ESA Space Bricks

03 July 2024

Scientists at the European Space Agency (ESA) have used their love of building with LEGO bricks to design launch pads and shelters for astronauts visiting the moon, as part of the Artemis program. To test whether materials from space could be used to make structures, the team created LEGO brick-like 3D prints with meteorite dust to see if they could still be used as building blocks for small-scale versions of structures.

The resulting ESA Space Bricks will now be on display at selected LEGO Stores in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia plus the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark, to inspire tomorrow's builders about how building with LEGO bricks can help solve otherworldly problems.

The real structures will be built on the moon with materials found there, but they first had to understand if a space material could be made into building blocks and they had to do it on a small scale. The space material on the moon is regolith, but only a very small sample is available on Earth, collected during the Apollo mission. So the team turned to another very similar material from space - meteorites, which they ground into dust and mixed with a small amount of polylactide and regolith simulant and used this to make 3D-print bricks that look like LEGO bricks - the ESA Space Bricks. The meteorite they used is about 4.5 billion years old and was originally discovered in northwest Africa in 2000 and is technically classified as an L3-6. It is a brecciated rock incorporating many different elements, including large metal grains, inclusions, chondrules and other rock meteorite elements.

Speaking about the project, ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley said, "Our teams are working on the future of space exploration and take inspiration not only from what is above us, but also from what we can find on Earth. No one has ever built a structure on the moon, so we have to figure out not only how we build them, but what we build them from, because we can't take materials with us. My team and I love creative building and had the idea to explore whether space dust could be shaped into a brick similar to a LEGO brick so we could test different building techniques. The results have been amazing and while the bricks may look a bit rougher than normal, the important thing is that the coupling force still works, allowing us to play and test our designs."

Daniel Meehan, Creative Lead at The LEGO Group, notes that LEGO bricks can have an impact on the real world beyond creative play, saying, "We recently discovered that space remains a hugely curious field with 87% of Gen Alpha children interested in discovering new planets, stars and galaxies. Now that the ESA team is using the LEGO System-in-Play to promote space exploration, it shows kids that the sky really is the limit when it comes to LEGO brick building and we hope it encourages kids to build their own shelters in space!"

Because they play an important role in the development of a possible future infrastructure on the moon, 15 ESA Space Bricks will be on display in select LEGO Stores worldwide to help children learn more about space exploration and be inspired to build their own shelters for the moon. The ESA Space Bricks will be on display from June 24 to September 20 at select LEGO Stores in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Denmark, Spain and Australia and at the LEGO House in Billund, Denmark.