What do two dinosaur tails, four beehives, six segments of a roller coaster track and 88 cranes have to do with a rocket designed to fly astronauts to the moon?
They're all among the reused parts, hidden details and 'Easter eggs' you'll find while building the new Lego Icons NASA Artemis Space Launch System model, now coming off the shelves. Released on Saturday (May 18), the $259.99 (€259.99 or £219.99) set includes both the rocket and the mobile launcher (ML), built from 3,601 parts.
Among the many plastic "bricks" are some creative new uses for modified parts from older Lego sets, as well as a few well-placed nods to the toy company's history. The set also includes a host of small details from the real Space Launch System (SLS), some of which Lego identifies in the kit's 370-page instruction booklet, but others assembled without explanation.
The real SLS was first launched in November 2022 during NASA's unmanned Artemis I mission around the moon. The flight marked the first use of the first new mobile launch vehicle built since the Apollo program. NASA's Artemis program will use the same infrastructure to send astronauts back to the moon in late 2025 and aims to then land the first woman, the first person of color and the first non-American astronauts on the moon's south pole.
This faithful reproduction of NASA's mighty Space Launch System (SLS) rocket features all the details spaceflight fans could want, including a mobile launch tower and an Orion spacecraft, and can even be broken down into different stages. View deal
'Slides' and 'ladders'
Although the Lego Icons NASA Artemis Space Launch System set focuses on the rocket, the bulk of the build is spent assembling the 2-foot-tall mobile launcher and, in particular, the support tower.
Starting from outside the base of the ML and up two levels and then onto the deck at the base of the tower, Lego designers repurposed grilled ramps and Lego Technic racks to represent stairs. These stairs (along with the balustrades, shown with Lego water taps) give a sense of scale.
'Unlike real life [ML]The Lego SLS platform has partly open sides, showing interior details such as pipes and stairs," reads one of the notes in the kit's instruction booklet.
One of the few moving features of the set is that the umbilical arms reaching for the rocket retract simultaneously, just like during an actual launch. Although faithfully reproduced and a diagram appears in the set's box, the individual arms are not labelled.
Starting at the top there is the crew access arm (built in part using a Lego roller coaster track for portal lattice work), which the astronauts use to board the Orion spacecraft; then the umbilical cord of the Orion service module, with its hoses (represented here by red and gray Lego dinosaur tails) that transfer liquid coolant and air to the European power plant and the intermediate umbilical cord of the cryogenic propulsion stage (ICPS), which carries fuel (liquid hydrogen ) feeds, oxidant (oxygen), purge air, gaseous nitrogen and helium, as well as electrical connections to the upper stage.
Next is the umbilical cord of the leading skirt of the core stage, which supplies air and nitrogen gas, as well as power and data; the vehicle stabilization system, which keeps the SLS in place when it is moved (both in real life, such as while rolling out to the pad) and when moving the 1:144 scale model; and finally the umbilical between the tanks in the core stage, which drains gaseous hydrogen from the core stage.
At the base of the rocket, Lego also recreated the electric umbilical cords at the back of the skirt, the umbilical cords at the back of the skirt and the vehicle support poles, which operate the two solid rocket boosters and the 5.75 million pounds (2,610 tons) ) support that weighs the Space Launch System.
"Just like in real life, the entire rocket rests on the skirts of the boosters," reads a note from Lego designer Hans Burkhard Schlömer in the instruction book.
Reused rocket parts
Like the real SLS, which reuses hardware left over from NASA's space shuttle program for its first few flights, the Lego Icons NASA Artemis Space Launch System has some custom parts and some adapted from previous sets.
"The Lego element used for the [RS-25] main engine jets were originally intended to depict a beehive, but is called 'Mini hat no. 54′", wrote Schlömer.
Two tailmast umbilicals on the ML's deck are used to fill the core stage tanks with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the propellant that will flow through the engines during launch. Or at least that's what happens in reality.
From the outside, the Lego tail service masts appear to be accurate miniatures of the actual hardware. However, hidden within it is an 'Easter egg' that points to another fuel source.
"Of course, a Lego rocket has to be powered the Lego way. The stacked round 1×2 plates in the 'gas station' for the rocket have a long Lego history!" Schlömer wrote.
The white, red and green pieces are a nod to the logo colors of the fictional gas station brand Octan that was first introduced more than 30 years ago as part of the Lego City line. A similar, though more obvious, easter egg was included with Lego's earlier model of the SLS; The 2022 Lego City Rocket Launch Center, designed for younger builders, featured white, red and green fuel lines and a tank with the Octan logo.
That's not to say that all the hidden details of the SLS set are actually hidden. One such part even retained its original purpose from initial production.
To follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @gathering SPACE. Copyright 2024 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved."The cone element at the top of the boosters was already used in Lego Classic Space rockets from 1979 (but had a sturdy stud with Lego logo)," says Schlömer.
