A Whole New World: How NASA Helps You 3-D Print The Universe

How would it feel like to hold an asteroid or spacecraft in your hands? NASA is giving you that chance through a special website that includes 3-D printable models of various things, ranging from the asteroid Eros to the Rosetta spacecraft, which is going to make an epic rendezvous with a comet in just a couple of weeks.

NASA’s 3D resources website now includes nearly two dozen models, including several released in the past few weeks. You can print out Curiosity’s landing site (Gale Crater), or perhaps the Voyager spacecraft that is further away than anything else humanity has sent out into the universe, or any other number of locations or hardware.

So if you learn best by using your hands, here’s your big chance to have some fun. Or to entertain the kids during summer vacation, if you can get access to a community or personal printer!

Sketch of a 3-D model of Valles Marineris on Mars. Credit: NASA
Sketch of a 3-D model of Valles Marineris on Mars. Credit: NASA

(h/t 3DPrint.com)

2 Replies to “A Whole New World: How NASA Helps You 3-D Print The Universe”

  1. How would it feel like to hold an asteroid …………… in your hands?
    Really? Eros? Surly you jest.

  2. image doesn’t look quite right. Curvature same in upper and lower image, so one would assume that the difference is because the object is flipped, yet the larger center crater is missing.

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