Tag Archives: Space

From giant space carriers to starfighters, moon bases to moon buggies, whether you love LEGO models inspired by real-world space programs or science-fiction, you’re in the right place.

SpaceX Falcon 9 Landing in LEGO

Space is dangerous. Getting there maybe even more so, what with riding a controlled explosion to overcome gravity and all. In the United States, the majority of the space flight innovations came from NASA with a significant amount of help early on from the Air Force and German aerospace engineer Wernher von Braun.

Max Schellenberg gives us an intro to modern space travel with this brilliant microscale version of a Falcon 9 landing in the Atlantic Ocean. This is adorable and I love it.

Now, there are a number of private companies developing new technology: Boeing and Lockheed Martin regularly launch the Delta IV rockets under United Launch Alliance; Boeing is developing their CST-100 crew capsule. Sierra Nevada has their Dreamchaser. Jeff Bezos has Blue Origin, for tourist space flight, launching out of Texas.

And Elon Musk has SpaceX.

Off all of these, I get the most giddy about SpaceX. Because the first foray into reusable equipment with the Shuttle program still required going and fishing the boosters out of the Atlantic, along with the orbiter returning safely to earth. SpaceX has developed their Falcon 9, capable of launching a payload into space, and having the booster return to a fixed point. Namely, their “autonomous spaceport drone ships,” the Just Read the Instructions and Of Course I Still Love You. They’ve recently leased one of the former launch complexes on Cape Canaveral Air Force Base and converted into a landing facility as well.

That is amazing.

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Interstellar Sales Professional

Evidently, selling earth-like vacuum cleaners is a dangerous, adventurous business. Sebastiaan (Alien Cat) returns to us from real-life adventures to present the little Alien Cat’s terribly hazardous profession selling vacuum cleaners across the known universe.

Business is clearly doing well, if this sporty read number is any indication:

Clearly his driving skills haven’t improved. That, or he failed to account for changes in gravity and atmosphere from one planet to another.

I’m particularly fond of this lovely little star ship called Tia Maria.

Shiny gold New Horizons probe by Stefan Schindler

The NASA New Horizons mission to Pluto feels like the most exciting space story since the Mars Curiosity rover landed on Mars nearly three years ago. It’s no surprise, then, that we’re seeing plenty of great LEGO models inspired by this historic achievement.

Like many spacecraft, New Horizons is covered in gold foil for insulation. A couple weeks ago, Iain built his New Horizons probe using yellow bricks, since finding the parts to build an all-gold probe is quite challenging. Stefan Schindler solved this with the help of a dash of gold paint, producing this beautiful gold New Horizons probe.

While some of our readers may balk at Stefan’s solution, picky builders looking for some “NPU” should focus instead on Stefan’s solution for the GPHS-RTG (the plutonium generator) built from tank treads.

Homeworld-inspired Vaygr battlecruiser by Dorian Glacet

Even though I’ve mainly been building military models over the last couple of years, I appreciate a good spaceship. And I’ve always been disappointed that I haven’t been able to play the iconic and influential Homeworld games. French builder Dorian Glacet has been playing Homeworld 2 lately, and built this great ship (actually a true SHIP at 105 studs long) with classic colors and stripes.

Dorian’s SHIP may look a lot like many of the other Homeworld-inspired spaceships we’ve featured over the years, but when I looked at his photostream, I was struck by the rather innovative approach to the ship’s core, which is entirely “studs-out”:

Dorian then attached greebles and the ship’s skin to this core:

Check out Dorian’s photostream on Flickr for more, including preliminary digital designs and work-in-progress shots.

VTOL is the future for beachheads

Here’s a smart-looking craft by Joe and Will Merzlak, a near-future vertical-take-off-and-landing (VTOL) transport. Besides being packed with some really wonderful building techniques, the Merzlak brothers’ par excellance presentation skills are worth pointing out in their own right.
A really fantastic photo-editing job can make a great model like this really stand out. Of course, we realize that not everyone has the time, skills, or tools to make this happen, but remember: the presentation of your model is the only thing everyone else online will get to see. It’s worth spending some extra time to ensure good lighting and an interesting and relevant (or at least clean) background.

