Building an Incredibly Detailed Star Trek Galileo Shuttlecraft

I’ve been a lifelong fan of Star Trek and was motivated, like many other students at the time, by the original TV series (as well the amazing space programs at NASA) to pursue a career in engineering. I even wrote a book, Starship Simulation.

So, when I heard about the restoration project by Adam & Leslie Schneider, Alec Peters, and Gene Winfield in which the original Galileo Shuttlecraft was located (in a garbage dump) and fully, painstakingly, and lovingly restored to its former glory, ending up as a permanent display at the Houston Space Center, I was again motivated. This time I wanted to build my very own Galileo Shuttle, but not the little plastic one that was originally offered back in the sixties. I wanted to assemble a large-scale, hand-built model.

My original thoughts were to build a full-size Galileo that was accurate in every detail inside and out. Then, I wanted to tour the country with it as a traveling educational exhibit, keeping the love of Star Trek alive; Trekkies, old and new, would get to see it up close and personal. My Galileo would, perhaps, inspire yet another generation of students to pursue careers in science and engineering. Unfortunately, that plan didn’t work out when CBS Productions, which owns the Star Trek franchise, informed me that they wouldn’t allow it to happen.

The following set of pictures are from the 2015 Honolulu Mini Maker Faire at which I displayed my Galileo Shuttle.

I did build my large-scale version, which was intended as a proof-of-concept model for the full-size version, including the ability to split into three sections which, at full-scale, would have allowed it to be transported in shipping containers from location to location around the U.S. As it turned out, the split-ability still comes in handy when I move it out of and back into my apartment. I recently had to do this in order to exhibit it at the 2015 Honolulu Mini Maker Faire.

Intro to Engineering Drawings

The following represent the set of engineering drawings that I created. These provided the overall design of the shuttle as well as being the basis for numerous specific files for driving the laser cutter and CNC router to produce the various parts of the shuttle. I think that including a few of these diagrams gives some idea of the complexity of the build.

The warp engines were particularly difficult to construct, in spite of them appearing to be simple tubes. They had to help support not just the wing struts but also the entire shuttle. The solution was a set of internal disks with slots in various locations plus holes to accommodate the wiring for the front dome lights.

The “real” shuttle is supported on the ground by three very simple landing struts: once each on the forward end of the warp engines and one large strut at the back. Though, building this model with enough internal strength to do that proved impossible (and I’m not even certain that the “real” shuttle is only supported by just those struts). So, I added a slanting, hidden, strut extending from the warp engines down into the base, as well as a major support beneath the main cabin. It turned out pretty well and you hardly even notice those extra support structures.

Front view of the entire model.

The walls of the model are not simply solid, but are constructed much like the walls of a house, with internal “studs” to provide strength. This drawing shows the placement of the studs for the front of the shuttle.

And this shows the placement of the internal wall studs for the sides.

The studs for the slanted struts extending down from the wings to the warp engines go all the way down into the warp engines, providing needed strength to support the entire shuttle.

I started my project by searching the web for photos and diagrams that I could use as the basis for my own CAD and other engineering drawings. Fortunately there are many people who have taken the time to draw up excellent engineering drawings and publish them on the web. I used many of those drawings, as well as photos of the “real” shuttle, to prepare files, mostly using Alibre CAD software, that were then used to drive a laser cutter and CNC router at our local makerspace. Almost the entire shuttle is made from ⅛” MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard) cut with the laser, the router, or by hand on a small table-top jigsaw.

The project wouldn’t have been possible without the CNC Router…

and Laser Cutter at the Oahu Maker Space.

It all starts with a good strong base. Three separate sections, actually, since the model itself is divided into three sections, primarily so that it can fit through the door of my apartment.

The bases are nearly complete.
Each section includes holes that will eventually accommodate the wiring through the model.

The main cabin is made from a set of ribs. This is the very first one I put together, showing the various parts of the ribs and their respective connectors, all keeping it in a nice “shuttle” shape.

All of the main cabin rib parts were cut on the Laser Cutter.
Here they’re all laid out and ready to be assembled.

