[ad_1]
As astronomers continue to peer deeper into the cosmos thanks to new technologies like the James Webb Space Telescope, deep space has never felt closer.
Still, looking at a two-dimensional image isn’t quite like getting the chance to get up close and personal with the many wondrous objects scattered throughout the universe. For many people, including the visually impaired, holding a physical object in their hands is the best way to learn about it. Now that 3D printers have become smaller and more affordable than ever before, the ability to print and hold and learn about almost anything is within reach of many people.
It now includes space. To help put the stars literally in the hands of curious students everywhere, authors Kimberly Arcand and Megan Watzke of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory mission wrote the upcoming book “Stars in Your Hand: A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos,” which will be published by MIT Press on September 20.
The following conversation has been edited for length.
Related: Best 3D Printers 2022: FDM and Resin Printers to Help You Create at Home
Space.com: How did you get the idea for the book?
Kimberly Arcand: I first got interested in 3D printing like at least a dozen years ago I’d say. I have some colleagues at the Smithsonian who were just starting to work on some 3D printing. And they kind of took me under their wing. They were working on 3D modeling and printing President Obama’s head at the time. And I thought that was pretty cool. If they could do that, then surely we could figure out how to 3D print stars. So that was kind of the impetus to see other people using it in other areas. And then some opportunities came up in our daily work to be able to work with some 3D model data, and we had just tried it. And ever since then, it’s kind of become very accessible to me that it’s really important to be able to experience data and new means, new methods to just give different kinds of students different opportunities.
Space.com: I understand that the book was written as a side project aside from your duties at NASA, but can you tell us a little bit about what kind of 3D printing you do at Chandra?
Arcand: Chandra was really the inspiration for me making my first 3D prints on my own. And that was because we had worked with a really cool scientist, Tracy Delaney, who had modeled [the supernova remnant] Cassiopeia A in three dimensions using Chandra data, Spitzer [Space Telescope] data and some ground-based optical data. And I just thought that model was incredible.
Like, I had been looking at Cassiopeia A in two dimensions forever; that was the first bit of data I ever worked on from Chandra, the first image that Chandra released just a little bit, like an hour of observation, and to fast forward more than a dozen years to work on it in three dimensions— it just seemed like a really interesting opportunity to push that envelope even more. So to get that off the computer screen and put it in someone’s hand would be a very cool opportunity for people to access this data that I had access to, that Megan could access, you know, that scientists could access . But we wanted more people to be able to access it. And that just kind of started me off trying to figure out what other datasets would really work well in 3D and how we could do that.
(opens in new tab)
This is difficult data. Not every bit of data is going to be that high resolution and have that much information about, you know, the lights moving away and what’s moving toward. So we’ve kind of looked at a larger area of 3D modeling and 3D printing since then what can we look at as far as tactile plates, which are essentially like relief maps that provide three-dimensional data in a different way.
Megan Watzke: I think 3D stuff is really a way to do something different, you know. It’s not just your traditional “here’s a flat image, look at it, love it, move on” kind of thing. And as much as we love pictures, you run into the same problem in astronomy. Until very recently, when you had people looking at the sky from the ground for millennia, you just couldn’t figure it out, can’t touch it, you can’t feel it, you can’t pick it up and bite it like you like a rock or something and find out what it’s made of? So I think the idea of being able to add this new, this third dimension to looking at these objects that have fascinated people for so long was really attractive.
And it’s just a way of looking at it differently, not just for the blind and visually impaired community, which is obviously a great result, but for anyone who just thinks differently, likes to experience things in a non-visual way. And I think that includes most people. I just think you get different things out of it, no matter who you are, if you can hold something in your hand. So that was one of our motivators here.
(opens in new tab)
Space.com: Who did you write the book for? Who do you want to buy this book and go and print these things?
