Catacombs Model GalleryTaybor Models
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See also Taybor's gun
This jumpdrive spaceship, the SS Emporium, reflects the flamboyant personality of its owner, Taybor the trader. It features an assembly of landing rockets underneath, but it requires no main boosters: this craft can simple dissolve into hyperspace. The cone shaped craft is unusually aerodynamic for a Space: 1999 spaceship.
The door panels open after a hyperspace "jump", presumably to radiate excess heat (glowing cylinders are seen inside).
The design is based on a 1967 NASA design for a Mars lander, the Mars Excursion Module (MEM). Based on the Apollo command module, but much larger (with up to 8 crew and life support for a month), the modular ship had a base section with heat shield and six legs, and an ascent section above it. The design was featured in NASA artwork in the late 1960s, and variations of it were seen into the 1980s.
Like the MEM design, the Emporium is a modular design comprising three parts - a base with 3 landing legs, a central section with opening door panels, and a top nose cone.
Detail of the symbol on the opening panels.
In total there should be 6 opening panels - but 2 are missing (on the non-finished side), just 3 were functional and one is non-functional. Only the side facing the camera was finished- the opposite side remains open to allow access to the door mechanisms and the light-bulb that serves as the jumpdrive core.
Side profile of the Emporium.
Side profile of the Emporium.
Side profiles
Side profile with the non-functional panel.
Side profile revealing the open section.
Inside the mechanism to open the panels is visible. More details.
The top cone with electric motor inside.
The two main sections of the Emporium.
Below: panels on the lower section serve as landing legs (although these are actually fixed in place on the model and there are no slots to retract them into- merely a black painted strip).
Copyright Martin Willey