3D Print Your Own Mars Curiosity Rover, Available Free from NASA

Formnext

Share this Article

rove

Mars has always been a highly mythologized planet because it is right next to Earth, and since the first successful flyby in 1965 we continue to know more and more about the Red Planet. Right now there are seven functioning spacecraft on the planet: five are orbiting Mars and two are on its surface. One of the surface crafts, the Curiosity Rover, continues to uncovered incredibly important data and information about the planet for NASA. There are just nasaso many amazing facts that continue to get discovered about our neighbor, and 3D printing is becoming a bigger and bigger part of space exploration due to NASA’s applications of the technology.

About a month ago, we covered NASA’s Mars Trek application which allows users to 3D print the topography of Mars by creating an STL file of any part of the planet. And this is in and of itself a very cool and exciting merging of 3D printing and space exploration.  Now, we have another great example of NASA’s ongoing use of 3D printing;  NASA has made a Mars “Curiosity Rover” model available free for downloading!

As a recent addition to NASA’s growing body of 3D printable models, the Curiosity Rover has been exploring the Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL) since its touchdown on August 6, 2012. Described by NASA as a “car-sized robotic rover,” the rover is proving to be quite popular. Maybe its 3D printed replica will follow suit?

xl_nasa-curiosity-rover-624

The Curiosity Rover has been busy for over three years doing many things. Just a sampling from the NASA website has it tracking sun spots, inspecting unusual bedrock, studying rock-layer contact zones, finding nitrogen, and even watching the sunset. Your 3D printed micro-version of the rover will not be able to do all that the real thing does, of course, but you can pretend you are part of space exploration history by possessing one of your own mini-models.

And good news! Since NASA began making 3D printable models available on its website about a year ago, it has also incorporated the fact that people have different levels of 3D printing experience. So NASA has released two types of models: one that is highly detailed and one that is simpler. For example, if you are a teacher or parent trying to introduce the rover to young people while also teaching them about 3D printing, then it might work better for you to 3D print the simpler one instead. NASA also requests feedback from printing the rover on its website, so go ahead and let them know about any adjustments you made while printing it.

And you can also check out information and the latest news about the Curiosity Rover on social media, with all of those links here.  Let us know if you’ve decided to print this model out and what you thought.  Discuss in the NASA Curiosity Rover 3D print forum thread on 3DPB.com.



Share this Article


Recent News

3D Printed Drone Accelerator Firestorm Labs Continues Its Tear With $47M Series A

AM Research Reports $3.58B AM Market in Q1 2025, Upgrades Metal Forecast



Categories

3D Design

3D Printed Art

3D Printed Food

3D Printed Guns


You May Also Like

XJet Sells Metal 3D Printer to Mold Maker, Deepens Partnership with Youngstown Business Incubator

Back in 2017, XJet, the Israel-based original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of metal and ceramic additive manufacturing (AM) systems, sold its first machine in the North American market, a Carmel 1400C...

Featured

Croom Medical Signals Potential for 3D Print Diversification in Nuclear Fusion

As international interest in reshoring continues to mount, the additive manufacturing (AM) industry clearly has key advantages to offer suppliers scrambling to develop alternatives to traditional supply chains. One of...

Featured

From Concept to Reality: Nikon AM CEO Hamid Zarringhalam on Executing a Metal 3D Printing Strategy

There are countless metrics you can use, whether quantitative or qualitative, to judge the success of an organization. One of the most important may simply be the organization’s ability to...

Havaianas Collaborates with Zellerfeld to Launch 3D Printed Flip-Flops

The shoe of the summer is undoubtedly the flip-flop. Easy on, easy off, your feet won’t get sweaty because there’s not much material, and they’re available in a veritable rainbow...