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2001 Space Station
The space station featured in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey is made of two wheels connected by an axis; each wheel has four radii:
In the film, a wheel is still under construction, but our model of the station is complete. We have approximated very roughly the proportions of the original; besides that, it must be noted that this station was designed to be built and used in Earth orbit, and hence in microgravity, while at the moment we have had to build our model in normal gravity on the surface of the Earth, which prevents us from placing the double wheel upright and forces us to use 96 (blue) rods as scaffolding:
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 1
2001 Space Station, view 1
3101 pieces: 857 balls, 2080 rods, 164 squares (17.44 kg)
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 2
2001 Space Station, view 2
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 3
2001 Space Station, view 3
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 4
2001 Space Station, view 4
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 5
2001 Space Station, view 5
GEOMAG constructions: 2001 Space Station, view 6
2001 Space Station, view 6
The wheels are made of twenty hexagonal antiprisms attached to each other by lateral faces in a similar way as explained in the page of Chapel 7. Twenty antiprisms don't make a perfect circle but the structure is able to absorb the difference (just over four degrees missing). There are additional reinforcing rods joining the external faces of the antiprisms; these must not be placed until the circle is closed.