Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: NASA Retro-Reflector Replica!
Adam makes a replica of one of NASA’s classic lunar experiments: a laser ranging retroreflector left on the Moon that are used for precise measurement of the orbit and orientation of the Moon relative to Earth. It’s a model that makes use of off-the-shelf prisms that mirrors light directly back to its point source, like the mirrors on road markers or bicycles. This replica is of the kind of retroreflector array NASA is sending with current Mars missions. And for this quick build, we see the debut of some tools like the sheet metal nibbler and unibit!
7 thoughts on “Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: NASA Retro-Reflector Replica!”
Leave a Reply
Making
Adam Savage Finally Fixes His Giant Swiss Army Kni…
In a previous One Day Build video in which Adam made a repla…
One Day Builds
Adam Savage Repairs His Ugg Boots!
It's the night before Christmas, and Adam sneaks away to the…
One Day Builds
Adam Savage’s One Day Builds: Knight Lighter!
Adam is well known for his love of armor, so he couldn't res…
All Good Things… – The Adam Savage Project – 1/15/…
Adam and Norm have an announcement to make--this will be the final episode of The Adam Savage Project. After 8 years of recording the podcast, we're refocusing our energies on other Tested projects including the bi-weekly livestreams. It's been a wonderful and amazing run--thanks so much for listening!
Tech
Tested: Elegoo Mars 2 Pro SLA 3D Printer Review!
We test and review the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, a $300 mSLA 3D pri…
Making
How Boston Dynamics’ Spot Robot Learns to Dance!
How does a robot dog learn how to dance? Adam and the Tested…
Making
Adam Savage’s Favorite Tools: Monkey Wrench!
Praise the trusty monkey wrench! In this week's tool tip, Ad…
Show And Tell
Adam Savage’s Miniature Model from Star Wars: Epis…
Adam shares a piece of miniatures modelmaking from his work …
We’re All at CES – This is Only a Test 582 – 1/15/…
With the first virtual CES underway, we discuss the weird and far out products and prototypes that debuted this week. From multi-rotor taxis to RGB LED face masks, CES still manages to be a showcase for novelty tech. We also talk about the surprise Lucasfilm Games announcements, Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event, and Doom 3 for VR!
Making
Ask Adam Savage: Were Any Myths Deemed Too Simple …
Tested member Morgan Crisp asks Adam, "Are there any MythBus…
I think the considerable width of the O-rings really needed to be taken into account on the hole spacing for that to sell itself. Kinda looks more like a plastic DJ light from Party City than a piece of precision equipment :/
Looks a whole lot like what NASA and other space administrations have out in space currently.
Yeah only not really.
Looks close enough to me
Dude, try getting an inexpensive, small glue gun. They heat up fast and work well in tight spaces. They’re small enough so that you can rotate the point against the project severing those ‘tendrils’ that you don’t like. I stopped investing in expensive glue guns and never looked back.
Also, next time try using a larger clamp and secure the granite plate to the table, and hold the piece by hand. You can rotate it quickly making small marks and get the job done faster.
One more tidbit… as a woodworker, I discovered that most of the woodworking tools will cut aluminum. That may offer you more options in the future.
Great build, can’t wait to see what’s next
I remember certain observatories shooting a laser beam at the retroreflectors left on the moon.
I try and bring this fact up to the “sorry, but we never went to the moon, it was all fake” crowd. But I really don’t care what they think 🙂
This one is even closer to his model:
https://www.planetary.org/multimedia/space-images/spacecraft/laser-retroreflector-for-insight.html