Scientists at the European Space Agency have used dust from a 4.5 million year old meteorite to print 3D LEGO-style bricks to help design astronaut shelters on the moon. The ESA is exploring ways how buildings can be made using materials found in space. For a limited time, the space bricks will go on display at select LEGO Stores and at the LEGO House from June 24 – September 20.
SPACE BRICKS: How LEGO® Bricks Are Helping Scientists Build Astronaut Shelters On The Moon
• Inspired by the LEGO® system in play, scientists at the European
Space Agency (ESA) have used dust from a 4.5 billion year old
meteorite to 3D print bricks, similar to a LEGO brick, to help design
astronaut shelters on the moon
• The ESA Space Bricks have helped the ESA team explore how buildings
could be made using materials found in space
• A selection of these bricks will now go on display in select LEGO
Retail stores and LEGO House from 24th June to 20th September 202415:00 CEST 18th June 2024, Billund: Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have turned to their love of LEGO brick building when designing 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 to LEGO bricks with meteorite dust to see if could still be used as a building block on small scale versions of structures.
The resulting ESA Space Bricks will now go on display in select LEGO Stores in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia plus the LEGO House, in Billund, Denmark, to inspire the builders of tomorrow of how LEGO brick building can help solve out of this world problems.
The real structures will be built on the moon, using materials found there, but they first needed to understand if 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 very small sample available on Earth, collected from 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 this to 3D print bricks similar to LEGO bricks– making the ESA Space Bricks. The meteorite they used is approximately 4.5 billion years old and was original discovered in North-West Africa in 2000 and is technically classed as a L3-6. It is a brecciated stone which has many different elements incorporated within it, such as large metal grains, inclusions, chondrules and other stone meteorite elements.
Talking about the project, ESA Science Officer, Aidan Cowley said, “Our teams are working towards the future of space travel and take inspiration from not just what’s above us, but also what we can find on Earth. No-one has ever built a structure on the moon, so we have to work out not only how we build them but what we build them out of as we can’t take any materials with us. My team and I team love creative construction and had the idea to explore whether space dust could be formed into a brick similar to a LEGO brick so we could test different building techniques. The result is amazing and whilst the bricks may look a little rougher than usual, importantly the clutch power still works, enabling us to play and test our designs.
Daniel Meehan, Creative Lead at The LEGO Group notes the real-world impact LEGO bricks can have outside of creative play and says, “We recently found out that space remains an area of huge curiosity with 87% of Gen Alpha kids interested in discovering new planets, stars, and galaxies. With the ESA team using the LEGO System-in-Play to advance space travel, it shows kids the sky really is the limit when it comes to LEGO brick building and we hope it encourages children to have a go at building their own space shelters!”
Following the important part in developing potential future infrastructure on the Moon, 15 ESA Space Bricks will go on display in select LEGO Stores globally to help encourage kids to find out more about space travel and be inspired to build their very own moon shelters. The ESA Space Bricks will be on display in select LEGO Stores in the USA, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia plus the LEGO House, in Billund, Denmark from 24th June to 20th September.
To find out more about the ESA Space Bricks and see the exciting range of LEGO Space sets, visit www.LEGO.com/Space.
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 YorkCanada:
The LEGO Store, West EdmontonUK:
The LEGO Store, Leicester Square, LondonGermany:
The LEGO Store, München Zentrum
The LEGO Store, CologneDenmark:
The LEGO Store, Copenhagen
LEGO House, BillundSpain:
The LEGO Store, BarcelonaFrance:
The LEGO Store, ParisNetherlands:
The LEGO Store, AmsterdamAustralia:
The LEGO Store, Pitt Street Mall, Sydney
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