People are fascinated by the sky. We love to soar. Among the most powerful superpowers, there’s one we all look up to. Yes, I’m looking at you, Batman! Despite humanity’s deep desire to fly, individuals simply cannot do it on their own. It wasn’t meant to be; otherwise, we would have wings! Even if two wings were strapped to our backs, flying far would still be impossible. Forgive me, Icarus.
The tale of Icarus serves as a vivid reminder—well, perhaps not entirely alive. If you wish to reach for the heavens, cutting corners on materials and scale isn’t an option. So when enthusiast Philip and his friend LostInSpace decided it was time to construct a spaceship named Discovery, they realized the project had to be grand in scale.
“My friend LostInSpace and I have always been passionate about spaceships since childhood,” says Philip. “That’s why when we embarked on our project – Discovery, we knew exactly what we wanted, and we understood that the build would be massive! Our Discovery model is scaled at 11:1, making it the largest in the world—you won’t find anything smaller!”
If you’re counting fingers, you might wonder, what does 11:1 mean? Fortunately, Philip has an explanation! No need to ponder math when discussing grandeur!
“When we refer to our chosen scale of 11:1, it simply means that the model size is 11 times larger than real-life measurements.”
You’re probably thinking what I’m thinking. “Wait,” you pondered. “Isn’t this Minecraft Pocket Edition? Will real-world objects be represented so accurately in-game? Do you really think they won’t be smaller than their real-life counterparts?”
“Not quite,” explains Philip. “The player model in Minecraft PE stands 2 blocks tall. Therefore, I can assume that 1 block equals 1 meter.” This makes sense if you’ve thought about it.
The average person is 1.78 meters tall, which translates to (5 feet 10 inches for those unfamiliar with the metric system). Rounding up to 2 meters (6 feet), you’d be just one meter away from a block in Minecraft.
(Just so you know, I asked Tom to verify all calculations and metrics with the Minecraft Bureau.)
“The total length of the shuttle with boosters and the orbital vehicle mounted on the fuel tank is 56.1 meters,” continues Philip. This means that a 1:1 scale replica of the space shuttle would only be 56 blocks long, and while that’s a decent height, it’s not enormous.
However, scaling the model from 1:1 to 11:1 results in a staggering 617.1 meters in MCPE.
The spaceship is so vast that Philip and his LostInSpace friend note they had to build it horizontally rather than vertically, as seen on the launch pad.
“A height limit of 256 blocks poses significant challenges for builders engaged in large-scale projects. Due to this limitation, many builders prefer to create structures horizontally, like ships.”
Philip constructed numerous ships before meeting his friend, who also built similar creations in MCPE.
“I met LostInSpace on YouTube. He asked me if I could build the USS Arizona for him and then invited him to my server to see the finished product,” shares Philip. “I agreed, but we had so much fun that I invited him over much sooner than expected, and we worked on the ship together. As a result, we developed our unique style that complemented each other perfectly. He acted as ‘the helping hand,’ filling in open spaces and mirroring elements from one side to another, while I focused on compiling data and performing calculations, passing that information into Minecraft.”
Speaking of data and calculations, Philip entered everything manually. With all the available programs designed to simplify the creation of such massive projects, he opted for the old-fashioned way.
Discussing data and computations, Philip did everything by hand. Despite the existence of various helpful software for construction, the build was executed using traditional methods without such tools.
And it’s the details that make this shuttle remarkable, but only if you don’t look too closely.
“Unfortunately, the build lacks an interior. We only created the back wall of the cockpit to avoid revealing emptiness when viewed through the glass. Inside, it’s almost completely hollow.”
Houston, we have a problem!
🔥😱😶😳