A LEGO R robot on the ISS : Chronicles of a successful space outreach programme
- Paper ID
IAF-02-P.3.01
- author
- company
Intospace GmbH
- country
The Netherlands
- year
2002
- abstract
In a recent effort, a space outreach project on the International Space Station (ISS) was initiated and successfully implemented. This project, named “LEGO® Ultimate Builders Competition”, was solely supported by industry. The Lego Company, being active in the non-space area, in co-operation with Intospace, a space industry service provider, developed a space education project aimed at developing, launching and operating a Lego Robot on the Space Station. The idea behind the project is part of a subsequent marketing campaign of Lego in Central Europe in order to promote their LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ series. This series is a highly sophisticated assembly set with programmable microchips and advanced reaction systems such as light-, touch and rotational sensors. The space environment of the ISS was perceived as the right scenario for this hi-tech venture. Therefore a public competition was announced to create attention offering interested people to participate in developing a robot that will be in the condition to support the ISS crew during then- daily routine work. The criteria of the competition were kept in line with the common Lego principles, i.e. creativity, innovation, fun and teamwork, as well as the basic manned space support parameters, i.e. usefulness, functionality in microgravity, interaction with the crew. Several steps were necessary to make this happen including the qualification of the hardware and selection of the competition winner by a jury. Furthermore integration preparation tasks, the actual launch and the final demonstration during a live transmission from onboard the ISS represented a good example of how such a project can be successfully accomplished in a short time. This paper presents the development and execution of this project and provides a snapshot on the success of the public outreach campaign.