Ok, so science can be a time of staring outside thinking “Wow it’s rainy” or “Wow it’s hot” while being inside bored. Mapping worlds is awesome, but sometimes you need a break because all the craters start to make you cross-eyed. For those moments of “I need something to do” (or more likely, “The children nearby need something to do”) can I suggest playing with paper?

When I was little, my grandma used to sit me down to cut out paper dolls. I could design and color fashions, or used pre-printed apparel. I still see these dolls in Michaels today, but… aren’t planets and spacecraft more interesting than dolls (even astronaut dolls?)

Here are some of our favorite patterns.

• Cute Cartoon Planets
• USGS Science Images of Planets
• New Horizons Spacecraft
• Space Shuttle
• Rosetta Spacecraft
• Cassini Spacecraft
• Hubble Space Telescope

NASA has a fairly significant collection of paper models of their Discovery program missions. You can access the entire collection here.

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