While the eyes turn to the mission control of Firefly Aerospace for the first attempt of the company to land on the moon, some look small models of the Blue Ghost Lander among the consoles.
It turns out that the miniatures were not only placed there, but also built there – and you can assemble your own.
“The day we transferred it, they brought them together outside of Mission Control,” said Trina Patterterson, Vice -President Marketing and Communication at Firefly Aerospace, in an interview with Collectspace.com. “During the more quiet times during this mission, they put together the small LEGOs.”
Although it is not an official LEGO brand product, the blue Ghost Mission 1-building set use uses Lego-like bricks to form a detailed 1/18th scale version of the robot probe. Firefly worked with business stones to produce the adapted set.
Made partly to support Firefly’s Mission 1 Outreach activities -for example, some kits are prizes in the “Moonwalk match” from Firefly on the player Epic Smartphone -App -they can also be purchased for $ 54.99 via the company’s online mench store.
Related: What time will the private Blue Ghost probe land on the moon on Sunday? How to look live.
Mission 1 -Model
The Blue Ghost Lander, which was named after a type of firefly, left the earth on January 15 and is planned to land in Mare Crision (“Sea of Crises”) on the moon no earlier than 3:34 am EST (0834 GMT) on Sunday (March 2). Based on a successful touchdown, the mission “Ghost Riders in the Sky” begins two weeks of science with 10 NASA-strong instruments that are worn on board.
Assembling the block version of Blue Ghost includes the merging of various of those payloads.
“It has Lexi on top,” said Patterson, pointing to a protrusion from the upper deck of the model.
Lexi, or the Lunar environment Heliospheric X-rays, is designed to study the interaction of solar wind and the magnetic field of the earth, which drives geomagnetic disturbances and storms.
Also recreated in the build is Lugre (Lunar GNSS -receiver -experiment), a recipient to follow GPS and Galileo navigation satellites in a full Monday on the surface; Nglr (next generation of Lunar Retroreflector), a mirror device to measure the distance between the earth and the moon; and RAC (characterization of Regolith Therapy compliance), an experiment to compare the stickiness of lunar land on different materials.
Other instruments that fly on Blue Ghost as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative, but were too small to model, or are therefore not visible, include a pneumatic exercise to measure the heat stream from the inner of the moon (Lister); a moon control collection demonstrator (Lunar PlanetVac) from the moon; And a stereo camera to capture the impact of the rocket plume on Lunar Regolith while the lander descends.
Land components that are also simulated in bricks include the X-band antenna (installed next to Lugre and Nglr); Three solar panels that offer the NASA instruments electricity; Eight reaction control system (RCS) Thrusters; Four shock-absorbent legs and the main engine at the base.
Related: Private Blue Ghost Lander sees a far side of the moon in breathtaking details prior to Lunar Landing (Video)
Because the building block set is specifically configured for the mission “Ghost riders in the sky”, Patterson said they expect that other kits will follow as more blue ghosts are launched to the moon.
“It is definitely something that we want to continue, move forward,” she said.
Of stickers and a duck
The Blue Ghost Mission 1-build brick set is completed using a supplied sticker plate, which add details to the solar panels, to the Lugre and Nglr instruments (which is humorously labeled on the magazine as “Upper Antenna Thing”, removing log with the X-band Antenne)) and Firefly.
However, a sticker that is not included is “Duckner”.
“We have a mascot at Firefly and he has been everywhere. He showed up in many of our test photos,” Patterterson told Collectespace. “It is a duck called ‘Duckner’, and it is on the lander.”
“It’s a small Easter egg,” she said.
It is also a scientific experiment. The small image of the yellow rubber duckling is printed on a cheap material to see how things deal with the extreme environment of the room. Duckner is applied under the edge of the X band antenna, so that it can be seen in photos sent back by Blue Ghost.
“We have to have some stickers printed and add it to a later version [of the model kit]”Patterson said laughing.
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