HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Thanks to some help from a Florida company, the Cosmosphere is embarking on a new program that will bring some of its most treasured artifacts into the interactive world.
Starting Tuesday, the Cosmosphere will begin creating high-resolution, full-color, digitally interactive 3D models of the space museum’s collection starting with one of the most iconic crafts in American history — the Mercury spacecraft: Liberty Bell 7. The craft will be uncased by museum staff and then 3D laser-scanned by a company from Florida called Creaform. Creaform is donating its services to the non-profit museum for this project.
“Our goal is to create a digital library of artifacts in our collection,” Nathan Meyer, Cosmosphere VP of Education and Strategy, said. “The pandemic really amplified the need for accessible, quality educational resources and we want to help provide those to the public at large.”
Cosmosphere staff will take full-color, high-resolution photos of the craft once the case has been removed. By layering those photos with the detailed 3D laser-scan of the spacecraft, a fully digital and interactive 3D model will be created. That digital model can then be used for 3D printing, in virtual reality software and placed alongside corresponding educational resources online.
“With over 10,000 pieces in our collection, this isn’t going to be an overnight project,” Meyer said. “But we wanted to start with a major piece of space history and the Liberty Bell 7 gets a lot of attention, both locally and internationally — as it spent the previous six years on a world tour, so we thought it was the perfect piece to start with.”
While similar work has already begun on smaller artifacts housed in the museum’s collection, the Liberty Bell 7 3D model will be the premiere example of the new digital offerings available via a virtual museum platform, which the Cosmosphere team plans to launch in 2021.
A sneak peek of the Liberty Bell 7 project, including a time-lapse video of the 3D scanning, will be available to view on the Cosmosphere’s social media sites next week.