Arcand: Well, I’d say there’s quite an audience. In my mind, the biggest audience is probably creators of all kinds, obviously; the students also fall under that category. But the idea that this would be useful for people who like to make and tinker is really, really attractive. I think it’s always a goal for me and Megan to be able to open up new little pockets of opportunity for people who aren’t necessarily already caught up in astrophysics, isn’t it that a book like this can be attractive to someone who might be a creator but not necessarily a big astronomy fan. And maybe conversely, this might be attractive to someone who is an astronomy fan who has never made anything and wants to, because of the ability to make some of these things for themselves. But I think in my head I’ve kind of imagined it as a really cool opportunity for makerspaces, community spaces, libraries and schools.
LOOKING FOR A 3D PRINTER?
Get ready to 3D print at home with this huge $350 savings on the Snapmaker A350 T 3-in-1 3D Printer (opens in new tab).
What: I always like to think: what if somebody doesn’t know anything and they pick up this book, you know, not necessarily on this subject and pick up this book? Can they access the information in a way that you know is useful? I hope so. That was sort of our goal. So, you know, really, it’s a very broad answer—that we want everybody to pick it up—but we don’t want to be the gatekeeper with our popular books, we want people to feel, “OK, I do don’t know anything about this. I’m not scared and I can pick it up and get something out of it.”
Space.com: I can tell you that after I printed my lunar surface model here, my kids were fascinated by it. And then my four-year-old daughter asked me, “where did all the holes come from?” And then it led to a little talk about heavy lunar bombardment. Because they’re super interested in space, but you know, they’re kids, they want to pick things up and touch it. I think this book could be a really cool learning experience for them.
What: Yeah, and just going back to the audience, I think 3D printing is at this precipice, right? Like some people have it, some organizations have it privately or in a community, and I’m not sure if there’s a lot of content. So hopefully this contributes in a fun way.
We always find that astronomy is very, as you know, it is a very welcoming science. There is not much politics involved. And almost everyone is fascinated by what’s out there. So I mean, it’s a way to get people engaged, I think, whether it’s the technology or the subject matter or whatever, including kids.
(opens in new tab)
Space.com: Where did you find all the models in the book? Are they all open source?
Arcand: Pretty much everything in this book is a Creative Commons or public domain project, because it’s all the people who have worked to create these types of projects for the greater good, if you will. Collaborators working to create constellations that are tactile usually do these things because they are trying to fill a need, if you will. So it’s been really exciting to be able to put together a list of these possibilities, and to have so many people who have worked on this type of 3D modeling and printing and bring it all together in a reference book.
What: We tried to make that clear in the book, but we didn’t make all of these models. Kim in particular has been working with 3D modeling for, you know, as she said, a long time, but this is more of an amalgamation of everything that we found that was out there at the time. Of course, it will constantly evolve. And there are other models out there. But we tried to find those that you know were funded by NASA or other government entities.
Space.com: If there is one takeaway you hope a reader gets from your book, what would it be?
Arcand: I think, to be honest, the takeaway that I hope people have is maybe not necessarily at the forefront of the book, but what I found over and over again from projects that explore data through these different modalities, these different dimensions, is that often people begin to understand that other people explore things in different ways. So I think there’s a part of me that hopes people start to understand that we can learn about things in different ways, that people access data in different ways, that there’s just a different value and meaning making from, in this case, 3D printing or 3D modeling of something.
What: I think we have an overarching underlying theme that we always hope comes across, which is that space and the universe are for everyone to discover and experience. Too often I feel like people think, “Oh, science isn’t for me” or “I’m not a scientist” or whatever that means. We want everyone to feel that science is something they can discover, space is something they can enjoy and experience if they are interested in it. And maybe they don’t even know they’re interested in it, because they haven’t felt welcome. So, you know, if this is a drop in the bucket, that’s great. That’s just kind of the thing we’ve tried to emphasize over the years, not that we don’t want people who already love space to buy the book. Because you know there are so many hardcore astronomy fans out there. And we appreciate their interest in this kind of thing. But we always try to make a bigger science tent so people can feel welcome.
‘Stars in Your Hand: A Guide to 3D Printing the Cosmos (opens in new tab)‘ by The MIT Press will be published on September 20.
Follow Brett on Twitter at @brettingley (opens in new tab). Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom (opens in new tab) or on Facebook (opens in new tab).
[ad_2]
Leave a Reply