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Sarang Lunar Rover

One of my favourite films of all time is Moon (2009) by Duncan Jones. The Sarang Lunar Rover is a model I've always wanted.

4 years ago

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One of my favourite films of all time is Moon (2009) by Duncan Jones.

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.

I absolutely love everything about the film and I own a number of plans and screen used items and props from the production of the film. I very nearly bought GERTY and Sarang Rover 01, but at the time I couldn't justify the cost. This is something I very much regret, especially about the Sarang Rover 01.

Sarang Rover 03 driving towards the crashed Sarang Rover 01 - image from IMDB

Since I started 3D printing I've often thought about printing a Sarang Lunar Rover but there has never been any decent models available and 3D modeling isn't my strongest area of expertise.

A friend of mine, who is also a huge fan of Moon (2009); spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort to build me a 1:24 scale paper model of the Sarang 01 for my birthday which is absolutely amazing.

Paper model of Sarang Rover 01 by David Olley - image by Paul Massey

The 1:24 scale paper model design is available from Paper Aviation.

Upon receiving the paper model, I began to think of printing a studio scale model and had a look around the internet once more. I stumbled upon an impressive looking model on Thingverse but quickly found that the model just won't print in its present condition as the model has a huge number of serious issues.

Sarang Rover 01 model - image from Thingverse

I'm not sure how the model has been printed, the images show that a very small model was printed on a resin printer and that a larger scale version was also printed somehow. I'll keep my eye on that for future developments as it's an impressive model, albeit not quite accurate.

I've been aware of an unfinished model in the SketchUp 3D warehouse for some time, I downloaded this a while back but found that it wasn't suitable for 3D printing and needed a lot of work.

Unfinished Sarang Rover 01 model from SketchUp 3D Warehouse - image by Paul Massey

I spent quite some time rebuilding the model with 3D printing in mind as well as adjusting the dimensions slightly and remodeling some incorrect parts and details.

I shelved the project due to lack of time but revisited it from time to time to tweak a little here and there but it certainly looked that I'd never complete the required work.

I've learned a lot about modeling in SketchUp more recently as I've been renovating my 1971 Volkswagen Type 2 Dormobile camper and have needed a few parts in order to fit more modern headlight assemblies and so forth which I've been unable to source.

I've also been busy working on the InMoov robot and have created a few parts I needed for housing some electronics projects. I'll share my work on these at some point.

It was this that has given me confidence to re-visit the Sarang 01 project and learn even more about working in SketchUp and modeling the required parts and changes needed.

I've already created most of the missing parts for the Sarang 01 version as well as remodeled a number of parts that had issues. I've also scaled down the model to 1:18 scale so that I can make the necessary changes correctly and so that they can be printed at the correct size without issue.

Model as of 13th June 2020

There's still a lot to do on this model but I plan to finish it with the Sarang 01 version and then start work on the Sarang 02 and Sarang 03 flatbed sections so that I can print a complete set of three vehicles.

I'm working in routing for wires and mounts for LED lighting in order to have the option to illuminate them once built.

There's a lot of detail in the Sarang Rover models so I think that I might have to invest in a resin printed like the Elegoo Mars in order to be able to produce the more finely detailed parts as FDM printing is really not going to cut it for the smaller detailed parts.

Model as of 13th June 2020

I don't plan to include any interior in the first version as I plan to blackout the screens but I may revisit this once the model is complete and correct.

Keep tuned, this is just the beginning of another long journey.


Please note: This is a personal project of mine and I will share my work when possible.

Paul Massey

Published 4 years ago