Kerbal Space Program Gets Its Own LEGO Set With A Detailed, Modular Space Shuttle

Posted on 26/07/2023 by Sarang Sheth

If you remember this gem of a videogame from back in 2015, you’ll be glad to know that the Kerbal Space Program now has its own dedicated LEGO set. While the game was an incredibly detailed space program simulator, its respective LEGO set is just as intricately made, complete with an entire space shuttle that has separating modules, afterburners, satellite dishes, solar panels, a lander, and two Kerbal astronauts with their own flag. The Kerbal Space Program LEGO set was pitched by master-builder Sam67c on LEGO’s Ideas forum (its forum for fan-made creations) and has since cruised past its 10,000 vote threshold. LEGO’s internal team is now in the process of reviewing the submission, following which it will be converted into a retail box set for anyone to buy!

Designer: Sam67c

Sam67c’s MOC (My Own Creation) is a highly detailed build that allows you to create your own spaceship and modules, or build out the standard ship from the videogame with the Mk1-3 Cockpit that fits two kerbals inside. For people looking to go all-out, a schematic below shows exactly how detailed the space shuttle is, with multiple modules connecting to one another using 4×4 or 6×6 circular plates. “Engines, fuel tanks, batteries and cockpits all connect vertically, while solar panels and RCS tanks use clips positioned around the circumference of major parts,” says Sam67c.

Probably one of the most intricate builds we’ve seen on the LEGO Ideas forum, this MOC mirrors the detailed nature of the KSP game. The sandbox-style space flight simulation video game allowed players to detail their own space program and design spaceships while taking into account factors such as gravity, aerodynamics, and fuel consumption when designing and piloting their spacecraft. The main objective of the game was to successfully complete various missions and explore the Kerbal planetary system.

The Kerbal Space Program video game gained a dedicated cult following due to its realistic physics, challenging gameplay, and open-ended nature. The game offered a unique blend of creativity, strategy, and problem-solving, as players would have to overcome the challenges of space travel and exploration. It’s said that many NASA engineers also played the game to run experiments in ways that their more unforgiving real-world environment wouldn’t allow them to do!

With the Kerbal Space Program LEGO build, the game now enters into the realms of physical reality, letting builders and enthusiasts actually take a more hands-on approach to spaceship construction. The official review from LEGO’s internal team begins in September, and hopefully, we can expect the box set to ‘launch’ on shelves either at the end of this year or early next year!

The post Kerbal Space Program Gets Its Own LEGO Set With A Detailed, Modular Space Shuttle first appeared on Yanko Design.

LEGO Releasing $600 Ultimate Collector’s Edition Of The Mandalorian’s Razor Crest

Posted on 28/09/2022 by hite

Already available as a 1,023-piece, $140 set, LEGO has just announced an Ultimate Collector’s Series version of The Mandalorian’s Razor Crest ship, with 6,187 pieces and a price tag of $600. Ultimate Collector indeed – you’d have to be to shell out six big bills for a LEGO set. I mean unless you’re buying it as an investment opportunity like I did with all those Beanie Babies.

The ship measures 72cm long, 50cm wide, and 24cm tall (28″ x 20″ x 9.5″), and features removable engines, a cockpit, an escape pod, and a minifig-size carbon-freezing chamber along with numerous other interior details. The set also includes minifigs of the Mandalorian, Grogu, Mythrol, and Kuiil along with a buildable Blurrg model. I am going to have so much fun building this set… entirely in my mind because I can’t afford the $600 price tag.

Admittedly, I bet that’s a fun build. As fun as the giant LEGO Death Star set? No clue, I couldn’t afford that one either. Looks like not much has changed for me financially in the ten years since that set came out.

[via Engadget]

This futuristic watch concept combines the aesthetics of spaceships with the precision of analog mechanics

Posted on 09/03/2022 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Space 2081 is a watch concept from Andrey Dalakishvili that combines spaceship aesthetics with analog mechanics.

