LUT References

Abstract

I'm often asked, what references I use for the LUT model, and where do I get them. As always, the answer is complicated. The well of wisdom is the LUT Group at Groups.io. There you find the complete collection of 75M-05120 and 75M-05121 blueprints and tons of additional drawings and pictures. You need to become member there however, before you can access these files.

There are however other sources like the Congress Library and various museums and of course the NASA, where you can find rare documents when you are lucky and dig deep enough.

However, before you even start, you need the AISC Handbook of Steel Construction to get the shape and dimensions of the used steel beams. And a good collection of historical pictures from the LUT from many angles and with high resolution - the higher, the better.

References for the structure

The collection of 75M-05120 and 75M-05121 blueprints are the bible for every LUT explorer. However, be warned if you plan your own LUT project. They only scratch at the surface of the LUT's complexity, and once you have finished these collections, you'll find out that you just have made the first steps into a long journey. 

Cover sheet of the 75M-05120 blueprints collection. Courtesy of NASA, scan by egilman111 at LUT Group

Here I have compiled a list of sources I used to construct the LUT model

References for the equipment and various additions

Aside from a few schematic drawings and rare photographs there is nearly no reliable information available for most of the LUT's equipment. Hartmuth Gutsche and me underwent the painstaking task of analyzing all (well nearly) pictures from the LUTs we came across (and I'm speaking of thousands of them) to get as much information as possible. I did tons of renderings and compared them to the real pictures to approximate the model to the real thing as close as possible, together with the limitation what can be done in a paper model.

Example of the deep analysis of historical LUT pictures

Also, we came across of many differences between the three LUTs and had to confirm that an identified structure really was on LUT 1. We also found equipment that most probably was only temporary like waist containers, tents and so on. Same equipment sometimes looked different between the LUTs, often because parts of the shell were removed for maintenance work - I'm just mentioning all this to give you an idea of how much work went into the task of getting the equipment right.

The basic reference I used are the 79K-00403 drawings available at the LUT group. They reference the location, the square-size of its footprint, sometimes the elevation and also the name without exact measures, and assign an ordering number to each equipment. This number is also used in the model e.g. like equ.100.TestStationValvePanel.

There is also the 79K-30000 collection available at the LUT group, it however reflects the Milkstool-conversion of LUT 1 with different equipment particularly in the lower levels.

What can you expect from this LUT model?

Some of the equipment is highly speculative, especially when it was located in the inner area of the level. Some of the equipment is very accurate, because I found a photograph, a drawing or it was depicted good enough in the demolition or boneyard pictures available at the LUT Group or elsewhere on the web. The vast majority is a visual approximation of what can be seen on the historical LUT pictures, and their most visible sides and proportions should be correct. Don't forget that 40% of the equipment were storage racks shaping a simple cube with braces around and various doors and openings. Their color mostly was either red or white, in rare cases light blue and in one case yellow. I'm sure the colors had a meaning, but I could not figure it out.