This is the Artec Space Spider – a handheld scanner that will be used to digitize items at the park in three dimensions (3D). Combined with the park’s 3D printer, scientifically significant fossils and other natural history objects in the Park museum collection can be scanned and physical copies printed out for research, exhibits, and educational use.
It doesn’t matter if the fossils are rare or fragile – sturdy exact copies can be made for examination and use, while the originals are carefully protected.
This tool is handheld and portable, so it can be used in the field or on research trips to other museums. It is amazingly accurate up to a half millimeter and can quickly scan small and large objects.
But the park does not have an Artec Space Spider Scanner. There is no budget for it. This is where Friends of Petrified Forest National Park and YOU come in. We are raising money to purchase this $25,000 tool.
With your help, we envision a time sometime soon when a temporary employee or intern, working with volunteers, scans every fossil in the collection. What an incredible specimen database would be created!
Researchers, schools, and even interested members of the public could download this information to view on a computer. And with a 3D printer, they can make their own copy!
The scanner will be used to digitize in 3D scientifically significant fossils and other natural history objects in the PEFO museum collections.
Combined with our 3D printer, we can then make physical copies of rare or fragile specimens for research and exhibits. The long-term goal is to hire a temporary employee or intern to scan every fossil in the collection and upload those digital files to the specimen database so that they are downloadable for the public and researchers.
The Artec Space Spider is handheld and portable, so it can also be brought on research trips to other museums and potentially into the field. It is accurate up to half a millimeter and can quickly scan small and large objects.