The Science Lab Robot for Mars won the votes of thousands of fans, and was officially immortalized in brick form, joining the elite group of other Red Planet spacecrafts that have become widely popular toys over the past years.
The rover was selected after thousand of folks voted to have it converted into a set of Lego at the company’s website. The same website allows fans to send their original ideas to make into Lego sets. Concepts and ideas that have exceeded 10,000 votes with then be forwarded for consideration. September was the deadline, just a one month after Mars Curiosity landed in the Gale Crater.
The Lego model was designed by Stephen Pakbaz, a mechanical engineer who also worked on Curiosity while it was in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory located in La Cañada Flintridge. The model features a giant moving arm, much like the rover’s instrument-laden limb, plus a rocker-bogie suspension system, just like the original.
Pakbaz described the rover as a combing first-hand experience with his Lego enthusiasm to make a Lego model that was true to the actual rover as much as possible, taking into consideration the details, mechanical functions, and accuracy, but at the same time, still within reasonable cost and size. The main idea of the effort was to chip in to the educational outreach program for the mission.
Over the years, toys that were based on Martian spacecraft were gaining popularity. In 1997, Mattel launched its Hot Wheels version of NASA’s Sojourner spacecraft. It was said to be so popular that JPL’s Mars program manager had to purchase one from a scalper.
Mattel was even more daring this year when it announced that it would be releasing another Hot Wheels version of the rover even when it still hasn’t landed, they couldn’t wait to make sure that the spacecraft’s complex landing cycle didn’t crash.
Price and availability of the item are yet to be announced, and the product is still in its development stage.
See more pictures of the NASA Mars Rover and read more about Pakbaz's design here.
