To the Moon
The LEGO and NASA have decades of collaboration and now it is ready to go to the Moon.
The NASA inspired and collaborative sets done by LEGO are countless. Let me just mention the recent sets: the Space Shuttle Atlantis or the Apollo LEM and even further with the LEGO IDEAS Saturn V and International Space Station. However, the story starts with the very 80s LEGO Space theme and continues with the space inspired LEGO City sets. For several reasons, in the AFOL community, the Space Theme is a real cornerstone.
Anyway, I was not aiming to write this post to enumerate the long list of collaborations, but to show you the very last one ready to fly to the Moon.
Inspired Sets
At the end of 2021, LEGO announced the new sets inspired by the NASA leaded Artemis program to the Moon.
As for the Mars exploration sets, the Artemis ones have a small logos on the corner of the boxes.
LEGO presented two sets for two different phases of the mission.
The first is the lunar base.
And then the rocket to fly the space modules and inspired by the Space Launch System.
The two sets are really great with new space suits for the astronauts and a lot of details inspired by the new mission, like the NASA VIPER rover for the Moon surface exploration.
Artemis I
So, when LEGO announced these set, surfing the web, I found a very interesting news from NASA. They show the 4 minifigures that will fly on the first Artemis I mission as mementos for educational outreach and posterity.
Credits: NASA/Radislav Sinyak
The most amazing aspect of this is the accuracy of details. The 4 minifigures have the same prints as the sets, which are inspired by the real space suits.
Moreover, when the technicians packed to include in the official flight kit, they included the full equipment: the space helmet and the respirator supply.
Credits: NASA
I admit, the minifigure are quite small in the picture but if you zoom you can glimpse all the details.
Concerning the choice of the little astronauts, they include three women an a man, which matches with the early consideration of an all-female crew for the mission. At present, instead NASA announced a mixed mission.
In the LEGO Series 20, LEGO already enhanced the importance of woman contribution to the Space Exploration by including a STEM fan minifigure of Series 20: one of my favourite of that series.
As you know I am a fan of minifigures and I couldn’t resist to talk about this story. Furthermore, I cannot resist to see the new astronaut minifgures.
LEGO also launch the STEAM program aimed mostly to school and students who wants to approach the space mission.
What do you think of the new space inspired LEGO City sets?
Thank you for reading my post and feel free to leave me a comment here below if also you are eager to have one of the new astronauts.
