April 4, 2020
Since the early days of astronomy in Africa, Eurasia, Australia, and the Americas our ancestors used to share information about the night sky and our place within the Universe by word of mouth. Fast forward to now, after centuries of scientific and technological leaps and hurdles our satellites, rovers, and telescopes are putting the Heavens in our hands with 3D printed planets, asteroids, moons, satellites, rocket ships, and so on. Using these new gifts of science from the Space Age will not only help in planning future space missions, but they also provide means to build upon the scope and reach of scientific access of information to previously underserved communities.
One overlooked area of the benefits of the Space Age is the capacity to take the story-telling and image sharing capacities of our societies fascination with space and put it into our own hands. The Space Age has provided microwaves, Velcro, freeze dried ice cream, pictures of Earth, GPS, and numerous other benefits to our everyday lives. By making these subjects tangible, differently abled students can now participate in scientific research and discussion on astronomy and astrogeology. Instead of having a long-winded discussion on the surface features of the Moon, Mars, or Earth, students can hold them in their hands and being to feel out the cracks, scars, and bumps that make up our Solar system.
By making astronomy and astrogeology fit in the palm of our hands, we can expand these sciences and the state-of-the-art related to them to more communities how had less access in the past. The capacities provided to us by 3D printing planets means that scientists can make observations on planetary geology with a fresh set of eyes, younger students can make observations easily, and underserved populations can begin to interact with subjects that used to be out of reach. This accessibility avenue can be readily developed and included in my curricula for students of any age. By democratizing space sciences, more innovating is an inevitable outcome.
One of our goals moving through the 2000s should be to aim towards improving and expanding access for students of all ages that have been underrepresented to improve the aerospace community. 3D printing is proliferating within numerous sectors, education certainly needs to focus on the products it can leverage from it. By the end of this century, we could have the Solar System in the hand of the next generation of scientists, technologists, engineers, artists, and mathematicians so they can all be enabled to add to the narrative of space exploration.