Inspired by Lego building block sets, researchers at the European Space Agency (ESA) are using 3D printers to create Lego-style “space bricks” out of meteorite dust.
The purpose of the project is to determine if soil on the Moon, substituted in the project by the meteorite dust, can be used to build facilities for future astronauts.
“The surface of the Moon is covered with a layer of rock and mineral fragments known as lunar regolith," the ESA wrote in a blog post. "This material could be used to make space bricks. The only problem was that there's not much lunar regolith available on Earth to experiment with.”
We've been exploring how a future Moon base might be built from materials on the lunar surface. Inspired by @LEGO_Group, we used dust from a meteorite to 3D-print 'space bricks' to test these ideas. pic.twitter.com/8XD5BhJwZG
Like their much smaller cousins, the ESA’s space bricks click together like traditional Lego bricks. Using the finished space bricks, researchers are then able to stack the pieces together to create a variety of structures, giving the ESA the flexibility to try out a variety of designs.
“It was both fun and useful in scientifically understanding the boundaries of these techniques," ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley said in a statement.
The Europa Clipper is being prepped for a five-year mission to Europa, one of the moons orbiting the planet Jupiter, and on a sunny Thursday morning in Pasadena, Calif., NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) invited Decrypt and other members of the media to get an up-close view.
While there is plenty of cutting-edge tech being loaded onto the spacecraft, however, no AI chatbots will be aboard.
The Clipper mission
Launching in October, the Europa Clipper will study the Galilean moon Europa...
Looking to drive interest in the project, the European Space Agency is partnering with Lego to display the space bricks in select stores to inspire kids to build their own Lego Moon base.
Image: The European Space Agency
"It's no secret that real-world scientists and engineers sometimes try out ideas with Lego bricks,” Head of ESA's Branding and Partnerships Office Emmet Fletcher said in a statement. “ESA's space bricks are a great way to inspire young people and show them how play and the power of the imagination have an important role in space science, too."
The European Space Agency did not immediately respond to requests for comments from Decrypt.
Chrome is rolling out a defense system that catches scammy notifications before they can do harm. The browser's latest update for Android devices now uses on-device machine learning to identify and flag suspicious notifications that might be trying to trick you into downloading sketchy software, or handing over personal information.
Google confirmed Thursday that its new notification warning system is active, giving Android users an extra layer of security against an increasingly common form of...
Want $20 for each Apple device that might have eavesdropped on you? The Cupertino-based tech giant is ready to shell out up to $95 million to settle claims that Siri was a bit too eager to listen in on private conversations.
Apple hasn't admitted wrongdoing, but agreed to compensate U.S. users up to $100 per household, according to court documents filed December 13, 2024 in Oakland, California.
The settlement addresses allegations that its voice assistant recorded conversations without the "Hey...
Mistral Medium 3 dropped yesterday, positioning the model as a direct challenge to the economics of enterprise AI deployment.
The Paris-based startup, founded in 2023 by former Google DeepMind and Meta AI researchers, released what it claims delivers frontier performance at one-eighth the operational cost of comparable models.
"Mistral Medium 3 delivers frontier performance while being an order of magnitude less expensive," the company said.
The model represents Mistral AI’s most powerful propri...