14 DAY TRIAL // The NASA Mars rover Curiosity is one of the coolest and extreme machines ever built. It may not look like it, but the conditions it endures on Mars would destroy most machines that operate on our planet.
And it does this tens of millions of kilometers away from the nearest service station.
So it's fitting perhaps that LEGO decided to build a model of the rover for eager fans willing to depart with their hard-earned cash for the overpriced toy.
LEGO decided to craft the rover only after enough people backed the project on Cuusoo, LEGO's Kickstarter-like site.
The model proposed on the site was actually put together by Stephen Pakbaz, who worked with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and had a part in the design and testing of the real rover.
The model he put together is quite detailed, with a fully-articulated arm, retractable mast, and even a working rocker-bogie suspension, which you can see in action here.
The proposal got enough votes for LEGO to consider it last year, a few weeks after the rover landed on Mars, but the review process ended only now.