Category Archives: Space

Moon exploration with a LEGO Apollo 15

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In 1971, the lunar rover was delivered to the moon as part of the Apollo 15 mission, and used on all subsequent missions. As I have a fond appreciation for “real” space ships, I am delighted to share with you Luis Peña‘s absolutely beautiful lunar lander module, Apollo capsule, and the ever-adorable and oh so fun lunar rover.

Apollo Program

The Apollo capsule is instantly recognizable. The curves convey the shape wonderfully, and I love the properly cramped interior that Luis is able to show. The rover’s colors are so vibrant!

Apollo Program Moon ExplorersApollo ProgramApollo Program Moon Explorers

And if you like LEGO Apollo models, remember that LEGO is currently working on an Apollo 11 set, so you’ll be able to buy your own in the near future.

UCS LEGO Planet Express Ship from Futurama

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Good news, everyone! Remember all those times you desperately needed a LEGO spaceship fast enough to outrun a murderous Robot Santa Claus? Or what about those times you justed wanted to deliver a LEGO pizza in a stylish vehicle with a sweet “electric mucus” paint job? Well, you’re in luck because Nicola Stocchi, builder of the incredibly detailed Transformer Grimlock has created a beautifully rendered version of the Planet Express Ship from Futurama. Nicola built this beauty in LEGO Digital Designer with 5112 parts. Seriously, could this LEGO ship be any more spot on? At the risk of sounding negative, no.

Lego UCS Planet Express Ship

Majestic LEGO rover rolls across Mars

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Jeremy Williams brings us a stunning LEGO rendition of a Martian rover, inspired by Mark Watney’s vehicle in the film The Martian. The levels of realistic greebly detail on this model is amazing, adding immensely to the sense of realism. Couple that with some excellent photography and you’ve got a cracking piece of work.

LEGO martian rover

The model has a detailed interior and features twin-axle steering, independent suspension, and 2 (count ’em) Power Functions motors.

LEGO martian rover

LEGO Mars rover interior LEGO Mars rover interior

As soon as he posts a video (hint hint), then we’ll update this post to show the rover in its full glory. Fabulous stuff.

“I can build a mech!” says Benny

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Benny has one awesome mech to go with his spaceship thanks to Martin Gee. His heavy lifting mech has just the right amount of chunkiness and detail bits to give the illusion of function for my taste.

neo classic space mech: heavy lifter + extra pair of arms for precision work

The classic space logo plate over the cockpit (which can comfortably seat Benny), matching shapes on the shoulder and thigh plates, and smaller precision arms are my favorite details here.

Sticker it to ya

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This dangerous looking spaceship is filled with clever techniques and interesting parts. The extensive use of Technic gear racks is especially menacing, but the real standout here is the innovative sticker usage. They weren’t custom printed. Rather, Adrian chopped up a bunch of the yellow stickers from set 75053 The Ghost (from Star Wars Rebels) and placed them on the model in an interesting pattern. The stickers were already printed to be scruffy-looking, but the builder wanted them to be even scruffier. So he abraded the stickers by rubbing the model back and forth on a wooden table. The stickers aren’t shiny and smooth any more, but the result is definitely worth it.

Gliesian Impi?33m fighter

Micro-scale LEGO SLS rocket is ready for NASA’s Next Giant Leap

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NASA Engineer and LEGO fan Nicholas Mastramico has brought us a most excellent follow up to the shuttle, launch pad, and SLS rocket we featured last week. Nicholas’s microscale version is eye-catching with the great detail he’s packed into such a small model. What makes his version particularly special is his relationship with the rocket: Nicholas is a structural design engineer for NASA, and is currently working on the real SLS rocket.

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This means his micro-SLS has a unique opportunity to stand in the shadows of its ancestors, like the Saturn V rocket pictured here.

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Nicholas says he’s always been a huge sci-fi fan – but it was the early pictures of Mars from Sojourner that truly hooked him on space travel. He decided then he would build rockets for NASA one day, and that goal guided him through school to where he is now. He was recently involved in a test with a weather balloon, for which he provided a passenger. The experiment took the minifig up to 120,000 feet!

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There are more shots of some of the features of the mobile launch platform and payload capsules, as well as an itty-bitty adorable crawler!

Space cargo ship: The Boundless

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The 5 days that Evan B. (Lego Junkie.) spent to build this space freighter belies its quality of construction. The distinct shapes and chunks of color on the cargo containers give this SHIP an organized appearance and thus doesn’t require much work on the eyes to follow its contours.

The Boundless.

Teensy NASA Space Shuttle blasts into my heart

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Looking over their photostream, I think we’ve blogged everything Sean & Steph Mayo have built over the past several months, so why stop now? This is the smallest NASA Space shuttle built from LEGO that I’ve run across, but it may be my favorite.

Micro Nasa Shuttle

The LEGO Castle helmet standing in for the top of the External Tank is pure genius.