Columbia Memorial, Challenger Center receive new 3D printers

Photo By Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY - The Columbia Memorial Space Center, Challenger Center, and New Matter announced Wednesday that the Challenger Center located within Downey’s museum had been selected to receive five award winning MOD-t 3D printers as a part of the initial phase of the new Challenger Center-New matter partnership.

The new printers – which were donated by New Matter - were immediately implemented into CMSC’s 3D printing summer camp, where they will be used to help teach the basics of 3D printing as well as 3D designing and prototyping.

New Matter is a 3D printer company whose mission is to bring affordable 3D printing  to homes, schools, and offices.

The partnership was announced at a press conference held at the Space Center, attended by museum staff, city officials, and several students who were attending the museum as a part of a field trip.

CMSC Executive Director Ben Dickow with New Matter CEO Steve Schell. Photo by Alex Dominguez

“We believe that 3D printing is a transformative way to bridge the divide between the digital and physical worlds,” said Steve Schell, CEO of New Matter. “Working together [with the Challenger Center], we can drive STEM learning programs in meaningful new ways.”

This is not the first time that the CMSC has utilized 3D printers into their programming. However, the new printers are “faster and more accurate,” according to Dickow. He says the printers will be utilized in several different ways.

Students have already begun to use the new printer technology during a 3D printing summer camp. Photo By Alex Dominguez

“Because this is a relationship between Challenger Center, New Matter and the Space Center, we’re going to be integrating them into our Challenger Center program,” said Dickow. “As far as new stuff goes, the 3D printing class summer camp is a brand new thing that we’ve started; we’ll be doing more than that. Eventually, we do want to remake the first floor into a public makerspace, and we hope that there will be more than the five printers there for people to work on.”

Details are still being worked out on how the day to day operations of the printers will unfold, however Dickow says that any museum guest should be able to come off the street and be able to use the printers “for the most part,” with some kind of timing control involved.