Comments on: Lego geek astronaut builds Lego ISS on the ISS

By: Jon Alexander

Jon Alexander — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:39:00 +0000

:O Inception

By: ABCDave

ABCDave — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Relax, Wayne… I believe the experiment was couched as “Lego play” for fun and newsworthiness, but there are absolutely engineering challenges in which I’m sure many
practical lessons were learned. For example, there is a very real need to
assemble/repair complex machinery with small parts in zero gravity. The
idea of performing the work in a “glove box” is good in theory, but
in practice may or may not work out as well. Apparently, this astronaut
learned that (although working in the glove box got the job done) it was clumsy
and he struggled with the smaller parts. If the parts were even smaller,
the experiment would probably not be as successful. Now they know.

By: kmb42vt

kmb42vt — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

”Timothy Culley” makes a good point. Here’s another: The ISS does not belong soley to the US of A so only a portion of our tax dollars go to supplying/maintaining/building it. People will eventually have to take to space one way or another and as an old Cold War submariner that spent months under the surface of the ocean at a time, I can tell you that “playing” is absolutely necessary. His building a Lego ISS model is just as necessary an experiment as any other.

By: kmb42vt

kmb42vt — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

By: Timothy Culley

Timothy Culley — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 15:14:00 +0000

Reality Check: $10,000/lb. is just a figure calculated from the overall cost of a launch divided by the maximum payload capacity of the rocket/shuttle. It isn’t like they topped off the rocket with $10,000 worth of fuel before it took off to accommodate the Lego kit. Chill out.

By: ShaneMcGlaun

ShaneMcGlaun — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:09:00 +0000

It was used to illustrate videos for school kids so they could see what part of the ISS the astronaut was talking about.

By: Wayne McKenzie

Wayne McKenzie — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:06:00 +0000

Is anyone else disturbed by this stunt? Payload costs are $10,000 per pound. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I would like to be asked if they can use my money to send Lego into orbit. How much time did he waste building this model? Our tax dollars wasted!