It’s a Plutopalooza!

It really doesn’t feel like 9+ years since NASA launched the New Horizons probe on a mission to explore the dwarf planet Pluto and its system of moons. But now the craft’s closest approach is finally less than a week away, and NASA wants you to celebrate the occasion by throwing your very own Plutopalooza party! (Heads up: You’d better make the party last 16 months, because at 1kbps that’s how long the probe will take to transmit back all 64Gb of its data from the encounter)

Since several of my Brothers Bricks co-contributors are hopeless space junkies, I thought I’d mark the occasion by building the above LEGO model of the little probe …accompanied by targets Pluto and Charon naturally! A lot easier to do now that we finally know what color they are.

It’s an interesting milestone for me since my very first true MOC was of the Voyager 2 spacecraft, back in 1979 when it passed Jupiter. Armed with a clothes line, white bed sheet, length of string and basic film camera, I had no idea that the resulting images would be…. hopelessly out of focus! T_T

To fly among the Tzars....

Doctor Mobius felt inspired by the classic Galaxy Commander to put a Neo-classic Space twist on that venerable old relic, and came out with this lovely concoction, which he’s dubbed the Galaxy Tzar. Just like the original, the Tzar splits into several self-contained sections for more modular star-system domination.

Force feedback

It’s now exactly six months until the release of the new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens. And fan fervor has never been greater! The two teaser trailers have been widely scrutinized, parodied, and even LEGO-ized. But I’m not talking about the predictable flood of Han Solo minifig gray hair swaps… Builder markus19840420 has recreated two scenes from the second teaser in incredible detail. First up is this exciting moment in the TIE hangar, complete with laser blasts and explosions:

Then there is his stunning diorama showing the ‘habit-AT-AT’ glimpsed in the same teaser:

As an added bonus, takamichi irie has started photoshopping his excellent BB-8 model into scenes from both teasers:

Rumor has it a full movie trailer is due to be unveiled at San Diego Comic Con next month. So I think we can expect a bunch more Force Awakens builds in the near future – once all the LEGO Star Wars fans have picked themselves up off the floor, that is ;-)

Asteroid Field Recon Voyager brought to you by M:Tron

Every space-going civilization needs a manner of knowing about their immediate environment, so as best to understand some of the interstellar dangers. Right? SpirituInsanum has brought us a lovely ship to do just that.

Solacium

Peter Mowry is known for building some of the largest, most detailed and most unique LEGO spaceships ever seen. And his latest opus – the Solacium – is no exception. It should come as no surprise that this beast was over six months in the making.

You really have to see Peter’s builds in person to truly appreciate their scale. And if you’re in the vicinity of Brickworld Chicago this weekend, you’ll be able to do just that! As builders begin to prepare for this largest of state-side LEGO conventions, they are finally unveiling their latest works online. So stay posted for more awesome builds in the coming days.

Taidan Interceptor is Made of Win (and LEGO)

Like many many space builders, I’m a huge fan of the ship designs in the Homeworld game series. So, clearly, is Victor K ([Victor]) who has built this fantastic rendition of a Taidan Scout from the game. He’s called it an Interceptor, because the concept art was intended as an interceptor, but was ultimately delivered as a scout in the game. No matter what it’s called, it’s packed full of the fantastic angles, and bold color blocking that defines the game’s ship designs.

NASA’s latest discovery

I rather think the conspiracy theorists would have a field day with this one. Way to go, Paddy Bricksplitter. Can you imagine this conversation with CAPCOM? Especially if the print was fresh. I mean, seeing a foot print (beautifully rendered, by the way) would be mind-blowing enough. Toss in some moon or martian soil, and it’s something else entirely.

Though to be fair, I don’t imagine it’d be that hard to get funding for any future space exploration.