Meteorite dust used to create space 'LEGO' bricks
You may have noticed that this year was packed with LEGO® Space-related goodies. Now, the celebration of LEGO Space has reached a whole new galaxy. The European Space Agency has been inspired by the humble LEGO brick to create materials that can be used to build structures on the moon. The ESA has also created several LEGO Space Bricks, which feature the dust from a 4.5 billion year old meteorite! These bricks will be available in select LEGO Stores worldwide. Read more about this very cool experiment below.
SPACE BRICKS: How LEGO® bricks are helping scientists build astronaut shelters on the moon
Inspired by the LEGO® system in the game, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have used dust from a 4.5 billion year old meteorite to 3D print bricks, similar to LEGO bricks, to help design astronaut shelters on the moon.
The ESA Space Bricks have helped the ESA team investigate how buildings can be made using materials found in space
A selection of these bricks will now be on display in selected LEGO Retail stores and LEGO House from June 24 to September 20, 2024
June 18, 2024, Billund: Scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have used their love of LEGO bricks to design launch pads and shelters for astronauts visiting the moon as part of the Artemis program. To test whether space materials could be used to create structures, the team 3D-printed similar LEGO bricks using meteorite dust to see if they could still be used as building blocks on small-scale versions of structures.
The resulting ESA Space Bricks will now be on display in selected LEGO Stores in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia, plus the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, to inspire the builders of tomorrow on how building with LEGO bricks can help solve problems in outer space.
The actual structures will be built on the Moon, using materials found there, but first they needed to understand whether a space material could even be made into building blocks, and they needed to do this on a small scale. The space material on the Moon is regolith, but there is only a tiny sample available on Earth, collected during the Apollo mission. So the team turned to another, very similar space material – meteorites, which they ground up into dust and mixed with a small amount of polylactide and regolith simulant and used to 3D print bricks similar to LEGO bricks – to create the ESA Space Bricks. The meteorite they used is about 4.5 billion years old and was originally discovered in northwest Africa in 2000 and is technically classified as an L3-6. It is a broken rock that contains many different elements, such as large grains of metal, inclusions, chondrules and other elements of stony meteorite.
Speaking about the project, ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley said: "Our teams are working on the future of space exploration and are taking inspiration not just from what is above us, but also from what we can find on Earth. No one has ever built a structure on the Moon, so we have to think not only about how we build them, but also what we build them from, as we can't take any materials with us. My team and I love creative construction and had the idea to investigate whether space dust could be shaped into a brick similar to a LEGO brick, so we could test different building techniques. The result is stunning and although the bricks may look a little rougher than usual, it's important that the coupling force still works, allowing us to play with and test our designs.
Daniel Meehan, Creative Lead at The LEGO Group, notes that LEGO bricks can have an impact on the real world beyond creative play, saying: “We recently discovered that space remains an area of huge curiosity, with 87% of Generation Alpha children interested in discovering new planets, stars and galaxies. With the ESA team using the LEGO System-in-Play to promote space travel, it shows kids that the sky really is the limit when it comes to building with LEGO bricks and we hope it encourages kids to build their own spaceships!”
Following their key role in developing potential future lunar infrastructure, 15 ESA Space Bricks will be displayed in selected LEGO Stores worldwide to encourage children to learn more about space travel and be inspired to build their own lunar shelters. The ESA Space Bricks will be displayed in selected LEGO Stores in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia, plus the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark from 24 June to 20 September.
Visit www.LEGO.com/Space to learn more about ESA Space Bricks and explore the exciting range of LEGO Space sets.
Locations for the ESA Space Bricks displays:
USA:
The LEGO Store, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota
The LEGO Store, Disney Springs, Florida
The LEGO Store, Water Tower Place, Chicago
The LEGO Store, Disneyland Resort, California
The LEGO Store, 5th Avenue, New York
Canada:
The LEGO Store, West Edmonton
UK:
The LEGO Store, Leicester Square, London
Germany:
The LEGO Store, Munich Center
The LEGO Store, Cologne
Denmark:
The LEGO Store, Copenhagen
LEGO House, Billund
Spain:
The LEGO Store, Barcelona
France:
The LEGO Store, Paris
Netherlands:
The LEGO Store, Amsterdam
Australia:
The LEGO Store, Pitt Street Mall, Sydney