Rotating Solar System Model

My project is a 3D printed rotating solar system model. It includes 12 separately printed parts, and can be assembled with no additional materials! I am a student at Prairie Ridge High School, where I was prompted to enter in the 3D design contest in my engineering class.

- Fusion 360

- 3D Printer

- PLA plastic (amount depends on chosen sizes)

- Acrylic Paint (optional)

This project consists of four types of parts - the base, the base cap, the Sun piece, one spacer, and the planet pieces x8 (shown in order). The basic design of it is a hollow post, where the planets are attached, and then a cap that goes inside the hollow post. The sun then slides on the top of the cap. The base pieces, the sun, and the spacer are fairly simple, and just use the extrude join/cut features. The shape of the planet pieces are only slightly more complicated.

To design these pieces, I used the extrude functions and the create spheres/toruses function.

To create the planet pieces, I sketched a keyhole shape, then extruded it. I then sketched a small circle and extruded that to hold up the planet (I used the Mars post as an example here)

Then, I created a joined sphere on the top of that extruded cylinder.

After I had designed the pieces, I had to make sure they would all fit together with the sizes I chose. I did this by changing every piece from a body to a component and transporting them to the same file. I used a variety of joints, including the slide, cylinder, and rigid joints to connect all the pieces. When deciding your sizes, it is important to allow some space between the central post and the hole that the planets use to slide on top. This space allows the planets to rotate. The space I added for mine was 0.1 inches difference in diameter. The posts' diameter is 0.5 inches, and the planet holes' diameter are 0.6.

After this step, the pieces were printed. Some of the pieces required supports to print. All of the pieces were printed separately.

The main challenge I had with this project was the spacing of the parts. There was still room on the post when all the planets were on it, and this caused the planets to collapse slightly and not rotate very well. To counter this, I added a spacer to hold the planets in place once the cap was placed on.

Once you have the pieces printed, you assemble it like so -

- Base post first.

- Planets on top of the post, farthest planet on the bottom (Neptune), closest planet on the top (Mercury).

- The spacer can be placed under the planets or on top of them.

- The longer cylinder of the cap is placed inside the base.

- The sun is placed on top of the shorter cylinder.

I chose to paint my model. The model is officially finished!