The European Space Agency has created its own version of a Lego brick that has been 3D printed from meteorite dust as the organization explores how to build buildings in space.
The “space bricks,” as Lego and the European Space Agency (ESA) call them, are made using dust from a 4.5-billion-year-old meteor discovered in 2000 in northwest Africa.
Meteorite dust acts as a support site for lunar regolith—the loose material that covers the surface of Earth’s moon, which is largely the product of meteorite impacts.
Because only a small amount of regolith exists on Earth—samples brought back during the Apollo missions—scientists settled on the closest substitute they could find.
The development of space bricks is part of ESA’s contribution to the international Artemis program, which aims not only to return astronauts to the Moon, but also to create a lunar base there.
Since bringing materials from Earth is considered too expensive and too time-consuming, the hope is that the lunar regolith could be used to build structures such as launch pads and habitats.
In the field of space exploration, this is known as In-Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and is the focus of ESA’s spacecraft EAC team, based out of Cologne, Germany.
ESA Science Officer Aidan Cowley, who runs the lab, said his team liked “creative construction” and had the idea to explore whether space dust could be formed into a small block similar to a Lego brick, so they to be able to test different construction techniques.
“Our teams are working toward the future of space travel and are inspired not only by what’s above us, but also by what we can find on Earth,” Cowley said.
“No one has ever built a structure on the moon, so we have to work out not only how we build them, but what we build them from, since we can’t take any materials with us.”
To get a material suitable for 3D printing, the team ground pieces of the meteorite into powder and mixed it with a small amount of polylactic acid – a type of biodegradable bioplastic – as well as a “regolith simulant”, a mixture of Earth minerals that intended to resemble the composition of the lunar surface.
Their design approximates the shape and size of Lego bricks, although the accuracy is difficult to recreate on this scale with 3D printing and requires a lot of fine-tuning, according to ESA.
The team said that because of this, Lego brick shapes had become “a common test for this type of project”.
The blocks also work on the same principle as Lego, with tubes on the bottom of the bricks interconnected by studs on top of the bricks below. This bonding system creates a “clutch power” that makes Lego bricks so difficult to break apart.
“The result is amazing, and while the bricks may look a little rougher than usual, it’s important that the clutch power still works, enabling us to play and test our models,” said Cowley. “It was both fun and useful to scientifically understand the limits of these techniques.”
The Lego Group has now put 15 of ESA’s space bricks on display in its stores around the world, as the company says it hopes to inspire children to build their own space shelters.
The Artemis program has been underway since 2017, with a crewed lunar landing planned for late 2026. The program has also seen construction company ICON work on 3D printing technology for the Moon, fashion house Prada create spacesuits and Lockheed Martin, General Motors and Goodyear develop a lunar vehicle.