The Magazine for LEGO® Enthusiasts of All Ages! Issue 18 • March 2012
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Bricks of the Rising Sun
Events: Brick Fan Town Brick Fan Castle People: Kazuyoshi Naoe Instructions and MORE!
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Out of this world LEGO fun!
3rd ANNUAL
® ®
Meet Guest of Honor (and Certified Professional LEGO builder) DAN PARKER, and help him build a 5-foot wide DEATHSTAR!
2012
Raleigh
®
Festival for LEGO Fans Presented by TwoMorrows Inc. and BrickJournal Magazine
MAY 19-20, 2012 (Private builders-only event May 17-18)
Dive into the FREE BUILD ROOM and play with thousands of loose LEGO bricks!
See a huge hall of all-new custom LEGO CREATIONS by top builders from around the world!
Special guest filmmakers SHATTERPOINT ENTERTAINMENT demonstrate how to make animated LEGO FILMS, which run non-stop in our THEATER ROOM!
Watch FIRST® LEGO® League ROBOTICS COMPETITIONS!
Meet JOE MENO, editor of BrickJournal magazine, and author of the new books YOU CAN BUILD IT and THE CULT OF LEGO, which debut at BrickMagic 2012!
SINGLE-DAY TICKETS: • Adults (age 17-up): $12 • Kids (age 4-16) and Seniors: $8 • Age 3 and under: FREE
PRE-ORDER ONLINE & SAVE $1 PER TICKET! Order now to avoid lines and a possible sell-out!
Shop for RARE AND HARD TO FIND LEGO SETS with our vendors!
Hours: Saturday 10-5 • Sunday 10-4
Sponsored by:
at the Hilton North Raleigh 3415 Wake Forest Road, Raleigh, NC 27609
Special guest JARED K. BURKS holds free workshops showing how to customize your minifigures! Attend workshops on MINDSTORMS, BUILDING TECHNIQUES, and more!
Preorder our limited edition SPACEFIGHTER event kit online (shown above) and avoid a sell-out! 71 parts, ONLY $10! Enter the SPACESHIP BUILDING CONTEST and win prizes! (Go online to register!) Be the first to see the TOP SECRET NEW SETS that LEGO is unveiling exclusively at BrickMagic!
BrickMagic is not part of The LEGO Group, but is sponsored by them. LEGO, the Minifigure, and the Brick and Knob configurations are trademarks of the LEGO Group of Companies.
• Special discounted hotel rate: $90/night (first 50 people who book their room get a FREE limited edition LEGO Kit, courtesy of BrickMania) • Attend the public event on Saturday and Sunday, or be an exhibitor ($50 fee) and display your creations, and attend the private convention Thursday & Friday
For more info or to order tickets or preorder your Spacefighter Kit, go to:
www.brickmagic.org or call 919-449-0344
Issue 18 • March 2012
Contents
From the Editor....................................................2
News
ReBrick: Powered by LEGO Fans.............3 LEGO® CUUSOO Goes to Space.............8
People
Jumpei Mitsui’s LEGO Certified Professional Celebration.........................12 Kazuyoshi Naoe: Building in Japan..14 Japanese Builder: Takuya Harajo........18
Building
Set Reviews: LEGO Employee’s Choice (Lighthouse Island, Life of George, Bounty Hunter Assault Gunship, Queen Anne’s Revenge)........................20 LEGO Pop-up: Kinkaku-ji of Takayuki Kawahara..............................25 Minifigure Customization 101: Introduction to Lighting Custom Minifigures and LEGO Elements....28 You Can Build It: Japanese Stone Lantern.......................32 You Can Build It: Space Battleship Yamato......................36
Community
The Todai (University of Tokyo) LEGO Club.....42 Japan AFOL Challenge: BrickFan Town and Brick Fan Castle.................................46 Nasu Highland Park: Japan’s Sacred LEGO Land..................55 LEGO Technic® and MINDSTORMS® in Japan.............................................................59 LEGO Education: Big in Japan....................................................63 From Vacuum Records to ClickBrick: LEGO Bricks and Fashion in Japan.............................................................66 A LEGO Space Elevator? The Sky’s the Limit!...........................................................70 Brick Words: Japanese LEGO Books...............................76 Part Index by Mike Doyle.........................77 Community Ads.............................................78 Last Word.............................................................79 AFOLs.....................................................................80
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From the Editor(s): Well....This issue came from the idea of showcasing builders that haven’t been seen very often. Japan is a place with incredible builders, but compared to Europe and the US, they have a low profile. Part of why this happens is the language barrier, but another part is that what is seen is only online, where a good build or layout is quickly glanced at, only to be put aside for the next hot MOC.
