
Lego ISS - brendt_gd
http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-012120a-lego-international-space-station.html
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cyberferret
I built the Saturn V model a couple of years ago when it came out - a lot of
fun and it now stands in pride of place in the corner of my office.

This model intrigues me, but it would be a b*tch to store/display once made
though... I wonder why LEGO didn't just respond to the plethora of customer
requests to make the LUT (tower) for the Saturn V model? It would have been
just as many parts and would have complemented the rocket model.

~~~
mstade
I would absolutely buy a set for the tower. Like you I bought and built the
rocket, and have it on display in my apartment, but having it stand vertically
next to a tower would be so much cooler than the little stilts it's on right
now. Sounds like a fun weekend project though, do you know of any good
unofficial instructions?

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mgnn
In absence of a tower, how about this display solution:
[https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/eo2ufs/my_attempt_at_...](https://old.reddit.com/r/lego/comments/eo2ufs/my_attempt_at_a_lego_saturn_v_display/)

~~~
rkagerer
Another angle from further down that thread: [https://external-
preview.redd.it/mmt_drJQ7vWZi6Uu-DHLx5JaUTp...](https://external-
preview.redd.it/mmt_drJQ7vWZi6Uu-
DHLx5JaUTpVmu6X_2BAh_qYHto.jpg?auto=webp&s=1dd063e571d5e2005a4598b2a23959c287ad9ffc)

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INTPenis
A bit too small imho. Go big or go home. I want a space shuttle big enough for
lego figures, and same scale space station.

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Someone
At about 1:40, the ISS would be about 2.5 meters by 1.8 meters. I doubt they
would sell many, unless it were made of Lego Duplo.

~~~
rtkwe
Pretty sure that would be the physically largest retail set ever sold if they
did the minifig scale of 1:45 (ish) [0]. Looks like they might be making it
roughly microfig scale judging by the scale of the included microfigs vs the
rest. I'd rather maybe double the current size for more detail and chances for
little greeble details but this size does make it easy to justify even with my
current set backlog.

[0] It's a little messy because minifigs are quite squat and wide compared to
their height.

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vanderZwan
> _microfig_

Had to look that up[0], since I haven't closely been keeping up with LEGO
since my childhood, and for now lack children of my own to renew interest.
Interesting concept, but it doesn't look like they're still "officially" used?

EDIT: Oh, the article states that this set comes with two microfigs. My bad, I
should pay closer attention next time!

[0]
[https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Microfigure](https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Microfigure)

~~~
rtkwe
I was wrong about the name the wiki seems to call what's included in the ISS
set Nanofigures. Though it seems like places use both nanofig and microfig
interchangeably since microfigs are discontinued.

[https://rebrickable.com/parts/90398/minifig-trophy-
statuette...](https://rebrickable.com/parts/90398/minifig-trophy-statuette/)

[https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Nanofigure](https://lego.fandom.com/wiki/Nanofigure)

[https://www.firestartoys.com/Shop/LEGO-Minifigures/LEGO-
Nano...](https://www.firestartoys.com/Shop/LEGO-Minifigures/LEGO-
Nanofigures.html)

~~~
Dylan16807
So they're about 1:125-140. And this set is about 1:225.

Also that shuttle is absolutely not to scale. It's about 1:400.

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rtkwe
Ah yeah I was just eyeballing it and the nanofigs did seem a bit big. It's
tricky because going up just double size probably doesn't give them much
chance to add more detail the way people would want and 4x would make it way
too large and expensive.

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crazygringo
Wow. I grew up in the early 80's building Lego Space sets -- all Lego men in
spacesuits and shapeships and space stations, but all fictional.

It kind of blows my mind a bit to see a real-life space station built with
Legos now.

I mean, I know they've had a space shuttle and rocket sets for a while, but
those were still just somehow fundamentally "earth-bound". (And Lego never did
make a Skylab set.)

But a space _station_... for some reason that just feels more properly
futuristic in a way. And in a Lego set, almost like fiction finally coming to
life somehow.

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ummwhat
Based on the price per kg to get to iss, how much would it cost to send this
up there and have it gently placed into a parallel orbit with candarm2?

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arethuza
Are 'parallel orbits' actually possible without active station keeping?
(Thinking of _Seveneves_ ).

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TeMPOraL
No. The orbital plane must intersect the (bary)center of Earth.

If you took that model and placed it to the right of ISS, with matching
altitude and velocity vectors, then half the orbital period later, you'd find
it somewhere to the left of the station.

If you want to keep two things close together in orbit for a while without
active stationkeeping, your best bet is placing one ahead or behind of the
other. Though in real life, they'll eventually drift their separate ways too,
due to lots of small influences like solar pressure, residual air drag,
gravitational pull of other bodies in the system, etc.

~~~
usrusr
Wouldn't there be considerable slipstream from the trace atmosphere? Aft,
slightly higher than the stations center of mass there should be a point were
the slower angular speed of the minimally higher orbit would cancel out with
the slipstream effect, until the next stationkeeping burn. I wonder how much
it would start spinning from the uneven application of trace atmosphere in
that time.

Might make a fun public experiment, try getting "the internet" to voice their
predictions, kind of like everybody was commenting on the color of the dress.
In any case I fully expect a kit to eventually make it up there but I doubt
that it will see any EVA.

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edgefield0
My son and I love building lego together, especially the robotic type, but I
often worry about the tremendous amounts of plastic waste being created with
every lego sold. I guess it pales in comparison to plastic bottles, but still.
We are turning the earth into a giant trash heap.

