Dec 6, 2010

WLS lander model revealed soon

MORE volunteers on board this week at White Label Space, with Marco van Duijn, a stress engineer with international aerospace experts AOES Group BV, offering to help build a full-size mock-up of our GLXP lander.

Marco's an excellent example of the quality of volunteers attracted to WLS's effort, without which none of what the team is trying to achieve would be possible.

The model of the WLS lander will be finished within a few weeks. Stay tuned for more details and pics as soon as they're available.

Welcome to WLS, Marco. How did you come to join the team?
I know Andrew Barton since he joined AOES. I know of this project due to a presentation he gave about the Google Lunar X-Prize.

Where are you based?
I am based in AOES headquarters in Noordwijk (south of Holland).

What kind of work have you been involved in recently?
I have been involved in projects like Pal-V (FE analysis of the rotor blade connection), Fuselage Design Optimization (non-linear FE analysis, FP7-project), LAPCAT 2 (structural layout FE analysis, FP7-project) and Proba-V (thermo-elastic analysis).

What role will you play in building the mock-up?
There is no real role; we have a short consultation meeting with Aad Eggers/Andrew Barton about what to be done and what should be done in a later stage. After that we act as a team to physically build the mock-up, like drilling holes and attach panel to the structure with bolts and nuts.

What interests you most about the project?
I like to help people in general and besides that, this real physical work is a nice and welcome variation to my daily work which mainly consists of building and analysing FE models with help of computers.

When will you start building/complete the mock-up?
I have already started to build the mock-up and to my latest understanding it should be finished at around mid-December 2010 due to a planned photo shoot of the mock-up.

Why is it being built?
It is being built to show its geometry and sizing; we are then able to see how things are arranged on the inside and outside of the lunar lander.

How do you hope to stay involved with WLS after it's completed?
I hope to stay in touch with many other people involved in this project!

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