No matter how it’s worn, a watch is always a statement piece. Wearing a good watch can tie an outfit together or stand out as its own look completely. Russian designer Andrey Dalakishvili looked to monolithic spaceships to source inspiration for his watch design called Space 2081.

Designer: Andrey Dalakishvili

Giving spaceships back their spotlight, Dalakishvili set out to design a watch that encapsulates the futuristic aesthetics and fine-tuned, technical details of spaceships. Space 2081 takes on subtle detailing to hone in on the watch’s futurist look and incorporates an analog display in ode to the mechanical precision of spaceships.

Spurred by the spaceship’s popularity in mass culture, from Hollywood classic films to video games, Dalakishvili scaled-down spacecraft motifs like aerodynamic structuring and rubber coverings to fit around your wrist. The rubber strap is conceived for durability while packing in a whole ton of comfort for everyday use. Coated in army green, the rubber strap instantaneously exudes serious business. The watch face itself is digitally minimal, opting instead for an analog display and inner hardware.

Diagonal etched lines run perpendicular to give the watch face a three-dimensional look, emphasizing the futuristic look of the whole piece. Merging with the diagonal lines, concentric circles define the actual watch clock, which hosts bright green hour and minute hands to compliment the dark green strap and glow in the dark.

Speaking to his choice to maintain the analog nature of the watch, Dalakishvili explains, “Even though we associate space with digital technologies, [the watch] was conceived with analog mechanisms–like a spaceship, it requires precision and filigree in creation and assembly.”

The post This futuristic watch concept combines the aesthetics of spaceships with the precision of analog mechanics first appeared on Yanko Design.

This spaceship from the 1960s was restored for guests to stay for some Jetsons-inspired staycation!

Posted on 23/07/2021 by Shawn McNulty-Kowal

Nowadays, our gaze is set on outer space. Modern times feel eerily similar to the thrill of the days during the 20th-century Space Race. While the goals of the Space Race change over time, our interest in the starry sky remains. On earth, we watch films like The Jetsons and marvel at Elon Musk’s Starlink, if only because it looks like a moving constellation, just to feel closer to Outer Space. Today, artist Craig Barnes restored a saucer-shaped structure, designed by Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the late 1960s, calling it Futuro House in his ode to the cosmos.

Landed in Somerset’s Marston Park for guests to rent out, stay the night, and pretend they’ve landed on Mars, the Futuro House is a tiny home can accommodate up to four people and features an array of earthly amenities. Barnes happened upon one of Suuronen’s 68 saucer-shaped structures while out in South Africa, bringing it back to the UK, where he began restoration work.

Easily transportable, Barnes describes how he managed to bring Futuro House to Somerset, “Some workers were knocking down a building nearby and we thought perhaps they were going to tear it down too. It was a wreck, there was no front door left, the windows were smashed in, but they let us in. It was horrible and grotty, but we found out who owned it. On an impulse while on top of Table Mountain, we agreed to buy it. So we bought it and shipped it home.”

Sparing Suuronen’s retrofitted relic from a future spent in obsolescence, Barnes restored Futuro House into a sparkling ski lodge, allowing guests to stay the night for £400–£1,200 ( around $550–$1,412) per night, a rent scale depending on the number of adults staying inside the ship. Inside and outside the saucer, guests can enjoy plenty of onboard amenities, like private bathrooms, fresh linen, and towels, hot water, changeable mood lighting, midrange studio monitor speakers, food services, options for coffee and tea, as well as an outdoor fire pit where guests can sit around and recline into the night. Going on to note his thrill over his own interpretation of today’s Space Race, Barnes says,

“It was always important to me that wherever it goes, it functions as a space to live and experience – an inspiring place that everyone can see. I never wanted this to be something that you cannot touch. I believe in the power of art and architecture and how it affects us. We have never opened [the house] up as a rental before; we hadn’t found the right home for it. At Marston Park, they want to make unique experiences and there is a realm for artworks you can stay in and people are interested in that. It is the fulfillment of a longstanding dream to offer this womb-like structure for people to stay in and be in this otherworldly space.”