March 2012 Issue 18 Publisher John Morrow
Editor in Chief Joe Meno
Photography Editor Geoff Gray Proofreader John Morrow
I have wanted to go beyond the borders of the builders I have met and seen, and this issue is a major step to the horizon. Thanks to Nathan Bryan, who wrote, met AFOLs and photographed for this issue. He also has some thoughts too...
European and LEGO Group Bureau Editor Megan Rothrock
It has been a pleasure traveling around Japan, meeting other people involved with and enthusiastic about building with LEGO bricks. Everyone was so helpful, from doing research, providing information and contacts, to helping with or actually writing articles. I hope that through these articles, the many wonderful things being done with LEGO here in Japan shines through. I would like to say a big Domo Arigato Gozaimashita to everyone for their support in putting this issue together!
West Coast Editors Todd Kubo Ashley Glennon
2012 is the 50th year since LEGO products became available in Japan, and their popularity, with both kids and adults, continues to expand tremendously. This year a LEGO Discovery Center opens in Tokyo, and in 2015 a LEGOLAND in Nagoya. The popularity will just build and build and build!
Jared Burks, Christopher Deck, Kunie DeVorkin, Mike Doyle, Ashley Glennon, Geoff Gray, Takuya Harajo, Yoshihito Isogawa, Nobuo Miki, Jumpei Mitsui, Kazuyoshi Naoe, nyangroove, Megan Rothrock, Yoshikazu Saito, Kozo Takayama, Kenichi Tohya, Akihiro Youshimura, and Greg Hyland. Many thanks to the websites who have served as mirrors for BrickJournal:
Japanese Bureau Editor Nathan Bryan
Contributors:
www.LUGNET.com, www.Brickshelf.com, www.peeron.com, www.brickmodder.net www.rustyclank.com
About the Cover: Japanese Mountain Temple. Built by Takuya Taxon. Photo by Takuya Harajo. About the Contents: Closeup of Brick Fan Town. Photo provided by Yoshikazu Saito.
Nathan Bryan - Japanese Bureau Editor
Comments on this issue are welcome! Are there other places to spotlight? I’m sure there are! Joe Meno, Editor P.S. Have ideas or comments? Drop me a line at admin@brickjournal.com. I’m open to suggestions and comments and will do my best to reply. P.P.S. Yes, Brickjournal has a website — www.brickjournal.com! Twitter? Yep, there too — http://twitter.com/brickjournal. Facebook? Yup — http://www.facebook.com/group. php?gid=58728699914&ref=mf. P.P.P.S. If you want info on a subscription, you can go to www.twomorrows.com or scan the code at right!
