There are plenty of Lego sets that feature astronauts, but now there are Lego bricks made from the materials astronauts find in the vacuum. Danish brick maker (ESA) to make Lego pieces from real meteorite dust. Very good, right? They are on display at until September 20, including the large Fifth Avenue branch in Manhattan.
This project is not just for laughs, although it is quite funny. It is a proof of concept to show how astronauts could use lunar dust to build lunar structures. Consider the large amount of energy and money required to transport construction materials from Earth to the Moon. Instead, it would be a game-changer to build everything from pre-existing lunar materials.
There is a layer of rock and mineral deposits on the surface of the Moon, which is called lunar regolith. For a long time it was thought that some type of regolith would be necessary. It is available and there are several possible methods to transform it into building materials. After all, humans have been building structures out of dirt, dirt, and sand for thousands of years.
However, there isn't much lunar regolith here on Earth for people to experiment with. ESA scientists created their own regolith by crushing a very old meteorite. The dust from this meteorite was turned into a mixture that was used to 3D print Lego pieces. Ready. Moon bricks. They click together like regular Lego bricks, although they only come in one color (space gray, obviously).
“No one has ever built a structure on the Moon, so it was fantastic to have the flexibility to try out all sorts of designs and construction techniques with our space bricks. It was fun and useful for understanding scientifically the limits of these techniques,” said ESA's Chief Scientist Aidan Cowley.
In fact, humanity is coming to our first real lunar base. NASA has partnered with the Italian Space Agency and the Thales Alenia Space Corporation to build the first permanent human outpost on the Moon, though this won't happen until at least the 2030s. Recent lunar habitat designs range from something resembling a mobile home to .
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