Lego remake of the Apollo 11 landing is here in time for the 50th anniversary
Adam Woodworth (@ajwoodpiece on Instagram) does some cool stuff with his free time with Lego, foam, motors, and other DIY project faves, and his latest effort is an homage to the Apollo 11 landing.
The first NASA mission to put astronauts on the surface of the moon happened almost 50 years ago, on July 20, 2019. To celebrate the approaching anniversary, Woodworth picked up Lego's recently released Apollo 11 Lunar Lander set with an eye toward making some modifications.
In short: he wanted to recreate the famed landing on video using a powered, flight-capable version of the Lego lander.
It wasn't a simple process. The actual Lego kit, once assembled, is a mostly solid mass of blocks. In order to make his own version work with the necessary motors -- T-Motor F-40's with 4-inch propellers, according to the YouTube description -- Woodworth needed to clear out some interior space.
Not only did Woodworth solve the issue, he did it relying almost entirely on the power of Lego bricks. There's no glue used here at all, and only a handful of screws used to affix the motors to plates that help keep them in place.
The whole build weighs in at almost two pounds, which Woodworth described as "quite heavy for its size." It's still capable of flight, though, albeit in 90-second increments. Woodworth described how he positioned the motors at different heights so the rotors could overlap, to "get as much disk area as possible."
Here's a test run boomerang of the modified lander in action, though it wasn't quite finished at this point.
Woodworth finally put the whole thing together in a video recreating the famed moon landing, using public domain audio of the actual event from the NASA archives. It's a wild ride.
Bear in mind: this is only part one. Woodworth also intends to show the lander's exit from the moon, though that might require some fiddling with the electronics to get it working. He posted the video in late June, so hopefully he'll have plenty of time to get his project done before the actual anniversary.
CARD ID: 449147
[h/t The Verge]
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
