Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope Could Become a Lego Playset

The Lego board is now reviewing a designer's concept to make NASA's famous telescope a collectors' toy

Remember the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), which is out in space sending back some of the most beautiful photos of galaxies light years away?

Well, a keen Lego and space fan has recreated the telescope in great detail, entirely from Lego bricks, and his design has now achieved 10,000 supporters, meaning the Lego board will officially now consider making it into a Lego playset.

LEGO Hubble Telescope 1 — A 3D model rendering of the Hubble Space Telescope in Lego Gabriel Russo

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into space in 1990. Built by Nasa and the European Space Agency, it orbits outside the Earth's atmosphere and is one of the world's most important research tools, having achieved significant scientific breakthroughs in astrophysics.

Over the years, the telescope has had an array of wide-ranging cameras able to detect infrared and ultraviolet rays, which enable it to take extremely high-resolution images with almost no background light.

LEGO Hubble Telescope 4 — The side view of the Lego Hubble Space Telescope model Gabriel Russo

Most recently, Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed in 2009 during Space Shuttle mission STS-125, has succeeded in capturing stunning pictures of Messier 5, an ancient star cluster that has been fascinating astronomers for at least 400 years.

This year, Nasa has also released an incredible panorama of the universe featuring 10,000 galaxies taken by Hubble, which has the potential to help us understand the evolution of the cosmos.

LEGO Hubble Telescope 5 — Oh no, something's going wrong - hopefully these astronauts will fare better than the ones in the movie *Gravity* Gabriel Russo

LEGO Hubble Telescope 6 — Gabriel Russo's concept for the Hubble Space Telescope includes the connection cables to keep the astronauts safe as they work in space Gabriel Russo

Lego Ideas user Gabriel Russo said on his projects page that he made his version of the Hubble telescope from Lego Technic bricks and hopes that Lego will release the Hubble Space Telescope as a playset for the telescope's 25th anniversary in 2015.

LEGO Hubble Telescope 7 — The Hubble Space Telescope Lego model is an incredibly detailed replica of the original in space Gabriel Russo

Russo is a big fan of space and has other Nasa-focused Lego Ideas project designs currently gathering support on the Ideas website, such as plans for a Martian base, a space excursion vehicle and an all-terrain transport vehicle. You can also view his non-space designs, such as a proposed playset of the Roman Colosseum and HG Wells' Time Machine, modelled on the 2002 film.

Lego Ideas is a successful crowdsourcing platform where anyone can submit a concept for a playset, provided they have built and customised it from Lego bricks.

Previously successful products to have come out of Lego Ideas include recreations of iconic movie franchises such as Lego Ghostbusters and Lego Back to the Future, as well as the first ever female Lego scientists. The toymaker has credited crowdsourcing ideas with helping it stave off bankruptcy.

Lego