ESA's space brick has landed in LEGO® stores, but you can't buy the 3D-printed items to add to your own creations.

We visited the Leicester Square Lego store in central London to [1]check out the brick , which arrived at the end of June. It can be found on the top floor of the store, lurking at the back of what Lego calls the "Interactive Space Area," protected behind a layer of Perspex.

The brick on show is a classic eight-stud part (a two-by-four unit) familiar to Lego fans worldwide, however, this particular item is extra special and the result of research by scientists into constructing settlements on the lunar surface.

[2]

Lego space brick in Leicester Square

The plan would be to use materials on the lunar surface to 3D-print building blocks. In the shown example, engineers instead used dust sourced from a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite found in Northwest Africa back in 2000.

Meteorites are rare, but actual moondust is considerably rarer.

[3]

A Lego spokesperson told The Register : "We know that lunar regolith samples are very precious, so we are delighted to display a brick made out of meteorite dust in our store."

[4]

[5]

Scientists and engineers have long studied In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) as a way of building a settlement on the Moon without having to transport all the material from Earth. The concepts have come thick and fast over the years. For example, just over a decade ago, [6]ESA considered the idea of feeding Moon rock into a 3D printer to "print" a Moon base. In that instance, basalt from an Italian volcano was used.

[7]The Reg builds official Lego Artemis and Milky Way sets

[8]Atari Video Computer System returns in Lego form

[9]Sure, the James Webb Space Telescope is cool and all. But try making one out of Lego

[10]What a bunch of bricks: Crooks knock hole in toyshop wall, flee with €35k Lego haul

China and the US are also involved with [11]investigations planned on the lunar surface ahead of astronauts' arrival.

ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley [12]said : "Nobody has built a structure on the Moon, so it was great to have the flexibility to try out all kinds of designs and building techniques with our space bricks. It was both fun and useful in scientifically understanding the boundaries of these techniques."

Lego has form when it comes to the use of its bricks in accommodation. UK TV presenter James May memorably employed a small army of volunteers to construct a house with more than three million bricks in 2009. However, the 20-foot-tall structure did not last long and was later demolished. Hopefully, anything built on the Moon will endure a little longer.

[13]

Lego and ESA are quite some way from the millions of bricks used in May's house, and the brick on show – made from meteorite dust combined with polylactide and regolith simulant – represent another approach to building structures on the lunar surface.

They might be a bit rougher in appearance than the usual variety, but who wouldn't want to play with an actual space brick? ®

Get our [14]Tech Resources



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

[2] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/07/22/lego_space_brick.jpg

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Zp-ToUoNkbdkUgDzsMDtRwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zp-ToUoNkbdkUgDzsMDtRwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Zp-ToUoNkbdkUgDzsMDtRwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2013/01/31/esa_lunar_base_3d_printing/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/29/legos_artemis_and_milky_way/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/lego_vcs_2600/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/31/lego_jwst/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/02/lippstadt_lego_theft/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/25/china_3d_printing_moon/

[12] https://www.esa.int/About_Us/Branding_and_Partnerships/The_space_bricks_have_landed

[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Zp-ToUoNkbdkUgDzsMDtRwAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/