back to article ESA's meteorite bricks hit Lego stores, but don't get your wallet out just yet

ESA's space brick has landed in LEGO® stores, but you can't buy the 3D-printed items to add to your own creations. We visited the Leicester Square Lego store in central London to check out the brick, which arrived at the end of June. It can be found on the top floor of the store, lurking at the back of what Lego calls the " …

  1. UCAP Silver badge

    Regardless of what its made from, I bet it still hurts like hell if you tread on one.

    1. wabbit347

      <<Regardless of what its made from, I bet it still hurts like hell if you tread on one.>>

      -- Luckily in space, no one can hear you scream.

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Fortunately, in space and hopefully (with current space craft technology), one is extremely unlikely to stand on a Lego brick with enough force to do anything serious :-)

    2. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      > I bet it still hurts like hell if you tread on one.

      Presumably it hurts 1/6 as much on the moon

      1. DS999 Silver badge
        Boffin

        Dunno is pain proportional to weight, or to a power of the weight? Damage to roads from vehicles is proportional to the fourth power of the per axle weight per sq in, and while that's not the same thing I think it is unlikely pain is proportional to the first power.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Moon base made of moon LEGO

    Why not ?

    I just hope that they'll make 'em a bit more rectangular, to ensure that no air gets out. That brick doesn't seem all that airtight to me.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Moon base made of moon LEGO

      That was the problem with the British Mecanno moon base built in the 1950s

    2. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: Moon base made of moon LEGO

      The Lego bricks are just the framework. The interior will presumably be sealed with Marmite, Velveeta or perhaps a paste of lunar regolith cemented with astronaut (lunanaut?) urine. Anyway, some disgusting and otherwise useless material.

      1. martinusher Silver badge

        Re: Moon base made of moon LEGO

        Urine gets recycled in space. (As it does on Earth.)

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Moon base made of moon LEGO

          >Urine gets recycled in space. (As it does on Earth.)

          Except in the UK where it just gets dumped in the sea

          Won't people think of the environment and pee into their green bin ?

      2. herman Silver badge

        Re: Moon base made of moon LEGO

        Seal it with Canadian poutine. It will last forever.

  3. Howard Sway Silver badge

    the result of research by scientists into constructing settlements on the lunar surface

    Sorry to inform you guys, but a LEGO moonbase has already been made :

    LEGO 60350 Lunar Research Base

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: the result of research by scientists into constructing settlements on the lunar surface

      Not wishing to fuel any conspiracy theories - but that does look like a model

    2. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: the result of research by scientists into constructing settlements on the lunar surface

      Don't you mean LEGO 928 Space Cruiser and Moonbase from 1979?

  4. brainwrong

    Only One?!?

    What's the point of a single brick?

    Maybe they're building the Fortress of Ultimate Darkness with the rest.

    1. Paddy Fagan

      Re: Only One?!?

      It seems there is 12 of them in select lego stores - https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Branding_and_Partnerships/The_space_bricks_have_landed

    2. vtcodger Silver badge

      Re: Only One?!?

      The point of a single brick is probably that meteorites are fairly expensive. Currently $2.00 USD per gram and up. One doubts that the Lego marketing budget is up to making more than a handful of the bricks.

      1. MyffyW Silver badge

        Re: Only One?!?

        Given they made it from meteorite "combined with polylactide and regolith simulant" that does sound slightly less expensive.

        It's like a certain company that sells "Welsh Gold" which turns out to mostly consist of the shiny-stuff sourced from the international market, with only a tiny proportion from the land of Ivor the Engine.

        1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

          Re: Only One?!?

          It was in Wales = it's Welsh gold.

          It's not like the 'real' stuff was made in Wales

          I only have Supernova gold = much cooler

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Only One?!?

            > I only have Supernova gold = much cooler

            It is only cool when it has been left out to get old; if you get it fresh, on the day it was made, cool it most certainly is not.

            1. ThatOne Silver badge
              Mushroom

              Re: Only One?!?

              If you're near enough to collect some the very moment it is created, I'm pretty sure you won't have the time to worry about temperature (or anything else)...

              (Relevant icon)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Only One?!?

        $2 USD doesn't seem much for an experiment.

        my Rolex has a meteor dial, no idea on worth but i'm not selling it, i think the dial cost is dwarfed by the cost of the gems and strap.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Only One?!?

