Gale Crater (MSL Landing site)

thingiverse

A 3D-printed model, based on MOLA data of Gale Crater where the Mars rover Curiosity landed, is referred to as a "geological candy shop" due to its central mountain. The original color image was converted to grayscale in Rhino3D to represent depth, then transformed into a heightfield mesh. Edges were extended and sliced off to create a shallow box, merged with the surface heightfield mesh, and saved as an STL file for printing at 0.27 layer thickness, 1 shell, 5% infill, without raft or support. Printing in silver/gray ABS may cause warping and poor photographs; printing in natural or black ABS is recommended. An updated version with smoother detail and reduced file size has also been uploaded for easier printing. The model pairs well with ThePlanetMike's rover.