Pathfinder

Apojove posted these pictures of his Mars Pathfinder, the unmanned probe that landed on Mars in 1997. He depicts it here as a tourist attraction in an imagined future. Interestingly, NASA recently released a request to future lunar explorers to please leave the Apollo landing sites alone to preserve them for future historians and to protect ongoing scientific studies.

Seven minutes of triumph

I've previously noted Apojove's (i.e. Stephen Pakbaz's) Curiosity rover, here we see it being lowered from the sky crane, what mission planners had dubbed the 'seven minutes of terror'. Stephen offered his rover as a Cuusoo project and it achieved the crucial 10,000 votes. I hope they make this, as this seems perfectly in line with LEGO's and Cuusoo's ideals - given past LEGO/NASA collaborations and the two initial Cuusoo Japan sets. The only sticking point is that by the time a set gets made, public interest in the rover may have waned. I also wanted to highlight this interview with Stephen on Brothers-Brick about a month ago.

NASA's Missions: Imagine and Build

I noted this a couple of weeks ago, but did not have details at that point. LEGO has teamed with NASA for a contest, NASA's Missions: Imagine and Build. Two categories (subdivided into age ranges) challenge you to either build a MOC based on a currently planned NASA mission, or to build the aircraft of tomorrow. The second category is supposed to be accompanied by a technical paper, so they're looking for someone with some knowledge, not just clicking some bricks together and swooshing the creation around your room. We're all looking at you, Apojove (jk, I know there are a ton of AFOLs out there with real science and engineering expertise).

V-ger

Voyager II was launched in 1977 and over the next decade visited Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1980), Uranus (1986) and Neptune (1989), before heading out of our solar system. 35 years after launch it is still sending back data, helping us learn about the outer reaches of our sun's influence. Here is a great LEGO version by Apojove at approximately miniland scale.

Spirit and Opportunity

The second rovers to land on Mars were Spirit and Opportunity as part of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission. Touchdown occurred in 2004 with a mission designed to last 90 Martian days. Contact with Spirit was finally lost in 2010 while Opportunity continues to operate today, over eight years later. You can learn more about the Mars Exploration Rovers at the official NASA/JPL Mars Exploration Rovers website. Minifig scale rover by apojove.

Pegusus XL

Apojove made the Pegasus XL rocket, which is launched from an airplane at high altitude to carry small payloads into orbit.

Mars Science Laboratory

A couple of days ago I posted the Curiosity, or the Mars Science Laboratory, by a then-unknown WAMALUG member. It turns out it is by Apojove, who was actually one of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers who helped design this probe.