Launching at the beginning of last month, NASA’s Jupiter space probe, the Atlas V rocket, was secretly carrying a few unique stowaways. In a collaboration with Lego, three mini-figures were especially created and attached to the space craft for it’s five year journey to the fifth planet from the Sun.
The toys, based on the god Jupiter, his wife Juno and Italian astronomer Galilleo, were designed alongside NASA’s scientists, ensuring minimum interference with the spacecrafts sensitive instruments. Milled from titanium, each of the individually customised 2.5 inch figures has cost Lego around $5,000 a piece. Used to launch the “Bricks in Space” project, a series of events organised by Lego to help raise awareness about space, the mini-figures can be tracked at any time through the program’s “Lego Space” web page. Upon their arrival in July 2016, the figures will be the farthest travelled toys in history; How long this will last is anyone’s guess, but with numerous state space agencies interested since the success of the project, the record could be broken sooner than we think…
“In Greek and Roman mythology, Jupiter drew a veil of clouds around himself to hide his mischief. From Mount Olympus, Juno was able to peer through the clouds and reveal Jupiter’s true nature. Juno holds a magnifying glass to signify her search for the truth, while her husband holds a lightning bolt. The third LEGO crew member is Galileo Galilei, who made several important discoveries about Jupiter, including the four largest satellites of Jupiter (named the Galilean moons in his honor). Of course, the miniature Galileo has his telescope with him on the journey.”
–NASA blog
(photos- legospace via- wired)
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