Designers: Chris Barnes x Matti Suuronen

Stationed beside a quiet lake amongst the trees of Somerset’s Marston Park, Futuro House appears as a UFO landed for a pitstop.

Inside, the 60s space themes continue with spaceship seating arrangements and oval-shaped windows that wrap the entire circumference of the saucer.

Tulip kitchen seats hearken back to the 60s when the Space Race reached a peak.

While there is only one main sleeping area, four people can stay the night.

Come dark, the spaceship glows into a golden lantern.

While on a midnight stroll in the park, onlookers could even mistake Futuro House for a real UFO.

Stationed against orange night skies, guests can pretend they’ve landed on Mars.

This spaceship-inspired reverse humidifier is a design every space enthusiast really needs!

Posted on 30/06/2021 by Neha Mistry

If you have ever wandered through Muji playing with the beautiful vapor that escapes from its minimal humidifiers, you know this design is a keeper! Meet the HUM! – a reverse humidifier that actually puts all that vapor to good use. The interesting visual scenario of the spaceship with the vapor is a mesmerizing scenario I cannot stop watching!

Humidifiers by default are a must-have in our homes, and given the core functionality of the design, we rarely see more than a rectangular box. The usual upward humidifying activity gets inverted here, with the vapor escaping through a perforated bottom. Form follows function, but HUM! is the perfect example of how form amplifies engagement! As an added cool feature, the intensity of humidification increases when you lift the spaceship body, reinforcing the visual of a rocket taking off into space.

The body of the humidifier holds the water in the body of the rocket, with a light inside it that keeps your gadget lit up when in use. The transparent body also showcases the water levels so you know when your rocket may run out of steam.

Designer: Cheolhee Lee and Minsu Kim

Virgin Galactic’s shimmering, mirror-finished SpaceShip III readies for next-gen space flights!

Posted on 31/03/2021 by Gaurav Sood

Richard Branson has his goals set up high alongside Elon Musk for space travel, and there’s a new chapter added to the Virgin Galactic book that looks to rewrite the history of humankind, as far as venturing out into the limitless bounds of space are concerned. In that same quest, Virgin Galactic has unveiled their new space plane called VSS Imagine – the first inclusion of the SpaceShip III fleet of suborbital vehicles. While at heart, the Spaceship III is the same as the SpaceShipTwo (known as VSS Unity), the only difference is the ability to be ready for re-flights for a much faster turnaround time.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier emphasized that the new spacecraft is designed (new modular design approach) in a way to “pull a panel off to get to an area that we might not have been able to get to in an easy fashion before.” Something that could not be possible with the SpaceShipTwo’ VSS Unity’. The subtle design improvements and overall weight reduction give Virgin Atlantic the flexibility to shift focus to production-oriented operations with plans to debut customer flight by the early half of 2022. To this end, they have planned a flight glide test of VSS Imagine from the larger mothership VMS Eve this summer as it glides back to the safety of land at Virgin Atlantic’s Spaceport America facility in New Mexico.

VSS Imagine is draped in a shiny reflective mirror-like material to reflect the mesmerizing bounds of the Earth and space while inherently providing thermal protection in flight. According to Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, the spaceship will hopefully change the perspective of space travellers when they return back home, and fill them with rejuvenating ideas to make a positive change to the planet. “Our goal is to have 400 flights from each spaceport every year,” Richard said. That’s going to be achievable with a third and fourth generation of spaceships, and Virgin Galactic is already ramping up its efforts for the same.

To sum it up, as Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said, “The livery is pretty amazing. It creates quite a contrast between the Earth and the sky. It also reflects the planet when we’re in space.”

