Space Construction Methods Inspired by LEGO Bricks
Space Construction Methods Inspired by LEGO Bricks
ESA Exploring how Buildings Could be Made Using Materials Found in Space
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 blocks similar to LEGO bricks with meteorite dust to see if they could still be used as a building block on small scale versions of structures.
"The result is amazing and (while) the bricks may look a little rougher than usual, importantly the clutch power still works, enabling us to play and test our designs."
Aidan Cowley, ESA
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 originally 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.
"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," said ESA Science Officer, Aidan Cowley. "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 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 (while) 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. "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," Meehan said. "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.
United States store locations where ESA Space Bricks are displayed include:
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