{"id":17887,"date":"2019-11-09T00:16:26","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-and-blue-moon-lander-proposed-as-lego-toys\/"},"modified":"2019-11-09T00:16:26","modified_gmt":"2019-11-08T16:16:26","slug":"blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-and-blue-moon-lander-proposed-as-lego-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/blue-origins-new-glenn-rocket-and-blue-moon-lander-proposed-as-lego-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lander proposed \u2026 as Lego toys"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lego
The Lego version of Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon lunar lander would include the ascent element for a crewed mission. (Lego Ideas Image \/ Valerie Roche \/ Matthew Nolan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Which will go into commercial service first: Blue Origin\u2019s orbital-class New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lunar lander, or the Lego toy versions?<\/p>\n

The answer will depend not only on how much progress Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos\u2019 space venture makes on the real things, but on how many people support the Lego Ideas project as well.<\/p>\n

The 2,670-piece set would include a 1:110 scale version of the two-stage New Glenn and the human-capable variant of the Blue Moon lander, plus extras including a launch tower, rovers and a satellite. The rocket would be about 40 inches high.<\/p>\n

The whole assemblage is designed by Valerie Roche and Matthew Nolan, the team behind the 1,969-piece Saturn V Lego rocket (which is also built to 1:110 scale), plus proposed SpaceX Falcon\/Dragon and SpaceX Starship\/Super Heavy rocket sets.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A Lego version of Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn rocket sits on its launch tower. (Lego Ideas Image \/ Valerie Roche \/ Matthew Nolan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All of those sets went through the Lego Ideas process, which lets fans of the building blocks vote on construction designs. If a kit proposal attracts 10,000 votes, the Lego overlords will consider it for commercialization.<\/p>\n

The Saturn V kit was a huge hit, and this year an Apollo 11 lunar lander kit landed on store shelves as well. Lego hasn\u2019t yet given its blessing to SpaceX rockets, but it\u2019s probably only a matter of time.<\/p>\n

Time is a factor for the Blue Origin proposal as well: As of press time, Lego fans have registered 1,990 votes for the design, and the tally will have to reach 10,000 by May 2021 to get further consideration. (Six months will be added if the count reaches 5,000.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just about the time when Blue Origin expects to start launching New Glenn from the orbital launch pad that\u2019s currently under construction in Florida. Although the company has its headquarters in Kent, Wash., New Glenn will be manufactured in a huge Florida factory, and the rocket\u2019s BE-4 engines will be coming from Kent as well as Alabama.<\/p>\n

Blue Moon is more of a question mark: Blue Origin and its partners in the project \u2014 Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Draper \u2014 have proposed building the landing system for NASA\u2019s use in the Artemis moon program. The team is likely to get NASA\u2019s go-ahead to continue development, and there\u2019s a chance that astronauts will be riding Blue Moon to the lunar surface in 2024. (Boeing and SpaceX are also competing for moon landings.)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a slam-dunk that Lego will choose to immortalize Blue Origin\u2019s spacecraft with bags of plastic blocks, but in any case, Bezos and his team have to get more serious about merchandising.<\/p>\n

After all, SpaceX already has an online store offering branded apparel and accessories, including Falcon 9 model rockets. Blue Origin has an employees-only shop at its Kent headquarters \u2014 but one should expect much more from a venture led by Amazon\u2019s billionaire founder. Bring on the \u201cGradatim Feroci-toys\u201d!<\/p>\n

Hat tip to Universe Today and Evan Gough.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lego version of Blue Origin\u2019s Blue Moon lunar lander would include the ascent element for a crewed mission. (Lego Ideas Image \/ Valerie Roche \/ Matthew Nolan) Which will go into commercial service first: Blue Origin\u2019s orbital-class New Glenn rocket and Blue Moon lunar lander, or the Lego toy versions? The answer will depend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1508,509,4884,510,4885],"class_list":["post-17887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-moon","tag-blue-origin","tag-lego","tag-new-glenn","tag-toys"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17887\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}