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Gravityloss
Lego last long and are repurposable. I personally think they are not really
meant to be built according to instructions in the long term. It's the same
way a framework is not meant to do a todo app. It's something the kid does on
first pass when learning how the system works, before starting on the actual
cool stuff.

~~~
rtkwe
There's kind of two types of sets made today the play sets for kids and
display sets for adult collectors. I do agree though that LEGO isn't really
plastic waste because most of it doesn't get thrown out and kids collections
get reused and resold to collectors and are relatively rarely thrown out.

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MayeulC
I wonder, have they confused the (big) radiators with (small) solar panels? It
certainly looks so in the box package!

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rtkwe
Nope looks pretty much dead on to me. See [0] for the real ISS vs [1] for the
box art. The relative scales are a little off due to the available pieces (the
larger radiators are pretty big compared to the solar arrays).

[0]
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Internat...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/International_Space_Station_TCS.png)

[1]
[http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-012120g-lg.jpg](http://www.collectspace.com/images/news-012120g-lg.jpg)

~~~
MayeulC
Ah, I stand corrected, thank you. My mental image of the ISS was somewhat
distorted, it seems. And I had no idea the main solar panels could pivot to
align with the large radiators!

(For instance, here we can see both solar panels not completely aligned:
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iss+radiator&t=ffab&ia=images&iax=...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=iss+radiator&t=ffab&ia=images&iax=images&iai=http%3A%2F%2Fglobal.fncstatic.com%2Fstatic%2Fmanaged%2Fimg%2Ffn2%2Fvideo%2F051013_serrie_iss_640.jpg))

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rtkwe
I didn't know the smaller radiators existed at all TBH. Makes sense though
since they're on the same structure as the solar panels it would ensure those
are basically always in the shade more or less since the solar panels will
want to align perpendicular to the sun. As for the solar panels they can
rotate each individually around it's long axis and the group of 4 at each end
as a unit around the long axis of the truss.

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coder1001
It's great to see Lego innovating in this way, I wonder how much less business
they do nowadays given the proliferation of mobile/digital gaming and social
media keeping the new generations pretty occupied!

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thrower123
I'd much rather see them skip some of these gimmicky adult collector
initiatives and get back to some of their core themes. They are so overwhelmed
with licensed IP that they are nearly a merchandising wing of Disney at
present.

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dorfsmay
I agree. As a kid the fun in Lego was to make specific things out if generic
shapes. The special sets sounded like amazing before you got them, but turn
into just more Lego once you had done the recomende constructions.

Lego robotics was a good indication, again generic pieces you can use you
imagination to build specific things.

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Dylan16807
Unless you really mind the solar panel texture, this set seems to be almost
entirely nice generic pieces.

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wpskidd
So, when do we get a SpaceX kit??

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rurounijones
[https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1abc6458-52e8-4e7d-a04c-04ba...](https://ideas.lego.com/projects/1abc6458-52e8-4e7d-a04c-04ba917b6e5b)

Needs 800 more supporters to reach the 10k threshold.

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chriswwweb
Oh wow a lego story makes it to the frontpage of HN :)

Not my fav lego set, but I guess some people really like it

I'm more excited about the upcoming LEGO Ideas pirate creek set

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mstade
Oh there's been LEGO on here before alright:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14253672](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14253672)

I bought that set and loved every minute of building it. Highly recommended!

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npstr
Used to have a KNex model of the ISS when growing up, it was great for someone
who was dreaming of going to space :)

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mrkwse
I desperately want this but would have nowhere to display it. Does anyone know
what the production lengths of Lego Ideas sets are? Am I likely to be able to
buy this in a year or two, or is this going to be the only opportunity?

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cosmodisk
Buy it now,put the box under your bed and once you have where to display,
you'll do.

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mobilemidget
And even if you forget about it, say 20 years :), you might have a nice
investment laying under the bed.

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spaceandshit
Do lego sets appreciate?

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rtkwe
Generally yes. More for the collector sets like the older UCS Millenium Falcon
(though the price for that might have fallen since the new one was released).

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jedberg
I wonder if it was designed with strong attachment points for hanging it from
the ceiling.

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Waterluvian
I just wish it was to-scale with the LEGO Space Shuttle I had as a kid.

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agumonkey
my first thought was : please let me add real solar cells on this and make it
a "light + sound" revival unit

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neilpanchal
Side note: I love web design like this over the huge amount of white space +
magenta gradients in contemporary react apps that take 9 seconds to load. The
modern web app, what monster have we created!

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franga2000
Ok, some responsive design wouldn't exactly hurt (zooming in one-handed on my
phone on a shaky bus took me longer than a bloated "modern" web site would
take to load), but I definitely agree with your sentiment. No cookie warnings,
no full-screen popups, no sluggish animations and yes, no huge margins that
turn my rather large phone screen into a 3310.

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_-___________-_
I didn't find it difficult to use one-handed at all. Double-tapped on the text
which zoomed it to perfect reading width, then double-tapped again to zoom out
and double-tapped on the images to have a look at those. Not sure what phone
you're using but I think those gestures are universal?

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franga2000
I was using the WebView in Materialistic (Android HN reader app) which is
known to be rather janky. The double tap gesture just zooms to some fixed
value there and I had to manually adjust it. Not a big deal and even less so
with most browsers' intelligent zooming or various "reading views", but still,
being readable by default is a substantially better experience.

