NASA's 2,000 pound, car-sized Curiosity rover landed safely on Mars Monday morning, successfully beginning its search for life on the Red Planet, but there's another curiosity rover here on Earth that's causing quite a stir. This one is much smaller, weighs much less and is built completely out of Lego Mindstorms bricks.
Lego Mindstorms builders Doug Moran and Will Gorman created the Curiosity model you see above for the Build the Future in Space event at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and it is quite a machine. The rover is comprised of over 1,000 of Lego Technic and Mindstorms pieces, and sports 6 wheels just like the real thing. Four of the wheels are powered, allowing it to make 360 degree turns and it even has a bluetooth controlled arm, mimicking the one featured on the real Curiosity rover.
Moran and Gorman's creation comes to life with the help of 7 separate Lego NXT bricks, 13 Lego NXT motors and 2 power function motors. You can see it in action in the video below.
Pretty awesome isn't it? I think NASA should considering picking the brains of these two gentlemen. If Moran and Gorman can build this using nothing but Lego bricks and Mindstorms NXT boxes, just imagine what they could come with given some actual hardware.
[via BattleBricks.com]
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