Glossary
AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) NLSO (Non-LEGO Significant Other) MOC (My Own Creation) TLG (The LEGO Group) BURP (Big Ugly Rock Piece) LURP (Little Ugly Rock Piece)
POOP (Pieces—that can be or should be made—Of Other Pieces) SNOT (Studs Not on Top) LUG (LEGO Users Group) LTC (LEGO Train Club)
LEGO®, TECHNIC, MINDSTORMS, Belville, Scala, BIONICLE, ExoForce, Mars Mission, World City, and other LEGO theme lines are trademarks of the LEGO Group of companies. All articles, photos, and art are copyright BrickJournal Media, LLC 2011, TwoMorrows Publishing and the respective writers, photographers, and artists. All rights reserved. All trademarked items are the property of their respective owners and licensees. Subscriptions are $57USD Media Mail, $75 Canada, $86 International Surface, $128 International Airmail and can be purchased at www.twomorrows.com or payment sent to: TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. The editorial/advertising office address for BrickJournal is: BrickJournal Editor, 5610 Briar Oak Lane #510, Raleigh, NC 27612 USA or admin@brickjournal.com. First Printing. Printed in the USA. ISSN 1941-2347. BrickJournal and its staff would like to thank the LDraw community for the software it makes available to the community, which we use for making all of the instructions and renderings in this magazine. We would especially like to thank Kevin Clague for his continued upgrades of the LPub tool that is a part of2the LDraw suite. For more information, please visit http://www.ldraw.org.
The LEGO Group
Powered by LEGO® Fans! Article by Megan Rothrock Images provided by the LEGO Group
You know ReBrick.com is a new website from the LEGO Group, but did you know that this innovative social media hub which highlights what AFOLs create with the LEGO Brick was created with help from members of the AFOL Community?
BrickJournal met recently with Tormod Askildsen, Senior Director of Community Engagement & Events; Peter Espersen, Online Community Lead; and Signe Lønholdt, Community Editor Online Community from the LEGO Community Engagement and Events team at their headquarters in Billund, Denmark.
Peter Espersen
Tormod Askildsen
BrickJournal: How long has LEGO ReBrick been in development? Tormod Askildsen (TA): We started the ReBrick project about three-and-a-half years ago. An external agency, Naked Communications, pitched an idea to us. The idea was pretty close to the LEGO Fan concept (a web portal for both new and experienced LEGO fans and the community) which was born back in 2004 and established by a group of fans. In September 2008, there was a meeting near London with three LEGO Ambassadors and a group of LEGO employees. From the feedback during this meeting, the initial concept of ReBrick was formed. One of the “ground rules” established early on was that ReBrick should highlight content already available on community sites, thus drive traffic to fan sites rather than be an alternative destination. Also, ReBrick should have a global scope and be developed with members of the LEGO community while seeking to add features different from those of the major fan sites. Peter Espersen: When I joined the LEGO Community team a little over two years ago the project was still in the concept phase. Over the last two years we moved from the many early sketches, business model discussions and power point slides to a closed beta in late 2010 and open beta a year later. We had many challenges getting it off the ground, as internally we needed to prove it was a solid business case in order to get funding for the project, and involving the LEGO Fan Community from the beginning was an important part of this. We invited quite a number of people from Community sites, LEGO Ambassadors, and others who we felt could contribute to the project—gathering their opinions and creating surveys around it, for example what colors to use, blue or yellow, themes to have and so forth, and everyone involved could vote on this. BrickJournal: What is the basic idea behind ReBrick? PE: In the area of LEGO user-developed content, the LEGO Community is a juggernaut; they create some of the most amazing social objects in the world!
Signe Lønholdt
Mads Mommsen
We wanted to celebrate and facilitate even more action around this, but it was essential with ReBrick to communicate that The LEGO Group should not
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The LEGO Group
The Hayabusa set.
LEGO® CUUSOO Goes to Space!
Article by Joe Meno Photography provided by the LEGO Group Cuusoo means “wish” in Japanese. It’s also a firm that joined with the LEGO Group in 2009 to create a online platform to submit proposals for LEGO sets and other ideas. Initially started in Japan, the partnership has yielded two LEGO sets: The Shinkai 6500 research submarine, and now the Hayabusa space probe.
