Joel Carpenter's Hi-tech 3-D renderings and animations of missiles and spacecraft
This archive of 102 detailed, animated images of space hardware contains the remaining results of a personal project to which Joel had committed a great deal of time and effort - a project in which he was engaged at the time of his passing. Simply stated, Joel's goal was to accurately image every major space system. It was Joel's ambition to achieve the highest possible degree of accuracy and completeness in every drawing. This involved - required - a great deal of effort and research in many sources including correspondence with and trips to various libraries and archives in addition to online research. Joel's magnificent drawings are better than the original spacecraft design drawings done by the major contractors. This archive contains the surviving drawings Joel created using high quality 3D CAD/design software. These have been converted to MPEG-4 digital multimedia files to preserve the animated images and to maximize their online availability to the widest possible audience. These images are made freely available here as a tribute to our friend, Joel Carpenter, and to his interests and capabilities. We ask that proper credit is given if any of these images or derivatives thereof are used elsewhere.
Dec. 11, 2017
Jim Klotz
Brad Sparks
The following MP4 animations have a delayed start of 8 to 10 seconds and run time is anywhere between 30 seconds to over a minute.
Program 437AP: A Sub-orbital Corona-Derived Satellite Inspector
"The Program 437AP satellite inspector was an alternate payload of the mid-1960's Program 437 ASAT (anti-satellite) weapon system. The ASAT was of the direct-ascent type, which employed a Thor IRBM, that carried a nuclear warhead within its blunt-nosed G.E. (General Electric) Mark II re-entry vehicle. It was designed to fly a sub-orbital trajectory to intercept and destroy Soviet satellites that passed within range of its launch site on Johnston Island in the Pacific Ocean. The satellite inspector was conceptually similar, but only took photos of its target. The existence of the ASAT was made public by President Johnson in 1964." Credit: Ted Molczan
Additional Sources:
Program 437AP: A Sub-orbital Corona-Derived Satellite Inspector
1947 Sat vs 1951 Feedback
No idea what this represents. Maybe something to do with the use of a satellite vehicle for reconnaissance as proposed by RAND in Project FEEDBACK?
1947 Sat vs 1951 Feedback Animation
Agena D Restartable Rocket Stage
"Nitric acid/UDMH propellant restartable rocket stage. ... The Agena D was essentially a standardized version of the Agena B. The restartable Agena D could accept a range of payloads and be fitted to Atlas, Thor, or Titan boosters without modification. Its outstanding dry weight fraction, resulting in it being selected for use in preference to the heavier Transtage for many Titan missions." Credit: Mark Wade. "Most Agena-D stages used a Bell 8096 engine... Atlas-Agenas launched the Mainer 3 and 4 Mars probes, as well as the Lunar Orbiter series of spacecraft. Several Agena-D stages were modified for use as docking targets for the Gemini program. Gemini Agena vehicles used the Bell Aerospace model 8247 engine." Credit: Richard Kruse.
Agena D Restartable Rocket Stage Animation
Additional Sources:
Historic Spacecraft: Upper Stages
Agena D Restartable Rocket Stage
Agena 0 E-1 Version Rocket Stage
Agena 0 E-1 Version Rocket Stage Animation
Additional Sources:
Agena 0 E-2 Version Rocket Stage
Agena 0 E-2 Version Rocket Stage Animation
Additional Sources:
Agena 0 Fairchild Reconnaissance Pod Version
Agena 0 Fairchild Reconnaissance Pod Version Animation
Additional Sources:
Agena 0 RAND Reconnaissance Pod Version
Agena 0 RAND Reconnaissance Pod Version Animation
Additional Sources:
Agena A Fuel Tank
Additional Sources:
Agena A
Agena B
Agena B Restartable Rocket Stage
Additional Sources:
Agena B
Propulsion and History of the U.S. Agena upper stage