Rebuilding the Fuel Cell

My goal for this project was to recreate a 3D model in Solidworks of the Apollo Fuel Cell. This model would help develop my understand of complex assemblies within Solidworks, as well as my ability to breakdown a design from a 2D image and recreate it in 3D. This was done through research on technical documents (like the one quoted above) as well as analysis of photographs. During this project I had no physical access to a fuel cell and as such it was particularly challenging solving the visual “puzzle” of the fuel cell. It has many interlinked pipes routed throughout, to complicate things over the years many variations of parts were created as the design was improved so certain images I was looking at would have different parts. The model I created was based on the most common configurations I found as well as the units that appeared to be in the best condition (not disassembled or broken) Having said that the overall dimensions match the official NASA documents, but I’d estimate individual components may be around 90% accurate to the real thing. Regardless, I believe this to be a highly accurate representation of the Apollo-era fuel cell. I was continually amazed at the level of engineering and design possible in the 1960s to produce a device such as this all without the usage of the modern day CAD tools we use today.

Collecting Visual Research

Below is a small selection of some of the images I used for building the fuel cell. Initially I had filtered out all low resolution photos in favor of higher quality images. But eventually I started missing major features of the fuel cell and eventually had to settle for lower quality images that provided angles / views I hadn’t previously seen. Thankfully, Joe Hiura was able to provide me with some great photos of close ups and unique angles of his fuel cell, along with providing a wealth of feedback on the project along the way. Every pipe connection had to be tracked through the catalog of photos, and the schematics provided by the Apollo Spacecraft News Reference document. I utilized a great piece software, PureRef , along the way to correlate my images, and review them quickly when I modeled.