MOONBASE FOR SALE!

I checked out that great looking SHADO MOBILE (prop?) on ebay today
after hearing the group discussing it and ALSO discovered a scratch
built moonbase as well as one of those IMAI moonbase model kits for
sale. Nice stuff being auctioned off out there lately! Too bad my
funds are depleted currently!!!!

JIM

I'm sure quite a few hours went into these scratch models.

Makes me wonder about what plans/drawings exist for the hardware
and bases. The 5 ball base is easily confirmed by episode footage,
but I haven't seen a relationship between it and the underground
Interceptor hanger/launch pads. The crew ride the laundry chute to
where? I assume either the pilot seat as with SkyDiver or an
underground connecting tunnel.

Properly, the Interceptors should be placed away from the base for
safety reasons. The location of Lunar module pad is almost ideal for
for a complete moonbase disaster. But it does make for better episode
scenes.




[hidden email] wrote:
>
> I checked out that great looking SHADO MOBILE (prop?) on ebay today
> after hearing the group discussing it and ALSO discovered a scratch
> built moonbase as well as one of those IMAI moonbase model kits for
> sale. Nice stuff being auctioned off out there lately! Too bad my
> funds are depleted currently!!!!
>
> JIM

Keith Carpenter wrote:
> I'm sure quite a few hours went into these scratch models.
>
> Makes me wonder about what plans/drawings exist for the hardware
> and bases. The 5 ball base is easily confirmed by episode footage,
> but I haven't seen a relationship between it and the underground
> Interceptor hanger/launch pads. The crew ride the laundry chute to
> where? I assume either the pilot seat as with SkyDiver or an
> underground connecting tunnel.
>

Yes that's one thing that's strangely missing from UFO - in other
Anderson series, Stingray, Capt Scarlet & Thunderbirds in
particular, we see the crew being 'loaded' into the craft in
exquisite detail, but we're left to guess exactly how the SHADO
astronauts get into the interceptors. I've always assumed that
it was a 'laundry chute' straight into the cockpit, with the
'canopy' of the interceptor being closed just before take-off,
but come to think of it, that rather assumes that the (rather
voluminous) interceptor silos would be pressurised with a
breathable atmosphere, which would be a bit impractical to say
the least. Just one interceptor launch would discard enough air
(at a guess) for the entire population of moonbase to survive on
for days.

I suppose the fact we never see this isn't so strange after all!
There's really no plausible way to show the astronauts boarding
the interceptors unless they are 'injected' by a pressure sealed
tube or similar, somehow. And even then, there'd need to be an
airlock on the interceptor itself, and there doesn't seem to be
room for one.

Hey ho.
James

--- In [hidden email], James Gibbon <jg@m...> wrote:
> Keith Carpenter wrote:
> > I'm sure quite a few hours went into these scratch models.
> >
> > Makes me wonder about what plans/drawings exist for the hardware
> > and bases. The 5 ball base is easily confirmed by episode
footage,
> > but I haven't seen a relationship between it and the underground
> > Interceptor hanger/launch pads. The crew ride the laundry chute
to
James-I've always wondered about how they got into those
interceptors as well. At least with Sky 1, there's a hatch to enter
into, but try finding a doorway on the interceptors and you're at a
loss!

Jim

--- In [hidden email], James Gibbon <jg@m...> wrote:
Very good statements, James. I also suppose it must be a waste of
air to fill such voluminous silos with it. So I always wondered how
the pilots get in and not to forget how they get out of the
interceptors without any spacesuits in an airless hangar.

CU C.