OK, it's not Bionicle, but this should interest most people who find Bionicle fun. Three LEGO bricks bounced to a stop on the Martian surface on Saturday night, along with some rover thing NASA sent to keep them company. And the Astrobots went along...

The "Red Rover Goes To Mars" DVD and surrounding metal bricks are visible in this early Spirit self-portrait. A closeup of the DVD and bricks taken before launch is shown in the lower right corner.

The Planetary Society and LEGO have jointly sponsored "Red Rover Goes to Mars," an ongoing program to engage the public in space science and exploration. Both Mars Rovers, Spirit (above) and Opportunity carry mini-DVDs, which are held in place by red, blue and yellow titanium brick-shaped holders (plastic bricks would've melted and cracked in the hostile environments of vacuum and Mars' atmosphere). In the center of the DVD is a representation of each "Astrobot" - named Biff Starling and Sandy Moondust. The Astrobots have an amusing and informative dialog with each other and ground control.

The figures themselves are magnets, which will show the amount of dust collected compared to the rest of the DVD, which also acts as a color calibration target for the rover's video cameras. Each rover will take at least one good resolution image of the DVD and brick holders before driving off the landing assembly.

The RRGTM is part of LEGO's new emphasis on interesting young students with space science and exploration. LEGO has recently released six sets, co-branded with Discovery Kids Channel, that recreate past and current space exploration vehicles. The biggest set in the product line is the Mars Rover, a reproduction of the MER-1 and MER-2 rovers.

LEGO also created a life-size replica of the Mars Rovers - in LEGO bricks, of course. The 70,000-element, 280-pound model is on display in Pasadena, and can also be seen in this picture.

Interested in finding out more about LEGO and space exploration? Check out the Planetary Society's Mars Rover page, and a fan site named Space Bricksploration (disclaimer - I did this site) that features five of the sets, including the rover.

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