The European Space Agency made Lego bricks out of meteorite dust!

[thewayne]

Seriously. This is a proof of concept that building materials can be made out of lunar regolith. They ground up a 4.5 billion year old asteroid chunk, mixed it with presumably some sort of epoxy slurry, and formed them into viable Lego bricks, and built some simple structures out of it. Genuine Lego - the Lego corporation was involved in making them.

The article shows fourteen 2x4 bricks in a case, the article wasn't clear how many bricks were made, though they'll be on display in fifteen cities, so we know the minimum. I REALLY hope they have a guard posted at the stores throughout their exhibition!

And yes, all the bricks are space gray.

The bricks are on display at Lego locations:
USA
The LEGO Store, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota
The LEGO Store, Disney Springs, Florida
The LEGO Store, Water Tower Place, Chicago
The LEGO Store, Disneyland Resort, California
The LEGO Store, 5th Avenue, New York

Canada: The LEGO Store, West Edmonton

UK: The LEGO Store, Leicester Square, London

Germany:
The LEGO Store, München Zentrum
The LEGO Store, Cologne

Denmark:
The LEGO Store, Copenhagen
LEGO House, Billund

Spain: The LEGO Store, Barcelona
France: The LEGO Store, Paris
Netherlands: The LEGO Store, Amsterdam
Australia: The LEGO Store, Sydney

https://www.engadget.com/lego-made-bricks-out-of-meteorite-dust-and-theyre-on-display-at-select-stores-161440194.html

https://www.lego.com/en-us/space/article/lego-space-bricks-moon

Comments

[kaishin108]

I never dreamed anything like that would happen!

[thewayne]

Pretty darn cool!  If you're into space exploration and colonization, I strongly recommend the book "A City on Mars", by Kelly & Zach Weinersmith.  They spent four years researching a very interesting array of angles related to space colonization.

[garote]

SPACE GRAY!

Maybe the astronauts can pee into the mixture and add a yellow tint, for SPACE GOLD…

[thewayne]

ROFL!

[bibliofile]

SPACE LEGO!!!!

[thewayne]

Or, to borrow from The Muppet Show, LEGOS.... IN.... SPACE!

[dewline]

Edmonton gets it, but not Ottawa-Gatineau?

(We still have a LEGO Store at the Rideau Centre.)

[disneydream06]

WOW, I should try and get up to the Mall of America and try and see them. :)
Hugs, Jon

[moonhare]

Will they pierce a moon boot if an astronaut steps on one?

[thewayne]

rofl!  I know they found moon dust to be particularly pernicious.  After the first moon walk, back in their little lander they tried brushing the lunar regolith off their space suits, they tried using tape to lift it off: the stuff did not want to come off!  It's going to be a major problem for living on the moon unless they figure out a clever solution.

[kellan_the_tabby]

AWESOME

[thewayne]

Very much so indeed!

[silveradept]

A very interesting proof of concept for them. If you can form lunar regolith into bricks that can interlock, and possibly to interlock in a way where you could hold atmosphere, that would be much better toward producing a useful lunar settlement.

[thewayne]

I doubt the bricks themselves would be air-tight, but applying a form of caulk of some sort would probably do the trick, plus you'd need insulation, conduit, etc. to make an actual habitat.  But it's a beginning.