The C12 was a special project initiated by the International Space Agency (ISA) in collaboration with numerous contractors.
The main goal of the ISA in this project was to create a vehicle that could transport astronauts and small science projects – such as biological, mineral or chemical samples – while shielding them completely from cosmic or planetary radiations.
Critics at the time said that the ISA could easely use its existing fleet of interplanetary spacecrafts do to just that, as they are already shielded from radiation. But ISA officials argued that the C12 project would operate at a lower cost while being more efficient than conventional spacecrafts. And for once... they were right.
The C12 took only 6 months to design and another 3 months to build, and the development costs were well within the initial budget.
This was due greatly to the C12's head of project, German engineer Lars Fuchslocher, who persistently kept things simple and systematically refused any changes or add-ons to the initial project.
Fuchslocher`'s efforts resulted in a small hovercraft. Heavely armoured, the C12 Surface Transporter is lifted off the ground by a four-point anti-gravity unit while two space-grade thrusters give it enough speed to cover large distances in a fairly short time.
To keep the weight down, Fuchslocher opted not to include an anti-radiation shield, relying solely on the C12's heavy armour to protect the passagers and their cargo against radiations. That meant that the C12's armour would deteriorate over exposure and time and that it would need to be replace fairly often. To downsize that disadvantage, Fuchslocher did design the C12's armour with existing armoured parts from ships already in the fleet, enabling the C12 to be repaired with existing and fairly common spare parts.
All that simplicity and ingenuity resulted in a vehicle that does cost less to use than a regular interplanetary spaceship. Its next-to-nothing preparation and setting up time and great speed also makes it almost as fast as a any ship over the same land distance.
Note from author:I made this little vehicle about a year ago as part of a contest held by my LUG, but never got around to taking decent pictures of it. Since I had a little time on my hand at the Montreal ToyCon, I ended up improvising a little photo session at the end of my display table.
So yes, I do know that crowded backgrounds tend to take away from the presented model, but please bear with me and try to focus on the model instead of the background.
Thanks in advance for all your comments!
