3D print Enceladus

How do you turn a region of Enceladus into a 3D print?

Open the generator, switch it to Enceladus, pick a place from the list or drag the selection box over any other region, and choose a jigsaw puzzle or a solid ornament in a circle, square or hexagon. OrbitStudio builds the model from Enceladus's measured shape and shows it in 3D before you download anything.

Generating a model and turning it around in 3D is free and needs no account. A free account adds puzzle slicing, custom frame text and a library of three models. Downloading the model takes a Plus or Merchant plan, or one credit from a pass.

Where do the heights come from?

From the shape model of Enceladus that NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory made from the Cassini spacecraft's images, version 2 (R. S. Park et al., doi:10.1029/2023JE008054), archived in NASA's Planetary Data System with Cassini's navigation data (doi:10.17189/1520114). We read it at 24 samples per degree, about 180 meters, and give every height above the moon's reference ellipsoid, 256 by 251 by 249 kilometers, so a model is level and not a slice of a slightly squashed ball.

Why do Enceladus models start at three times true height?

Because Enceladus is smooth. The whole moon, about 504 kilometers across, spans only about 5 kilometers from its lowest trough to its highest ridge, so Cashmere Sulci, a region 260 kilometers wide, holds under 2 millimeters of relief at true height on a model 200 millimeters wide. At three times true height the grooves stand out: Labtayt Sulci, a deep trough with ribbed walls, holds about 10 millimeters on a 160 kilometer region. The height setting goes up or down from there.

Can I print the tiger stripes?

Not yet. The four tiger stripes, the warm fractures near the south pole whose jets of ice feed Saturn's E ring, lie between about 75 and 87 degrees south. On a moon this small any region around them reaches the pole, and the generator cannot yet center a selection on a pole. Cashmere Sulci, at the edge of the south polar region, is the closest place built in. The smallest region elsewhere is about 100 kilometers across.

What do the maps show?

The map and the globe open on Cassini Images: the global map of Enceladus that NASA's Cassini imaging team made with the German Aerospace Center (DLR) from hundreds of Cassini images under different suns, archived in NASA's Planetary Data System. The map can also show Paul Schenk's enhanced-color maps of 2014 (Lunar and Planetary Institute), which combine infrared, green and ultraviolet images and are not what an eye would see, and two height maps of the shape model. None of it is a photograph.

Can an Enceladus model be printed in more than one color?

Yes, in shades of gray. A multicolor model takes its colors from Cassini Images, the map the generator opens on, reduced to 2 to 8 grays, each its own filament. Enceladus is the most reflective body in the Solar System, but that map is stretched to mid-grays and its shadows are part of the picture, so a print comes out in grays that trace the grooves. The map can sit up to about 2 kilometers off the shape model, so colors need a region at least 117 kilometers across. Schenk's enhanced-color maps are shown on screen only, never printed. In one color, the default filament is a pale ice blue.

Do I have to credit anything?

No. The shape model and the Cassini map are NASA mission data that carry no restrictive notice, so NASA's Creative Commons Zero licence applies, and you may use and sell your prints under section 08 of the terms. A credit is appreciated, not required. Do not present your prints as endorsed by NASA, JPL or Caltech.

Which Enceladus places are built in?

Sixty, in two groups: 25 grooves, ridges and plains, and 35 craters, every name approved by the IAU (Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature). The tiger stripes and other places too close to the south pole or the 180th meridian are left out. Each one below opens the generator on Enceladus, already flown to it.

Grooves, ridges and plains

Craters

What is OrbitStudio?

OrbitStudio turns real space data into 3D-printable models. You pick a region on a globe or a flat map, choose a jigsaw puzzle or a solid ornament, and get ready-to-print files with the parts already separated and colored. No CAD, no mesh repair. 60 Enceladus landmarks built in.

Trying it is free and needs no account: pick a region, generate it and turn it around in 3D. Downloading the model takes a Plus or Merchant plan, or one credit from a pass. The generator covers the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Vesta, Ceres, Mimas, Pluto and Charon too.

The night sky, too

OrbitStudio Sky, the night-sky tool, turns the sky over any place, on any date from 1900 to 2100, into a 3D-printable star map. Its STL is free.