3D printing and medicine

3D printers can make all sorts of things, from plastic viruses to circuits to houses! One of the cool new things a 3D printer can make is something you wouldn't expect, but it helps make many people's lives easier. Keep reading to find out more!

Exploring Mars

The Curiosity Rover has been on Mars for about two years, collecting information so that scientists here on Earth can figure out whether or not Mars ever could or ever did support microbial life. The rover has a mass of about 900 kg and is about as big as a car. Ever wonder how something that big and that heavy landed on the surface of Mars?  A group of very smart and talented engineers and scientists developed the technology to make this possible. Watch this video to learn more about the landing sequence.

            What makes Curiosity special is that it can not only take pictures of the surface and acquire information about things like the weather on Mars; Curiosity is able to drill and scoop up the contents of rocks and soil, deliver a small sample to instruments inside the rover, find out what elements the sample is made of, and send all of that information back to the scientists on earth.

           

 A few more fun facts about Curiosity:

1.     It has 17 cameras on board. Some were used to help the rover land on the surface, some are used to take pictures so that the rover and people down here can know where it’s located, and some are used to take selfies! 

This selfie was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).

2.     Engineers can drive the rover themselves by telling it exactly where to go and how to get there OR they can tell the rover where they want it to go and the rover figures out its own safe path to its destination.

3.     The holes in the wheels are particularly interesting. They let the dirt out if it gets trapped inside the wheel, BUT they also spell out the letters J-P-L in Morse Code! JPL stands for Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA center that developed Curiosity. So now everywhere the rover goes, it leaves these markings that spell JPL all over Mars!

4.     One of the ways Curiosity can analyze rocks and soil by “zapping” them with a laser! The instrument that does this, ChemCam, is located where you see the big circle on Curiosity’s “head.”

From landing Curiosity to how it’s being operated until today, exploration of this world outside of our own is made possible by engineers and not just aerospace engineers. A project as big as this needs mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and computer scientists as well. To date, Curiosity has been making some amazing discoveries. To find out more and stay up to date on the mission, visit the mission's page at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/  or check out Curiosity’s Twitter account! 

How do you build a circuit?

A basic component of electrical engineering is a circuit. A circuit is simply a loop that has a current running through it. The current helps the circuit do whatever it was designed to do, like send information from one source to another or power an object, like a LED light. So, how do you build a circuit?

It's actually pretty simple. All you need is a power source and connections. See, most power sources, like a battery, have two terminals: a positive one and a negative one. Current is created when there is a path from one terminal to the other. This path can be created using wires. Whatever is put in the circuit will also get the current, helping it do whatever it needs to do.

Most of the times, engineers like to test out their circuits before they finish them. This is when a breadboard is used. The breadboard has holes on the top so that you can use wires to connect the things in your circuit together. Each column of the breadboard has a wire underneath it to make checking your circuit easier. You make your circuit on the breadboard and check to see if it works right! 

Once you're sure your circuit does what you want it to, you finish it by fixing it to a circuit board. A circuit board is made out of copper and is printed with your wire connections on it. You can design it so that it works for your circuit. Once you get your circuit board, you just need to attach your elements to it, and you have a fully finished circuit, like the one below!

These days, there are new inventions to make this process simpler. One cool new thing is the Circuit Scribe. It has ink that has the same qualities as wires do, so the ink can carry current through them. Now, we can just use paper to make our circuits on instead of breadboard and circuit boards. Check out www.kickstarter.com/projects/electroninks/circuit-scribe-draw-circuits-instantly to learn more!