Perseverance Selfies with Ingenuity: Using the WATSON camera on its robotic arm, NASA’s Perseverance rover took a selfie with the Ingenuity helicopter — seen here about 13 feet (3.9 meters) from the rover — on April 6, 2021. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS. Download Image ›
A new STEM-themed kit developed in collaboration with NASA-JPL is designed to spark children’s interest in engineering and space through traditional toys and augmented reality.
While NASA’s Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter are busy exploring Mars, their one-tenth-scale prefab models have begun landing in homes around the world.
Developed in collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, a new LEGO Technic building set is based on the real rover and helicopter that have been moving through Jezero Crater on Mars since landing there in February 2021. In search of signs of ancient microbial life, Perseverance is collecting rock and soil samples from Mars for potential return to Earth via a future campaign. And Ingenuity became the first aircraft to make a powered, controlled flight to another planet and has since made more than 50 additional flights.
To create the construction kit, LEGO designers met with JPL engineers to learn more about the spacecraft’s engineering designs. The suite is just one example of how JPL’s Technology Partner Program works with industry, in collaboration with the Office of Technology Transfer and Corporate Partnerships at Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA. The latest in a a history of collaboration between NASA and LEGOthe kit allows builders to explore key features of Perseverance such as its mobility system and scientific instruments, view data returned by the rover, and complete interactive challenges.
By teaming up with these offices and technology transfer programs, corporations can form strategic alliances with JPL to license intellectual property, as was the case with LEGO, or gain access to JPL’s engineers and scientists to solve a range of technology problems . This joint effort provides a streamlined way for JPL, one of 10 NASA centers across the country, to do business with the private sector. The bottom line is that technologies developed for the space program can benefit people on Earth and—in this particular case—help educate and excite the public about the space program.
“Our Mars missions began decades ago with an idea so big that many thought it was impossible. Today, we have successfully landed rovers and even a helicopter on Mars to study the climate, geology and habitability of the Red Planet,” said JPL Director Laurie Leshin. “At JPL, we dream big and push boundaries as we strive to answer awe-inspiring scientific questions. I hope these kinds of toys will spark the same spirit of inquiry in children that we have here at NASA’s JPL.”
Scott Hulme, Mars Public Engagement Specialist at JPL, who helped the LEGO team perfect the set, said: “We love sharing the work that Perseverance and Ingenuity are doing on Mars, and collaborations like this are another way to make the exploration of space more fun and accessible for the next generation of explorers.”
JPL built and manages the operations of the Perseverance rover and an Ingenuity helicopter.