          > my Rolex has a meteor dial

          It tells you when a meteorite is about to come your way?

          Hope it adjusts for British Summer Time:

          "In 59 minutes, prepare to duck"

          "Oooh, that that must really smart. Would you like a cold compress?"

    3. kend1
      Pint

      Re: Only One?!?

      One Brick to rule them all

      Three Bricks for Elven-kings under the sky

      Seven Bricks for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone

      Nine Bricks for Mortal Men doomed to die

  5. the spectacularly refined chap Silver badge

    Where's James May?

    Takes a lot of effort building a full sized house with Lego bricks.

  6. mobailey

    Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP!

  7. mhoulden
    Terminator

    I've seen how this ends. Do not develop an intelligence dampening core or let an AI with a grudge get anywhere near it under any circumstances.

  8. that one in the corner Silver badge

    That isn't Classic Space

    It doesn't have the LEGO swoosh on it.

    It arrived in June? So LEGO knew it was coming and they haven't included a model of it in their current Collectable Minifig range (which is all about space, from Classic Space to UFOs). What a missed opportunity.

  9. mpi Silver badge

    Oh look, it's ISRU again

    > Scientists and engineers have long studied In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) as a way of building a settlement on the Moon without having to transport all the material from Earth.

    Oh sure, you wouldn't have to transport the materials there, true enough.

    You just have to transport the machinery, energy production facilities, tools, and additive materials required to use the local resources. And the labour to use them, whether automated or biological. And of course also the machinery, labour, tools, etc. to then use whatever the aforementioned machines produce, provided they don't break down. Oh, that reminds me, you also need replacement parts for all these thingamabobs, and a way to keep the crew alive long enough until whatever survival-critical things are to be provided by ISRU actually can be provided by it.

    Kinda reminds me of the old "How to draw an owl" tutorial:

    • Draw a circle
    • Draw another circle overlapping the first
    • Draw the rest of the owl

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh look, it's ISRU again

      And your alternative to ISRU is? (Waits for tumble weeds to pass by and crickets to stop chirping).

      If anyone is trying to plan a way to have a long-term presence off the Earth, then they are still going to need to to haul up all the power generation and other machinery and bulk materials required. The difference between ISRU or not is in the mix of kit taken, not on the basic issue of lifting it all in the first place, and in the expected amount of resupply as the months, years and decades go by (we said long-term!).

      > way to keep the crew alive long enough until whatever survival-critical things are to be provided by ISRU actually can be provided by it.

      As with the brick example, the starting point for bulk ISRU is usually building materials, be that weird and wonderful ideas like turning regolith into load-bearing walls or just using lots of it all piled up to provide radiation shielding. And, just like building back on Earth, the ones doing the building are housed elsewhere and they, or someone else, only move in once the property is livable. So if they fail miserably to make the ISRU building work the first then they rely, as they have the whole time, on the systems they brought with them. And then abort the plans to stay longer and/or bring in more crew to use the completed buildings.

      The same basic logic applies to other ISRU - e.g. using local water supplies. If it all works then they continue on, if not they abort and slink back home. At no time are they risking relying on the ISRU until it is ready (barring the sort of incident that goes way outside the plan and then calls for heroic efforts & actions).

      Whether or not a long-term human presence off-Earth is actually feasible or desirable is entirely another matter. But people are always going to be having a go at planning for it - if only because it is a large engineering challenge and can be used to practice on.

    2. ThatOne Silver badge

      Re: Oh look, it's ISRU again

      > You just have to transport [long list]

      There is a cut-off point where sending up machinery is more efficient than sending up individual ready-made buildings.

      Obviously if you just need 1 or 2 shelters, it's cheaper to send them up all ready-made. But for a small settlement it's clearly more efficient to send up the machinery to build all the buildings right there (assuming you can mostly use local materials).

      (Didn't downvote you though.)

  10. Phones Sheridan Silver badge
    Alien

    More of a Tente man meself.

    Manufacturing bricks is a solved problem, you don't need a 3d printer, you need a brick press".

    Can bricks not be made the old fashioned way on the moon out of lunar regolith, saving the 3d printer resources for things more difficult?

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