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Inspiration
Hayabusa (“Falcon” in Japanese) was a space probe that was launched in 2003 to land on an asteroid, retrieve surface samples and return to Earth. This was a pioneering mission in that it was the first space probe to accomplish a sample return from an asteroid. The mission is what inspired Daisuke Okubo, a Japanese graphic designer of user interfaces and web design, among other things, to submit Hayabusa to the LEGO CUUSOO website. Daisuke was not the builder of the model he submitted, though. When asked about his building skills and if he is a LEGO builder, he replies, “ I am, but I am not a good builder. I submitted a model built by in81212 (who collaborated with Daisuke).” He continues,”I was inspired by the mission of Hayabusa and the success of the Shinkai 6500 as a LEGO CUUSOO set.” LEGO CUUSOO’s Japanese platform allows an idea to be considered for production when 1000 people vote to support the idea. Naturally, the challenge is to find those supporters. Daisuke used Twitter—he searched for people who were fans of Hayabusa, fans of space, and fans of LEGO. He also added
links to his CUUSOO project webpage and his profile to his Twitter profile. With those in place, anyone who saw these could go and become a supporter. Daisuke didn’t have any doubts about reaching 1000 supporters. He says, “ I believed that I would gather the needed supporters. Since Hayabusa was very popular (in Japan), once I announce my project, I thought that many supporters would come. It was also publicized on Twitter by my tweets and many other retweets.” The Hayabusa project was first posted on LEGO CUUSOO in January 2011. By April, thanks to the efforts of Daisuke and many Japanese websites and blogs, the 1000 supporter threshold was achieved. The LEGO Group sent a congratulatory message to Daisuke: “Congratulations Daisuke on reaching 1,000 votes on your product idea: The Hayabusa! “We are very encouraged by the strong support this model has from the voters, and I hope that we will be able to reward your support with a new Hayabusa LEGO product. We wish to thank all voters for their great interest and enthusiastic engagement.”
Daisuke Okubo
Here at LEGO we are amazed at how fast it reached the threshold and we are now really looking forward to evaluate the model. We will now do some serious analysis on the business case and other decision parameters. We will therefore get back to you in 4 weeks time with a decision on whether it will be produced and if so, when we will launch it. We are looking forward to working with the model. “ By July, the decision was made to produce a Hayabusa set. Daisuke was able to meet with staff from LEGO Japan, JAXA (the Japanese Space Agency), and LEGO CUUSOO. At the meeting, the Hayabusa concept model was shown and reviewed. Daisuke also discussed the possibility of including a minifigure of Junuchiro Kawaguchi, Project Manager of Hayabusa. From there, the project proceeded under the guidance of LEGO CUUSOO.
The first model, built by in81212, and posted online by Daisuke. Set designer for the Hayabusa set, Melody Caddick.
Reflecting on the process, Daisuke most enjoyed the online engagement he received from the project. He tells, “I was able to meet many people through Twitter. I first met people who wanted to support LEGO Hayabusa, but after that, I chatted on Twitter, and got to meet several people. I was happiest about meeting many people who share the same hobby as I do in this project.” Daisuke isn’t standing still either. He’s proposed another CUUSOO project, this time the Japanese Venus Climate Orbiter, Akasuki (http://lego.cuusoo.com/ideas/view/486). As he puts it, “Akatsuki is the younger brother of Hayabusa.” He’s also created a LEGO fan page on Facebook, LEGO FAN (http://www.facebook.com/LEGOFAN.jp). With these, his projects continue to engage the community.
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The LEGO Group
Kazuyoshi Naoe:
Building in Japan! Article by Nathan Bryan of Brickzen.com Photography by Nathan Bryan and Kazuyoshi Naoe
Kazuyoshi Naoe is the Official LEGO Japan Certified Model Builder. He builds many of the LEGO models that are used for LEGO Store displays as well as big dioramas and large scale LEGO models for special events. BrickJournal got a chance to sit down with him at the LEGO Japan Head Office in Tokyo to talk brick. Kazuyoshi Naoe with his favorite magazine.
