The race back to the moon is on, and the European Space Agency is working out how to build a base there. Sending building material to the moon is impractical if not impossible, so ESA scientists need to figure out how to build using material already on the moon. The moon is covered in regolith from billions of years of meteoroid impacts, providing a plentiful source of raw material. NASA's Apollo missions and China's recent Chang'e 6 mission brought back small amounts of lunar material but nowhere near enough to test with, not that either agency would be willing to part with it.
Undeterred, ESA scientists came up with a solution: they made their own version of lunar regolith by grinding up a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite. The dust from the meteorite formed the basis of a mixture that was then used to 3-D print some LEGO-style space bricks.
ESA's space bricks click together in the same way as regular LEGO bricks but are a bit rougher – and only come in one colour – a stylish space grey! The space bricks gave ESA's space engineers the flexibility to build and test a variety of structures using this new material.
ESA
Fifteen of these space bricks will be on display at the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, and in select Lego stores worldwide. I love the James Bond-style carrying case. I hope each one is displayed in a tiny version of this.
