1/168 Upscale of Mars Snooper
 

The purpose of this post is to create interest in the 1965/66 Estes Mars Snooper. It is hard to believe that this rocket was designed so long ago, it still actually looks awesome in the year 2020.
I have took a close look at the Estes K20 and Hawk Hobbies 168% upscale instructions to make a model in Rocsim V10. My goal was to stay as close to the original as possible with what's available on the market today.
All the lower shrouds are simply a 168% enlargement of the Estes shrouds. The same is true of the fins. The Motor Air Cooling Fins may not be, they were designed around the final shape of the motor shrouds after they were put into place.

On this design, I used three centering rings for the motor shroulds since they are larger and will need more assistance in staying round.

Also, the upper airframe is rounded off to 11" from the scale size of 10.92" and will need to include the extra 2" or so of the invisible tube to it's length when being built since there may not be a suitable balsa transducer on the market.

The main airframe also has a extra near 1/2" added to it's length.

Final thought, the lower main fins could be made in balsa or basswood, make sure to load motor and add nose weight. Also don't forget the launch lug to.


I can tell you it's a job to draw this up in Rocsim. Hope you all enjoy the attached Rocsim file.

Nice! Time for me to load up Rocksim.

I'm pretty sure you are making a 168% upcaled Mars Snooper.
A 1/168 of the original would be microscopic.

This is really cool, actually all three RockSims you posted are great. That’s a lot of pods with fins on fins in the design file plus the upscale measurements had to be a real task. I agree that the Mars Snooper still looks great today. I had one when I was a kid and even though I painted it with a horrid shade of dark red paint it still came out looking great.

Thank you my friend!