A fan's yearlong mission to gain support for his LEGO version of the International Space Station is now complete. <\/p>\n
Christoph Ruge's model of the orbiting outpost recorded its 10,000th vote on Friday (April 3) after being posted to the Danish toy company's social website, LEGO Ideas, more than a year ago. Ruge's plastic brick replica of the space station racked up its final 2,035 supporters in a matter of just 10 hours after it made it onto the front page of another popular website. <\/p>\n
\"Please support the project so we can all have a little ISS in our homes and\/or office cubicles,\" Monitor343, a Reddit member, wrote in his appeal to readers of the site's Space community. [LEGOs and Space Travel: A Photo Gallery] <\/p>\n
LEGO will officially review fan-proposed ideas for production if they receive 10,000 votes on the LEGO Ideas site. <\/p>\n
The project's soaring support came within 26 days of its expiration. Interest in the space station model grew slowly until last month, when it finally reached the halfway mark of 5,000 votes. Along the way, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) partners aboard the actual space station gave Ruge's idea a boost by sharing it with their social media followers. <\/p>\n
\"A space station design is up for LEGO community fans to vote on,\" NASA wrote on Twitter in November. <\/p>\n
Ruge also had the chance to talk about and show off his model at ESA's European Astronaut Center, located near Cologne, Germany. <\/p>\n
\"Beginning the [March 21 SpaceUp] event with a talk by veteran astronaut Reinhold Ewald and a live tweet from space by ESA astronaut Samantha Christoforetti set the bar high,\" the space agency described on its website. \"It continued to be raised even higher ... [by] both giant and miniature International Space Station models built out of custom LEGO bricks.\" <\/p>\n
Ruge's large model, as posted on LEGO Ideas, recreates the International Space Station in its current configuration, including all of its U.S., Russian, Japanese and European modules. Built from slightly more than 1,000 LEGO bricks, it features rotating solar arrays, an articulated robotic arm and visiting vehicles that can dock to the outpost. <\/p>\n
Ruge's model, if approved for production, will be LEGO's first replica of the complete International Space Station to be offered for sale. In 2003, the company, in partnership with the Discovery Channel, sold a 162-brick set of the orbital laboratory based on its then-still under construction configuration. <\/p>\n
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The rest is here: <\/p>\n
Fan's LEGO Replica of International Space Station Soars to 10,000 Votes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A fan's yearlong mission to gain support for his LEGO version of the International Space Station is now complete. Continue reading