NASA expands Artemis I 'crew'; adds four Lego toys with Snoopy doll and dummies

NASA has added a few more members to the 'crew' of uncrewed Artemis I mission flight which is scheduled to launch in early 2022. These members are four Lego Minifigures- "Kate", "Kyle", "Julia" and "Sebastian" from the Lego City toy line, that will hitch a ride aboard the Orion spacecraft. As of now, the ideal Artemis I crew consists of four Lego toys, one manikin and two "dummies" that will serve as a test subject to extract launch details before actually sending humans to the Moon. It is to be noted that Artemis I is an uncrewed flight test of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft around the Moon.

Why did NASA add the Lego toys?

According to a statement released by NASA on November 8, it explained the importance of the toys saying-

NASA and the LEGO Group have a long history of collaboration on projects that engage children and adults alike to encourage interest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and space exploration.

The two organisations have forged a collaboration since the 1990s which continues to this day with an intention to encourage and attract more kids towards taking up science. As a part of this initiative, NASA has recently partnered with LEGO Education to engage with thousands of educators and students through "Build to Launch", a 10-week digital learning series exploring the technology, STEM concepts and careers behind the Artemis I mission to the Moon. Through these open-ended lessons, the students will get hands-on experience and solve problems similar to those the Artemis I team members face during their preparations for the mission. 

"In addition to lesson plans and teacher guides, the series features weekly videos that introduce the LEGO Space Team and their NASA Artemis I team counterparts, helping students better understand STEM space careers and the knowledge and skills that go into completing successful space missions", said NASA in its statement. 

What else will the Orion spacecraft carry?

On Friday, NASA announced the addition of the comic book character Snoopy to the Artemis I crew, which already includes a manikin and two dummies. During the flight to the Moon, Snoopy will serve as a zero-gravity indicator while the other three passengers will resemble humans and help in gathering data about the conditions actual humans will face during the launch and in outer space. Since there are a few months left before the mission commences, we can expect more exciting additions to the Artemis I payload by NASA.

Image: NASA