The Amazing Flying Sea Turtle

By Dustin Masterson

Normally this time of year, I can find myself neck deep in outreach work. I’m normally running the NWA Space booth on First Friday every month, along with any number of outreach events that requests science presenters. This year is far from normal.

So, what have I been doing during this “downtime”? I’ve been 3D printing interesting things to show people when next we can venture outdoors for outreach again. I have printed a scale model of our moon, Jupiter, a functioning harp, and a t-rex skull. All of those prints are fun and all, but I’ve recently 3D printed something that will hopefully catch people’s attention when we next have our booth.

Yes, a turtle. A sea turtle to be exact. This plastic sea turtle is a very interesting model that will hopefully get people’s mental gears turning. Well, to show you what I mean, here is a picture of the gears themselves.

This interesting model is from a wonderful creator: Amao Chan. He created the 3D model as a commission. Normally 3D models that have moving parts need non-3D printed parts, such as screws, nuts, or even springs. In my 3D harp print that I mentioned earlier, I needed a guitar string and tuning frets. What sets this model apart is that this moving print is made entirely from printed plastic, no external bits required.

Here is the model in action (from Amao Chan’s Youtube page):

我曾經在海上浮潛時，親眼見到海龜從我的下方游過，牠前肢緩慢的揮動，就像是在海底飛行一般，這經歴啟發了［海中飛翔的海龜］作品的創作方向。我採用多年前的創作--摺紙海龜，當成原型，並在摺紙的基礎上，增加了更多的細節；再用可動的機構，模擬海龜揮動前肢游泳、牠身體微妙起伏，及在反作用力下海龜頸部與身體的相對運動。重現海龜...

I hope that the next time you walk by NWA Space’s booth (whenever we get to do outreach again), you’ll see this wonderful flying turtle sitting on our table. You will be able to walk up and give it a turn of the crank and see the beauty of this person’s creation come to life before your very eyes. Hopefully afterwards we can have a nice chat about science; it’s been too long.

—Dustin Masterson