Designer: Virgin Galactic

The Official NASA Rocket Lava Lamp: Ready for Liftoff

Posted on 25/01/2021 by hite

A NASA rocket-themed lava lamp: like jumping off your roof with a fitted mattress sheet for a parachute convinced you’ll be able to walk away unscathed, it just makes sense. Available from Firebox, the out-of-this-world lamp costs $49 and contains blue liquid and red lava. Gosh, I just want to break it open and play with the lava so bad.

The rocket stands 20″ tall and will make the perfect mood-lighting addition to my outer space-themed rumpus room. I mean, once I finally gain spousal approval to turn the guest bedroom into an outer space-themed rumpus room, but my permits keep getting denied.

Rocket fuel costs must be astronomical, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration must be desperate for all the funding it can get because NASA has been licensing its logo to just about anyone with a few space-bucks to spend. I mean I even saw NASA shirts for sale at a gas station the other day. Although, now that I think about it, those were probably unlicensed because it was spelled NASSA and I’m pretty sure that was Star Trek’s United Federation of Planets logo.

Virgin Galactic will livestream its SpaceShipTwo cabin reveal on July 28th

Posted on 02/07/2020 by Engadget RSS Feed

We’ve seen photos of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in flight, and we know what its Under Armour spacesuits will look like. Next, Virgin Galactic will offer a glimpse of the spaceship’s cabin. On July 28th, at 1pm ET, the company will host a live-str...

Blast off into a good hair day with this conceptual hair dryer

Posted on 22/04/2020 by Ruchi Thukral

If I was drying my hair with this I would say T minus 5…4…3…2…1 then turn it on for the ‘blast off’! I love when hair dryers get a design makeover because they are often overlooked and have had the same form since forever. I was fascinated by this Shark dryer and now my obsession has pivoted towards the Spaceship dryer, probably because of the need to escape this planet that I am sure we are all collectively feeling.

Hair dryers are not the most eye-catching personal item (Dyson users, please fasten your seatbelts for now) and Korean designer, Hyoyeong Kim, wanted to give it a personality and a story. Something that made the humble hair dryer into an exciting gadget and being in quarantine, everyday objects is where we find our routine (and maybe happiness!). She turned the hair dryer into a spaceship with a complete and we are getting major Toy Story feels. The gadget has a minimal design aesthetic but tells the story it was intended to without compromising on its purpose. It still looks sleek, modern and like it will always be successful in its mission.

There are two dryers, the galaxy themed one and the spaceship-shaped one, the CMF for both was very different and carefully thought out. The charging base of the dryer is also the launchpad for your spaceship. You cannot go to space if your vehicle is tethered so, of course, this hair dryer was designed to be wireless. At least when we take off with this gadget, the only thing we need to learn how to say is “Houston, we are having a good hair day”!

Designer: Hyoyeong Kim

LEGO UCS Imperial Star Destroyer Has Nearly 5,000 Pieces

Posted on 05/09/2019 by Paul Strauss

LEGO has made some incredible Star Wars sets over the years, especially in its Ultimate Collectors Series. From the Death Star to the Millennium Falcon, LEGO fans have emptied their piggy banks time and again to enjoy some amazing and complex builds – often made of thousands of grey blocks to make things more challenging.

Now, LEGO has revealed one of its biggest and most complex Star Wars set yet. UCS set 75252 has a whopping 4,784 pieces. While that’s about 36% fewer parts than the UCS Millennium Falcon, it’s still an incredibly impressive set.

The completed ship model measures 43″ long, 26″ wide, and 17″ high, and includes tons of details, like swiveling guns, a tilting radar dish, and massive engines. It also includes as a scale model of the Rebels’ Tantive IV, so you can reenact the opening moments of A New Hope when the Empire chases down Princess Leia’s ship and snags it with its tractor beam.

The set includes just two minifigs – an Imperial officer and crew member, so you need to bring-your-own Vader, Leia, Stormtroopers, etc. There’s also a display stand and plaque with info about the ship, along with a pair of blaster pistols.

The set will sell for $699.99 and will be available on October 1, 2019, or if you’re a LEGO VIP member, you can get yours as soon as September 18.

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