Meet Trooper. He is an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, and sadly, he was caught in a fishing net but luckily saved before drowning by rescue organisation Marine Savers. Trooper did have to lose both of his front flippers in the process. As a double-amputee, it's not easy to get Trooper swimming and back into the wild again, but we had the idea to create new 3D-printed flippers for him.

Two new flippers were therefore remote engineered and printed by 3d Primo in the UK and sent to Marine Savers in the Maldive Islands who fitted them onto Trooper. All of this has been done free of charge, and by doing this, the team have managed to get Trooper swimming for 30 minutes a day with these prototype flippers.

1) design, test and build final versions of these flippers using saltwater and UV-resistant materials that will last while Trooper swims in the sea; 2) send a 3D printer to Marine Savers so that they can 3D print his replacement flippers on site, rather than shipping each set of flippers overseas; 3) The flippers are attached with a neoprene "jacket" which also needs to be developed so it's more robust and aesthetically pleasing. For this, we need to raise £10,100.

Pictures of Trooper wearing our prototypes - and the progress of this project - can be followed on Instagram by following #gotrooper

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/gotrooper/

It's not just Trooper - 5 other turtles at the marine rescue centre have suffered the same plight and are also in need of this same intervention, so our learnings through the work with Trooper will then be applied to them all, with the intention of getting them all back into the wild. We would love to think there will be no other turtles that require rescuing in future, but sadly, there very probably will be others that need this same support - the ability to design and make new flippers for these turtles using 3D printing techniques will give us the ability to get as many of them back into the wild as we can. We are very much hoping Trooper is the first of many successful attempts to use technology to save our marine life.

Thank you for any support you can give to Trooper and to those of us trying to get him back into the wild and freely living the life in the sea that he was meant to live. Every donation, no matter how small, is massively appreciated.

Detailed Cost Breakdown:

1) At least three design iterations of the current flipper. Once we've established the optimum angle for Trooper's flippers, we need to eliminate the temporary metal ball & socket joint & come up with an integrated design. As expected, Trooper has one stump larger/stronger than the other so cannot swim in a straight line. We therefore need to reduce the flipper size on the stronger side to compensate for this. (Typically £1000 per design iteration so £3000)

2) To speed up the way we provide flippers to the MDC it would make sense for them to have their own printers on site. They could then simply download our latest design and print it there and then. Ale has already indicated that the MDC would be interested in this. (£1500 for one printer plus a selection of filaments, plus £150 economy shipping)

3) The current flippers are made in a rigid, food-safe material but has unknown resistance to prolonged salt-water or UV light. There are flexible materials available which might enhance the efficiency of the flipper as it could bend during the forward stroke. (£1000)

4) Articulated (multiple hinge) flipper designs may also help Trooper to swim/dive more efficiently for the same reason. (Typically £1000 per design iteration so £3000)

5) The current jacket/velcro attachment is again temporary and not very sartorial! It would be both stronger and more aesthetic if we were to have the neoprene vest attached directly to the sockets. (£1000)