Yes, it’s a Lego brick made from meteorite dust

In the Lego store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, at the bottom of the stairs leading to the second level, there is a small gray brick spinning lethargically on a thin base. According to the Danish brick manufacturer and the European Space Agency, this Lego piece was made from meteorite dust. Although you won’t see astronauts going into space to try to build the first space edition of Barad-DûrThe agency says this is a small test to see how well Moondust might work for building humanity’s first real lunar structures.

You can’t buy it, and the “Space Bricks” only come in one color – “space gray” – but the Stardust building block looks striking up close with its strange wavy lines and dusty appearance that you would never see on a modern model. Blank Lego piece. According to Lego and the ESAThe meteorite dust was extracted from an object first discovered in 2000 in northwest Africa.

Each brick isn’t pure meteorite. The 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite dust was mixed with “a small amount” of thermoplastic polyester to allow engineers to shape it like a Lego piece. It was also mixed with “a regolith simulant,” which in this case is supposed to mimic the type of dust found on the moon. The actual shape was made with a 3D printer.

So why build a brick with billions of years old space dust? According to the ESA, this is to simulate the effectiveness of this material when manufacturing real structures. No, future astronauts and space engineers probably won’t start building the first habitable domes on the Moon with Lego bricks, but scientists have tried to test the possibilities of space materials. There is, of course, lunar concrete which is a mixture of moon dust, or regolith, and concrete.

In the statement, Aidan Cowley, ESA’s chief scientist, said that although the brick feels much rougher than a traditional Lego caltrap, “the clutch power still works, allowing us to play and to test our designs. It’s good to know that a space brick fits just as well as a regular Lego piece.

One of the persistent challenges in planning Moon-based structures is getting what could be several tons of material from the ground into Earth orbit. NASA has outlined some prospects for Moon-based maglev transportation systemsalthough this may require many materials not present on the lunar surface. Recent designs for lunar habitats range from inflatable villages has “Mobile homes” based on the Moon.”

Yet humanity is getting closer our first real lunar base This project founded between NASA, the Italian Space Agency and the Thales Alenia Space Corporation may not become a reality until the 2030s at the earliest, and we will have to wait and see what such a project could entail beyond the first renderings. A space base is an important step for NASA’s Artemis Program and his possible project “From the Moon to Mars”.

Want to see a Lego space in person? You might also be lucky enough to find one at your local Lego store. There are 15 stores in total that have a Space Brick, and most are located in major cities across the United States. We’re still not sure if stepping on a Space Brick hurts as much as a regular Lego piece, but we suggest you don’t waste it and don’t get any in the creases of your carpet, just in case.

If you’re really craving some space Legos, you might also want to take a look at the Lego Artemis Launch System which comes in many more colors than “space gray.”