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On August 29, 2022, the launch of the NASA Artemis I mission, which construction fans have long been waiting for, will take place. And especially the students of the new STEAM educational series called Build.

The fact is that the Lego educational platform, together with NASA, is sending a couple of miniature figures on a historical space journey. These minifigures are familiar to many children from the tutorial.

In fairness, we note that they will not become the very first conquerors of space. Because for the first time the company lego officially sent minifigures into space over a decade ago as part of the Juno expedition on an automated interplanetary station that flew to explore Jupiter. These were aluminum figurines of the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno and the «father of science» Galileo Galilei, made as souvenirs.

This spacecraft was supposed to burn up in the atmosphere in 2017, having completed all the scientific tasks assigned to it. That is, minifigures were originally doomed to death. But in reality this did not happen, and the automatic interplanetary station continues to work to this day.

By the way, these «Jupiter» minifigures lego are the most expensive in the history of the Danish company. No joke, the release of one figurine cost the company $ 5,000! Such an impressive cost is explained by the high price of the manufacturing material — special aviation aluminum. It was only thanks to this alloy that the figurines sent into space survived the long space journey and are still “conducting” research work in the orbit of Jupiter.

However, to be even more precise, it should be recognized that in the same 2011, real “brick” minifigures from the Danish manufacturer also visited space. True, they got there, one might say, by accident. American astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, when he was sent to work at the International Space Station as a flight engineer for a long expedition, took his favorite Lego sets with him. Then, during live broadcasts from the ISS mission, he repeatedly demonstrated models assembled in space with eight minifigures.

Despite all the backstory told, the participation of minifigures in the Artemis I mission will be a significant event for all fans of construction, and not only for students of the free educational cycle.

“Sending Kate and Kyle into space is the exciting culmination of the Assemble to Launch training series,” says Esben Sterk, President lego «Education». – Kate and Kyle are not only familiar to those who use SPIKE Prime, but in minifigure form they are recognizable to many students around the world. We hope that Kate and Kyle’s participation in this space mission will inspire students and engage them in their own learning journey.

For 10 days, Kate and Kyle will be streaming videos of their real-life NASA counterparts to help kids learn the roles and skill sets needed on real-life astronaut team missions.

Fragment from the video «Work and life in space».