LONDON: NASA has announced that they are releasing one of the most iconic pieces of space travel through a digital print: the Curiosity Rover so space travel fanatics can now add the piece to their collection.
Over the years, NASA has made available through downloadable kits a number of 3D replicas of its probes and spacecraft for people to print. They have just announced that they now have released a digital kit for the Curiosity Rover, their robot that is currently on an 11-year-long expedition on the red planet, according to the Science Recorder.
“Curiosity is a car-sized robotic rover exploring Gale Crater on Mars as part of NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission (MSL). Curiosity was launched from Cape Canaveral on November 26, 2011, at 10:02 EST aboard the MSL spacecraft and landed on Aeolis Palus in Gale Crater on Mars on August 6, 2012, 05:17 UTC. The Bradbury Landing site was less than 2.4 km (1.5 mi) from the center of the rover’s touchdown target after a 563,000,000 km (350,000,000 mi) journey.”
The digital download of the rover from NASA is free. And you actually do not even have to have a 3-D printer at home to create the rover for your collection. There are now a number of 3-D printing companies that can take your download and print it out for you.
As for the real Curiosity Rover on the red planet, due to some recent mishaps on the mission, the expedition has been extended in order to continue its original plan. The most recent “injury” to the rover was to one of its robotic arms, which has held up the agenda indefinitely. But not to worry, in about five years, NASA plans to have the current rover’s successor arrive on Mars.
