Juno spacecraft takes Lego into a whole new world

Jupiter, to be precise

Juno spacecraft takes Lego into a whole new world

4 August 2011 14:07 GMT / By Paul Lamkin

Three Lego figurines are about to boldly go where no man has gone before - to Jupiter's polar orbit onboard the Juno spacecraft.

The 1.5-inch models representing Galileo Galilei, the Roman god Jupiter and his wife Juno will take their places alongside other notable space explorers like Neil Armstrong and Albert the monkey, when the Atlas V rocket blasts off on Friday 5 August.

The Jupiter and Juno inclusions don't really need an explanation. For those not paying attention in ancient history at school Galileo Galilei made a number of important discoveries about Jupiter and one of its moons is named in his honour. The miniature Galileo will be packing a little telescope with him on the journey.

Juno is a NASA New Frontiers mission launching on board an Atlas V rocket. It will be placed in a polar orbit to study Jupiter's composition, gravity field, magnetic field and polar magnetosphere.

It will blast off between 8:34am PDT and 9:43am PDT and it will hit Jupiter's atmosphere in 2016.

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Space, Juno, Lego, Toys, Dad