 : Application of Chrome paint - February 2005
Fig 5 : Completed instrument box : February 2005
Fig 6a, b, c : Construction of the spectrometer - January 2005
Fig 6d, e, f : Construction of the spectrometer - February 2005
Fig 7 : Application of surface primer - February 2005
Fig 8 : Application of chrome paint - February 2005
Fig 9a, b : Completed spectrometer - February 2005
Photos and blueprints by Vincent Meens - January - February 2005

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