A whole slew of main cabin rib corner connectors, cut out of 1/8” MDF (Medium Density Fiberboard), on the Laser Cutter.

I constructed a jig to help put the main cabin rib sections together, to make sure they were all identical. This also shows the main struts (with the big hole in them) that will support the main cabin above the base.

Ribs, ribs, ribs.

It’s finally taking shape and starting to look somewhat like the shuttle shape.

The Interior walls attach to the ribs.

And the exterior walls.

A view of the interior, facing the wall of the rear compartment.
Looking nice and sturdy.

The front, lower curved section was a particular challenge. Here all of the ribs for that section are being glued together. It took a lot of work to get them all aligned and lots of sanding so that the eventual smooth surface could be glued to them.

And the front gets some covering and lower curved ribs.

The main port section.
Lots of wood filler and lots and lots of sanding to make everything nice and smooth.

Port and starboard together.

The warp engines are made from 3” mailing tubes from UPS with lots of internal baffles to accommodate the wing struts plus lower, hidden support struts. The forward end of each warp engine came from a clear plastic Christmas tree ornament, which I frosted white on the inside. The upper and lower curved sections are PVC pipe.

The front windows can be configured with clear plexiglass so that you can see inside, or with white covers, as would be used when the shuttle is traveling at warp speed.

The rear compartment of the shuttle is actually never seen in any of the TV episodes so I was basically free to put whatever I liked back there. I decided to put a set of storage units in the starboard side and a transporter on the port side.

The rear compartment (behind the main cabin) is never shown on any of the TV episodes and none of the drawings or pictures that are available in books, magazines, or online (whether official or unofficial) show what’s back there. So, I was pretty much free to put whatever I wanted back there. I had numerous suggestions from friends that there should, at the very least, be a bathroom back there, but I decided otherwise. On the starboard side I constructed a set of storage cabinets and shelves.

That’s a phaser pistol and a tricorder in the storage section. They are built to scale and were 3D printed by my friend Eric Quakenbush.

For the port side of the rear compartment, I constructed and installed a Transporter. It has a small vertical control panel with blinking lights and lights in the ceiling and floor which light up and “rotate” to give a transporter type illumination to it.

Mr. Data stepped in just to make sure it could accommodate Starfleet personnel.

Initial construction of the Transporter.

This is the backside of the Impulse Engines that are located at the back of the shuttle. It shows the placement of the NeoPixel RGB LEDs that illuminate the interior section of the engines.

The port side main forward controls.

More progress on the main forward controls.

Mr. Data takes a look around the rear compartment. He’s holding a section of wire that I received from Admiral Grace Hopper, the developer of the COBOL programming language. Admiral Hopper gave presentations all over the U.S. About her experiences developing COBOL and one of her main points was about getting the most out of every line of code. That bit of wire represents one nanosecond of time, the amount of time that electricity takes to traverse that length of wire. And since those times can add up over a large section of code, each nanosecond saved is significant.

The overhead lights for the main cabin compartment get a tryout. There’s 32 NeoPixel RGB LEDs in total (only a few are turned on in this picture), each individually addressable by the Arduino Uno that controls all of the lighting.

The wiring for all the lights was a particular challenge. A lot of the wiring goes through the various walls of the shuttle, meaning that,once fully built, they’re no longer accessible. So I had to be particularly careful to get it all correct, with lots of testing at each stage of the construction. Once the walls were all in place, there was no going back to change anything. For many of the individual lights I provided ways to get at them later on, just in case something went wrong with any particular light.

This is the front side, without the covering, showing the layout of NeoPixel RGB LEDs for one of the main forward control panels.

This is the backside of one of the forward main control panels showing the wiring necessary to make each light individually accessible to the controlling computer.

Here’s several of the forward main control panels. I inserted translucent, and some colored, plastic shapes representing the various controls on the panels. Each one has at least one NeoPixel RGB LED behind it.

