3D Printing Unpeeled: 3D Printing Endangered Bird Eggs, Polymer Satellite Bus, QIDI

The New Zealand Department of Conservation (DOC) is using 3D printing to help protect the endangered fairy tern. The New Zealand variant is critically endangered with only about 40 of the birds, also called tara iti, left. The birds have five breeding sites and leave their eggs there, often quite exposed. The service therefore replaces the real eggs with 3D printed ones. The real eggs are incubated at Auckland Zoo and returned while the birds incubate the fake ones. The eggs were made by Shaun Lee and hand painted by Carina Sim-Smith. 3D printing brought success with 14 chicks hatching from 22 eggs.

Sidus Spaces LizzieSat has been partially made with Markforged’s Onyx FR-A. The company hopes to make its lower weight and lower cost sensing LizzieSat in 45 days.

QIDI Tech has released its Q1 Pro for $500. The Core XY printer has dual independent lead screws on the Z stage, a heated chamber that can go up to 60C, dual sensor auto leveling, a run out sensor, an internal camera, dual nozzle and a max nozzle temperature of 350C. You can buy the 245 x 245 x 245 mm now and get it in March or May depending on where you are. Anyone else getting the feeling that desktop 3D printing is going to be a bloodbath?