In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, LEGO has unveiled this life-sized model of an astronaut, constructed entirely from LEGO bricks.
The model of the Apollo 11 lunar module pilot is based on the suit which Neil Armstrong wore when he made his historic small step onto the moon. The model stands at 6 feet 3 inches tall and has some incredible details on it — like the landscape of the moon you can see reflected in the helmet.
To see how this giant tribute was assembled, there’s a time lapse video showing the painstaking process of building a LEGO figure on this scale. It took 30,000 bricks and a team of ten people, totalling nearly 300 hours of design and construction:
If you found that fun, you’ll be pleased to note that the model will go on display along with a replica of the SLS rocket at the National Air and Space Museum’s Apollo 50 Festival in Washington, DC. Attendees can help to build the replica SLS rocket, which will be 20 feet long once completed.
“For nearly 20 years, NASA and LEGO Group have collaborated on projects to inspire the next generation to imagine and build their future in space,” Bettina Inclán, associate administrator for communications at NASA said in a statement. Our latest efforts celebrate the incredible feats we achieved during Apollo 50 years ago, and now with our accelerated plans to go forward to the Moon, we will continue to inspire children to dream about what’s possible and to grow up to pursue STEM careers.”
As part of its Apollo anniversary celebrations, LEGO also surveyed children about their interest in space. As any parent knows, kids love all things space-themed, and the survey results back that up with 86% of children aged 8 to 12 saying they were interested in space exploration. And the kids knew about the moon landings too, with 85% correctly identifying Neil Armstrong as the person who first walked on the moon.
Perhaps most heartening of all, children felt optimistic about humanity’s future in space: The large majority of children believe that humans will travel to Mars in the future. Interestingly, this belief was strongest among children from China (97%), followed by the U.S. (88%), and the U.K. (87%).