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BrickJournal: How did you become a model builder at LEGO Japan? Kazuyoshi Naoe: In high school I worked part-time in a small toy store, then I worked for a large company with LEGO Japan as one of the clients. In 2000, I started with LEGO Japan in the Marketing section which is where I still work now. I was asked to help with some building for an event and I found out that I really have a knack for it. LEGO Japan used to have most of the large models sent from the LEGO head office, but the shipping cost was very high and sometimes the models got damaged and needed to be repaired. It made more sense to build them here in Japan, so that became one of the things I do. BrickJournal: Do you just build models every day at LEGO Japan?
Naoe’s model of Times Square for Nasu’s LEGO Stadium.
KN: I am still part of the marketing department, so the majority of my time is spent working on setting up LEGO events in Japan, not building, unfortunately. I need to write up proposals, find venues, sponsors and put together the events. I then will build special models for display at the events. Matsue Castle LEGO model. Inset: The real present-day castle.
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Queen Anne’s Revenge Chosen by Geoff Geoff’s Thoughts:
I first saw the Queen Anne’s Revenge set in a store during a business trip. I immediately loved it, but I couldn’t justify buying it. Eventually I sent a link to my wife and asked for it as a Christmas present. Santa was good to me, and after building it, I love it even more. As with other pirate ships, this one offers plenty of small details throughout, including the captain’s quarters. It also has three working cannons. I mentioned in an earlier review how glad I was that The LEGO Group has added these back to the list of active elements.
Geoff’s Review:
This set maintains the high quality of past pirate ship sets. The details are excellent. For example, the bowsprit figurehead employs a spear that can be a dolphin striker (see the photo at the bottom of the page). The use of bones and skeleton parts throughout add to the sinister nature of the ship in general. The proportions of the ship and masts are excellent and the sail set is quite complete.
The sails come inside a chipboard envelope and all instructions, stickers and the sails are in a bag with a thick piece of cardboard to keep them flat. The detail of the minifigs is great, and the more fragile and colorful pieces come in their own small bags to protect them. There are lots of different angles around the stern superstructure that lend to the authenticity of the design. There’s even a working winch to raise the massive anchor. This set has a great deal of “playability”, but it also stands out as a model to display. The masts seem quite sturdy, even when moving the ship around. I have been carrying it all over the house (setting it up for the photo shoot and moving it out of this room or that since my wife wants the house semi-clean) and the ship is still as stable as when I first assembled it. As with all other pirate ships, the use of the convex 2 x 2 tiles on the bottom make the ship very easy to push around on the floor. I will most likely keep this model assembled and on display for a long time. Now all I need to do is find a place where I can display it.
The bowsprit of the ship is made with a transparent orange skeleton body. Notice the use of a spear in the skeleton to mimic the dolphin striker.
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The massive lantern on the stern uses black skeleton bodies, while the rest of the stern employs other skeletons and bones for detail.
If you have yet to see Takayuki Kawahara’s “LEGO PopUp Kinkaku-ji” then first put down this article, fire up your computer and check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYlA3NV0rFA
Building
Pretty amazing, yes? The 3-minute and 40-second video put on YouTube in 2009 has received over 1 million views and been featured on quite a few LEGO and web blogs. The model consists of over 4,500 pieces, weighs more than four kilograms and took about 200 hours over a two-month span to build. The creator of this ingenious model, Takayuki Kawahara, first started playing with his older brother’s LEGO “London Bus” when he was a little child. He switched to video games but four years ago when building a simple LEGO car for a relative’s kid, he got hooked again. Takayuki is quite an avid fan of puzzles, having once run a site for puzzlers, and was looking to try something that no one else had ever done. Being a fan of mathematical and threedimensional puzzles, he originally tried to create an origami crane out of LEGO elements. He gathered a number of LEGO airplane wings and plates, but the plate thickness of the LEGO pieces made things too difficult. Then he hit upon the idea of trying a “Pop-Up” something. He did some online searches and could not find any examples of other people doing this and so he made it as a puzzle challenge for himself to figure out. At first Takayuki could not decide if he wanted to do Kinkaku-Ji (Temple of the Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto or a fivestory pagoda such as those found throughout Japan. While the folding mechanism for a pagoda might have been easier, since it has five stories, he felt the weight would be too much, and focused on Kinkaku-ji, a three-story structure.