A set of “environmental controls” are positioned along the interior walls of the main cabin, one next to each of the seats. Each panel consists of a large set of “buttons” and “lights”, each such button or light requiring an individual, and extremely small, round or square translucent colored piece of plastic inserted into its corresponding hole in the panel. There’s actually only a single NeoPixel RGB LED behind each composite control panel, but by randomly changing the color of the LED the panel appears to have numerous lights and buttons illuminated at different times. For example, when the LED is red the red-clolored plastic buttons appear brighter and when the LED is blue the blue buttons appear brighter.

A back view of the port side of the shuttle showing the Impulse Engines.

The Warp Engines were a particular challenge. Although made up, on the outside, by a simple cardboard tube the inside required a large set of individually designed disks that would accommodate the various struts that attach to the engines.

The “tail” end of each warp engine is made from a slice of mailing tube with a whole slew of individual square-cross-section balsa pieces.

And with a wooden ball mounted inside and all painted, they look really good.

One warp engine is finally attached to its corresponding “wing” and struts, while another one, in the foreground, is still under construction, showing the numerous internal disks.

A mostly-completed warp engine tube and wing.

The forward end of each warp engine gets a ring of NeoPixel RGB LEDs. By individually addressing the LEDs I can make the colors “spin”, just as they do on the “real” shuttle on the TV show.

The forward end of each warp engine gets a translucent white dome. I made those from clear plastic Christmas tree ornaments which I cut in half and then coated inside with a thin layer of white paint so that the LEDs inside them glow through.

Testing the fit of the port and starboard sections.

More work on the rear of the shuttle. It looks like I’m trying to decide whether the warp engine tails might look better as diesel engine smoke stacks. Ummm. Nahh.

Some initial painting. Painting took a lot of effort, with numerous coats and lots of sanding for each section. I didn’t have access to a painting booth so it was all done with brushes. I would have preferred spray painting in order to get a really, really smooth finish. But the brush painting did a satisfactory job.

Then, there’s the lighting. I made extensive use of RGB LEDs; they are special LEDs which, under computer control (an Arduino Uno in this case), can be made to show just about any color possible. There’s lighting in the forward ends of the warp engines, doing a nice chasing lights round and round effect, just like the real shuttle. I also added lighting for the rear impulse engines, the interior overhead lights, both rear and main cabins, the side wall panel lights, and the forward main control station. Each section has numerous lights and each is controllable individually and in concert with one another. The Transporter goes through a sequence that includes the basic twirling circle of lights above and below where the person stands. It’s all programmed using the Arduino programming language, which is very similar to C++.

A fellow Maker, Eric Quakenbush, helped out with several details including the main rear landing gear and some “props,” such as a to-scale phaser pistol and tri-corder. He’s still working on making the full set of interior seats using 3D printing, molding, and resin casting.

The final touch was to create all the labels and logos on the outside. That was done with Alibre and other software to drive a vinyl cutter at the Oahu Makerspace.

Photos of the finished Galileo Shuttlecraft.

As with almost all of the lights on the model, these rear Impulse Engine lights can be made to blink, appear in any possible color, and do all sorts of cool effects.

In this shot the main cabin interior overhead lights are blue, giving it a really nice interior glow.

The completed main forward control panels.

The completed main forward control panels all aglow with their respective NeoPixel RGB LEDs. Each pixel is individually addressable by the Arduino, which means that all sorts of cool effects can be done.

All of the lights are controlled by an Arduino Uno.

An interior view of the starboard side. Each seat (not shown here) has a corresponding “environmental control” unit next to it.

The port side of the main interior forward control panel.

While it looks pretty complete, there are still a few details to finish and I’m hoping to add sounds as well. Plus, I’m talking with a local Star Trek cosplay group to make some videos in which we combine the model with real live action actors.

A comprehensive set of photos showing the progress of the build can be found here.

In 1978, I wrote and published, through Dilithium Press, my book, Star Ship Simulation, describing how the bridge of the Enterprise could be simulated using small interconnected computers. This was long before the advent of personal computers or even before hobby computers. In the intervening years I’ve heard from a number of people and hobby groups who have used my book as the basis for actually building both hardware and software simulations of the Enterprise.

Learn more about the Honolulu Mini Maker Faire here!