This started out in spring 2003 as a little project that quickly got bigger once I told a friend who invited me to display it at an event in Sheboygan, WI called "Rockets for Schools." My intent became to recreate as accurately as possible the projected design of the International Space Station. The research on this project was a lot of fun, and prompted major redesigns throughout the project as I began to understand how the components fit together.

Much of what is in the model is not actually in space (and some of it will never be). Budget problems have forced a reduction in the planned Russian science modules, and cancellation of a US Habitation module. Also depicted is a CRV (Crew Return Vehicle) which was also cancelled by NASA. Unfortunately, this lack of return / escape capability limits the maximum crew for the ISS -- severly limiting the scientific potential of the station. The grounding of the shuttle fleet after the Columbia disaster has also brought a (temporary) halt to the construction of the ISS. Finally, the new focus for NASA on returning to the Moon in preparation for a Mars mission also includes moving away from the ISS once the core components are in orbit.


Design Notes

One of the major components of the model (the Solar Panels) could not be constructed of LEGO. I tried. It's too heavy. Remember that the real thing is in a microgravity environment. My wife helped me with the final solution, which was to take fine mesh fabric and glue it to blue posterboard. The weight factor was much reduced, and helped relieve a major stress on the model. Too bad LEGO couldn't custom make me some panels out of that blue plastic stuff on the Mars Rover!


If you would like more detail:

Pictures of the individual modules

Pictures of the assembly sequence