The Dog Has Landed…

… and we are in training! What follows is how we got here, Kajsa and I…

I was born the year the Apollo program ended, 1972. My grandparents bought tickets to the moon from Pan Am in the '70s and my father in law insists he saw a fish swim by when Neil took his small step, so how did I end up building a spacesuit for Kajsa? I became a space nut this summer, listening to "13 minutes to the moon" by BBC and everything else celebrating the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, I also joined Karoline Heinz (@karolinehinz) spacesuit challenge over at Instagram. It became a giant leap for me into 3D printing and sewing:-) Hope you enjoy the ride!

You gotta listen to: 13 minutes to the moon:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xttx2/episode...

NASA is fantastic, go here for unlimited documentation of the Apollo program:
https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/main.html

I made the first drawing while interrailing this summer listening to 13minutestot… Once back in my workshop the details became clear and measurements were done.

This first stage was essential if I weren't able to make a helmet the rest would not follow. So luck had it I collect stuff that I do not always know what I'll use it for. This time a plastic dome bought in Barcelona 14 years ago came to use, it was the perfect visor for my helmet. This plastic dome became the starting point for constructing the helmet. My Fusion 360 skills are new so I started out making the initial drawings in Illustrator before importing the svg file of the visor into F360.

I drew a neck connector ring, threaded and made a first print test on my Prusa.

Then I split the helmet in two, to fit my printer and make the insertion and fitting of the visor possible.

I had not yet decided how the neck connector would attach to the rest of the suit… I was just so fricking happy being able to print the helmet:-)

All parts for the helmet can be downloaded here (minus the visor, you need to go to Barcelona for that:-)
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3967695

Moving on to the suit I decided to make a mannequin… a dogequin! Kajsa is a patient Yorkie but needles and standing still for hours wouldn't work. So I took her measures and made this wooden replica of her. Now the question arose, would my sewing skills meet the NASA standards? I took a trip to the pet shop and took a quick look at their corny dog attire section, the closest I got to a possible starting point was this raincoat. But I bailed, I had to face the machine, my newly found Husqvarna sewing machine.

Let the fun begin! The measured dogequinn is a big time-saver, using a light paper stock for the first sketch makes the next step easier. I chose to use a light canvas fabric to give the illusion of the apollo white suits. I had some reflective bits and pieces leftover and used these for details, neck and the 2feet.

Some of the material used:

Velcro
Metal zipper
Reflective fabric
Light canvas
Elastic band

Getting to this stage is satisfying, now I have most of the parts and its time to put it all together. Some spray paint needs to dry and its time to decide where all the details will go.

The spacesuit connectors were downloaded at thingiverse.
NASA Space Suit Connection Cluster: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2679556

The big day is here, will it fit and more important… how will Kajsa react!?

Here you can have a closer look at some of the details. Some are made up and some are "by the book" :-)

I've had so much fun making this spacesuit. Now that it is done I keep adding new parts and adding more detail. A bag for travelling and flight instructions are up next. Hope you like the details in these photos.

Huston, the Dog has landed!

So where does this end? It can go on forever, I've gotten better at handeling the sewing machine, wich parks new projects. New addons to this project will be another instructables, thanks for taking time to view this one.

Huston, over and out… for now:-)

PS Hey, if you know anyone at NASA I won't mind if you share this Instructables with them:-)

because I could and what I great time I've had, Cheers!