NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft is speeding quickly toward the first flyby of Pluto and its moons in July 2015.
The real spacecraft – developed at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland – is about the size and shape of a grand piano. The nuclear powered probe is about 6 feet (2 meters) on a side and 2 feet (60 centimeters) tall.
It’s on a journey that is taking 9½ years and so far it has been a model spacecraft.
But you might be able to own your own model version of the long-distance craft thanks to an effort to create a Lego replica of the spacecraft. Lego will consider producing set concepts that reach 10,000 supporters.
The model is scaled to the diameter of the 10-stud dish element representing the high-gain radio antenna. By fortunate coincidence the shape of the “slope 53” brick elements made possible an excellent match to the wedge shape of the spacecraft main body.
The entire suite of science payload instruments can be represented on the model.
If you would like to see the Pluto-bound spacecraft as a LEGO set, you can click the “Support” button to add your vote here:
http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/44093
By Leonard David