The closed model.
LEGO Pop-Up: Kinkaku-ji of Takayuki Kawahara Article by Nathan Bryan of BrickZen.com
The open model.
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Community
The University of Tokyo’s logo, rendered in LEGO bricks.
The Todai (University of Tokyo) LEGO Club
Article by Jumpei Mitsui, LEGO Certified Professional Builder Translated by Nathan Bryan of BrickZen.com In Japanese universities, when people get together to deepen their interest in a certain hobby, these groups are called “Circles.” Some are for indoor things like Shogi (Japanese Chess) or Go (another game), others are for sports like tennis or karate. At one time there was no Circle for LEGO bricks. I decided to setup a circle for LEGO building with a few friends the year I joined the University of Tokyo (Todai). As a result, the university now has a club called the “Todai LEGO Club.” Just a few years ago, things were much different. In 2005, when I was still a high school student, I saw a post on an internet community site (like Facebook). A student, Keiichi Morita, had posted, “I would like to make Yasuda Auditorium (The University Clock Tower) out of LEGO bricks.” Several other Todai students had joined him to make it a reality.
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Keiichi had never built a large model with LEGO bricks, but he was fascinated with the architecture of the Yasuda Auditorium and was determined to “recreate the Yasuda Auditorium with LEGO bricks.” None of the other people involved at that time had any experience in building large LEGO models, and were facing the difficulties of not knowing how to design a large model, or even how to procure the bricks needed for one. When I entered the University of Tokyo in April of 2006, I immediately posted to the community and told them that I would like to get involved. I had made quite a few large models, many with tens of thousands of
pieces. I knew how to obtain bricks through BrickLink, how to design models with LEGO graph paper and other experience for the construction of large models. There was around six months of preparation and, in the autumn of 2006, production began. Around that time, I had also discovered at the University of Tokyo a very good builder who had been posting nice models on BrickShelf, Koichi Omura. Being an excellent builder of minifigscale propeller airplanes, I had seen many of his works on the internet and was a big fan of Omura. I remember being very surprised to find out that not only was he also a Todai student, but was the same age as me. Including him, the five of us started on the project. Omura had other projects he was working on, but over a period of four months, we were able to complete the building of the Yasuda Auditorium out of LEGO bricks. Some of the people participating were very experienced with building with LEGO bricks, and some had little experience (and all five of us had different academic majors), but through cooperation and coordination we were able to create a wonderful model. The completed Yasuda Auditorium was displayed at the Tokyo University May Festival in May of 2007. Although it was our debut exhibition, we won a popular vote by visitors and took first place in the Model Division. It was also published by newspapers all over Japan and the model was featured by national media after the exhibition. Although there was a lot of hard work put into the build, the Yasuda Auditorium model was scheduled to be dismantled after the exhibition. However a savior appeared. An event planner that had come to see the festival, saw the Todai LEGO Club model and offered to have it shown in a department store. The store proposed was the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi in downtown Tokyo, one of the most prestigious venues available. It proved to be an extremely popular exhibition there and during this time the University of Tokyo contacted us about the model and purchased it as a souvenir for the university’s 130-year anniversary. In this way the LEGO brick Yasuda Auditorium was saved from destruction and will be held and displayed permanently by the university.
Yasuda Auditorium LEGO model.
The rear of the Yasuda Auditorium LEGO model, showing the roof detail. We had achieved the goal of “Creating the Yasuda Auditorium out of LEGO bricks.” Since there was such great teamwork, we decided to create the Todai LEGO Club and continue making and displaying models. Since then we have created many models for exhibition at each year’s school festival. None of the original members remain, but each year new students join, and currently there are more than ten members in the club. So far the Red Gate (the university symbol gate), Todai Characters, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building, and Budokan have been some of the models created. All have been featured in newspapers and magazines as well as shown
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Hotel reception models. Photo by Nathan Bryan.
