Valles Marinaris

thingiverse

A tiny (~80mmx80mm) print captures the essence of the Valles Marinaris region on Mars. You can recreate your own model by navigating the terminal and utilizing png23d in combination with freeware such as MeshLab. The program takes a greyscale image like the one I shared, which depicts actual topographic data from the MOLA instrument, and assigns various heights based on the pixel greyscale value. Converting the resultant solid to MeshLab enables you to significantly reduce the number of facets, typically to around 100,000. Although I'm still perfecting the process in my spare time and struggling with a few remaining bugs...\nThe provided STL model wasn't generated by me - I obtained it from this website: http://nasa3d.arc.nasa.gov/detail/valles-marineris. According to the NASA website:\nThis STL file represents a topographic model of Valles Marineris, enlarged vertically and derived from data collected by the MOLA altimeter aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor mission. The model prints at its standard size (8cm across), covering an area roughly 1000km wide on Mars, scaled to approximately 12.5 million to one. Therefore, every 1 cm of printed model equates to about 125 km of the Martian landscape. Data credits: NASA/MOLA Science Team.\nSince I sourced this STL file from a NASA website, it will be released under a Public Domain Dedication. If this action creates any controversy, kindly bring it to my attention. Bear in mind that my primary intention is to post this on Thingiverse after personally experimenting with it! The real credit for the creation goes entirely to NASA.\nThe Gale Crater model I drew inspiration from was created using this technique. Instructions I combined two different colors – orange and black – in layers to achieve a look reminiscent of Mars' reddish hue. Unfortunately, the stripes did not exactly align with my initial vision, yet I've come to appreciate their unique appeal. However, I found that printing a model solely in mono-chrome color results in surface features being somewhat difficult to distinguish. I opted to print without a raft and switched from the default orange filament (used primarily because it's cost-effective) to the alternative after laying down the first layer of what resembled the canyon floor below. Every 10 minutes or so, I employed the 'Change Filament' function on my Replicator 2 machine as a means of ensuring consistency throughout. Although the transition wasn't entirely smooth and might require several layers for optimal results, particularly with respect to applying orange on top of black colors, the finished model truly is an eye-catcher.