Cygnus cargo spacecraft modeled in LEGO

The Orbital Sciences Cygnus module berthed successfully to the International Space Station yesterday. Orbital thus becomes the second commercial firm after SpaceX to provide cargo delivery services to the station.

Check out the  LEGO Cygnus model made by Stephen Pakbaz, a LEGO scratch model builder extraordinaire: Lego Cygnus! Designed and Created by Stephen Spakbaz – ROMKids.

CYGNUS 20120708-02

I’ve pointed before to Stephen’s models of other spacecraft such as the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover at LEGO CUUSOO.

The Space Show this week

The guests on The Space Show this week include:

1. Monday, Sept. 30, 2013, 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome CHARLES MILLER to the back to the program. Charles Miller is the President of NexGen Space LLC, which provides client-based services at the intersection of commercial, civil, and national security space and public policy. He is also a strong advocate of public/private partnerships to achieve low cost space access.

2. Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, 7-8:30 PM PDT (10-11:30 PM EDT, 9-10:30 PM CDT): We welcome back DR. JAMES HANSEN to discuss his book of Astronaut John Young, Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space.”

3. Friday, Oct. 4, 2013, 9:30-11 AM PDT (11:30- 1 PM CDT, 12:30PM-2:00 PM EDT): We welcome ROBERT WALKER from the UK. He is an inventor and the author of several interesting Mars and space papers. You can find his papers at www.science20.com/robertinventor. I urge listeners to review his Mars articles prior to our program as we will be talking about them.

4. Sunday, Oct. 6, 2013, 12-1:30 PM PDT (3-4:30 PM EDT, 2-3:30 PM CDT). We welcome ADAM CROWL from Australia regarding his chapter in Starship Century, “Starship Pioneers.

See also:
/– The Space Show on Vimeo – webinar videos
/– The Space Show’s Blog – summaries of interviews.
/– The Space Show Classroom Blog – tutorial programs

The Space Show is a project of the One Giant Leap Foundation.

Space policy roundup – Sept.29.13

Some recent space policy related items:

Update:

Space colonization opportunities and the Fermi Paradox

“Inventor and programmer” Robert Walker at Science 2.0 discusses the vast resources of our solar system: Asteroid Resources Could Create Space Habs For Trillions; Land Area Of A Thousand Earths.

This leads him in turn to talk about the Fermi Paradox and possible solutions to it: With Humans Already Close To Space Colonization – Why Haven’t Millions Of Years Old ETs Colonised Our Solar System Already?

I liked this video he used: