Lego Curiosity Rover

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By John Baichtal
Posted 2011/07/24 @ 8:00 am
Category Fun & Games, Robotics, Science

Tim Goddard used Lego to masterfully recreate NASA’s Curiosity rover.

Towards the end of 2011 NASA’s latest rover will be launched towards Mars. If all goes according to plan it will land in August 2012. This model is of the Curiosity rover as it will appear on the Martian surface; you can see the six independent wheels mounted for maximum stability, the mini nuclear reactor at the back for power, as well as loads of scientific instruments to investigate the chemicals present on and in the planet.

The real Curiosity rover is about the same size as a Mini Cooper car and its primary mission is to investigate if there is or was life on the surface and also to analyse the soil to gather information for manned missions to Mars in the future.

On an unrelated note, the real rover totally needs a “Not All Who Wander Are Lost” bumper sticker. [Via The Brothers Brick]

In the Maker Shed

Cube 3D Printer

BeagleBoard BeagleBone Black

Telegraph Decoder Kit by Spikenzie Labs

BrushBots

4 Responses to Lego Curiosity Rover

Yoshito Juarez on July 24th, 2011 at 3:11 pm said:

At first I was all “wait, that thing will be producing electricity from the natural decay of a non-fissile isotope of Plutonium and that’s not a mini nuclear reactor”, but then I got to thinking that Tim Goddard’s a smart guy so I hopped onto Wikipedia and learned that radioisotope thermoelectric generation is a totally a nuclear reaction technology, just not the controlled boom kind. Sweet!

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- Gregg on July 25th, 2011 at 5:10 am said:
  
  Correct!
  A lot of our satellites wore that style of power plant. Among them were the original Mars explorer family members, the Vikings. Then the two Voyagers, and while staying out there, the Pioneers before them. Also include the Galileo fellow, and possibly the one hanging around Saturn. Incidentally the thing that Galileo threw at Jupiter was powered by lithium cells similar to the coin shaped ones we use for memory backups on our computers.
  
  Reply ↓
Gregg on July 24th, 2011 at 5:22 pm said:

Quoting Bilbo Baggins are we? That line you quoted is from a line of poetry that he composed for his friend the Ranger. And that Ranger was Strider. He happened to be the next King.

But anyway that is an amazing model.

Reply ↓
Gregg on July 24th, 2011 at 5:22 pm said:

Quoting Bilbo Baggins are we? That line you quoted is from a line of poetry that he composed for his friend the Ranger. And that Ranger was Strider. He happened to be the next King.

But anyway that is an amazing model.

Reply ↓