House”, where kids can play with Japanese rhinoceros beetles and other large insects, and on the wall would be enormous LEGO Bugs. Restaurants had LEGO displays and even the local hotel had LEGO models at the reception and a building table in the lobby.
LEGO brick mold. Photo by Yoshikazu Saito.
One could hear many people saying such things as “Wow I didn’t know anyone could make that with LEGO!” or “Incredible what can be made with those bricks.” And it certainly made many new fans of LEGO bricks. With the support from LEGO Japan, Nasu Highland really went out of their way to make a LEGO Paradise here in Japan. Unfortunately, LEGO Stadium closed on August 28, 2011. Hopefully there will be another in the not so far future.
One of the LEGO history displays. Photo by Yoshikazu Saito.
LEGO castle display. Photo by Yoshikazu Saito.
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Community
A Japanese FIRST LEGO League team at World Championships
LEGO Technic® and MINDSTORMS® in Japan Article by Yoshihito Isogawa Translation by Nathan Bryan of Brickzen.com
In Japan, it is not easy to build “Moving Models” with LEGO bricks. The LEGO Technic series can only be found in ClickBrick LEGO Stores, major toy stores and on Amazon.co.jp., and there are even fewer places to purchase MINDSTORMS. Furthermore, there is no official Japanese retail edition of the MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0. Fortunately, for the educational market, there is a Japanese version of MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 available. As a result, many Japanese children are enjoying playing and building with LEGO Technic and MINDSTORMS at schools, cram schools (accelerated schools for college exam preparations), or in classrooms. Many of them participate enthusiastically in FLL (FIRST LEGO League) and WRO (World Robot Olympiad).
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Community
A LEGO® Space Elevator? The Sky’s the Limit!
NASA Artist Pat Rawlings’ rendition of a space elevator. Art courtesy of NASA.
Article by Kenichi Tohya Translation by Nathan Bryan of Brickzen.com
Defining a Space Elevator
Connecting an elevator from space to the Earth is an unprecedented idea of transportation. At the equator, satellites at an altitude of about 36,000 km rotate at the same speed as the Earth, so these geostationary satellites remain stationary at a point high in the heavens. Stretching a cable from the ground to one of these satellites could allow an elevator system to be created, which could transport people and goods to and from orbit. How to stretch a cable from one of these geostationary satellites to the ground without having the weight of the cable pull it down still remains a challenge. If possible though, this would make a Space Elevator.
Building Prototypes
In building a space elevator prototype, rather than cutting aluminum and attaching a motor and driver system, using LEGO bricks, especially Technic pieces, enables one to easily build something one can imagine. By making it into a competition, many people are able to participate, fostering a learning experience for people that might actually create a space elevator in the future. These competitions have been named the “LEGO bricks Activity and Space Elevator Race,” or LASER for short.
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The aim is for everyday people, from elementary children to adults, to participate and learn the concept of a space elevator by creating their own “climber” (a device to transport people and goods like a space elevator) out of LEGO elements and compete in a race of vertical climbing. Everyone learns the joy of communicating and “making something” along with learning about space elevators through these competitions.
Many climbers aim for speed by incorporating two Power Function motors in their design. Top teams have been able to achieve 7 meters in about 14 seconds.
Children competing in the Indoor Competition.
BELT PATH
More information in Japanese can be found on the Japan Space Elevator Association home page: http://jsea.jp/ The first LASER competition was held on August 9th, 2008 in Funabashi, Chiba at the Nihon University College of Science and Technology Aerospace Laboratory. There were 20 participants, undergraduates, graduate students and high school students. Each year there are more participants and on November 21st of 2010 the fifth competition was held featuring 36 teams.
er XL Powctions Funtor Mo
Tension Bar Used to keep belt in place
er Powctions n Fu otor XL M A sample climber.
Battery pack is held in place by beams on each side Power Functions Battery Pack (AA size)
Power Functions IR Receiver
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