Artemis II Model Beware

[Roger Wacker]

Lego post

 

A Warning to Prospective Buyers of LEGO 10341 NASA Artemis Space Launch System

 

I want to share my experience with the LEGO 10341 NASA Artemis Space Launch System because I think prospective buyers should know what they may encounter.

 

I purchased this set approximately two months before the planned Artemis II launch. My goal was simple: build the model and have it completed in time for the launch. I was particularly excited about this set because Artemis is not just an interesting subject to me—it has been a significant part of my professional life.

 

I spent 40 years working for NASA and as an engineer, and I personally designed a number of systems associated with the Artemis spacecraft’s GN&C effort. So when I saw LEGO’s 3,601-piece Artemis model, I couldn’t resist. LEGO describes it as an accurate replica of the Artemis Space Launch System, and at $259.99, it is certainly positioned as a premium adult model.

 

Unfortunately, my experience has been extremely disappointing.

 

I have now encountered nearly 100 missing pieces in my set.

 

To be clear, LEGO has been willing to replace the missing pieces at no charge. I appreciate that. The problem is the turnaround time. I have been told that replacement pieces can take approximately three weeks to arrive.

 

And there is an even bigger problem: I don’t yet know how many additional pieces are missing.

 

I have not inventoried all 3,601 pieces against the approximately 300 pages of building instructions. Doing that would essentially require me to go through the entire instruction book in advance, identify every part required at every stage, and create my own inventory spreadsheet.

 

That isn’t a reasonable expectation for someone who purchased a LEGO set expecting to build it.

 

Instead, I discover missing pieces as I progress through the build. When I reach a step and the required piece isn’t there, the build stops. I request a replacement, wait several weeks, and then continue—until I encounter the next missing piece.

 

At this rate, a project I bought specifically to complete before the Artemis II launch could potentially take close to a year.

 

That is profoundly disappointing.

 

I’m not posting this because I expect LEGO to give me special treatment because of my NASA background. I’m posting it because people considering purchasing this $259.99 set deserve to know about my experience before they spend the money.

 

This is a 3,601-piece premium adult model representing a subject of enormous historical and engineering significance. For me, it was supposed to be a fun and meaningful way to celebrate a program I have spent much of my career working on.

 

Instead, I’m spending a significant amount of my time troubleshooting LEGO’s parts inventory.

 

I hope LEGO will take this experience seriously. Providing replacement pieces eventually is appreciated, but it doesn’t completely solve the problem when the customer has to repeatedly stop a 3,601-piece build and wait weeks for individual replacement shipments.

 

If you are considering buying LEGO 10341, I would strongly recommend that you understand this potential issue before purchasing it.

 

I would also be very interested in hearing from other owners of the 10341: Have you experienced significant numbers of missing pieces? If so, how many, and how far into the build did you discover them?

 

I’m interested in documenting the experience objectively rather than simply complaining.

 

— A retired NASA engineer who really wanted to see his LEGO Artemis launch before Artemis II

[icm]

Hi, thanks for posting. Can you please edit your post to use a smaller font? I understand that you may need the larger font at the end of your 40-year career, but it makes your post a little harder to read for me.

Sounds like you've had a very bad experience with this set. Speaking for myself, I did not have any missing pieces in my copy of set 10341.

You should probably inventory all the pieces before you continue, so that you can request all the missing pieces from Lego at once. You should probably have already done that. It's a bother, I know, but it's less of a bother to order the missing pieces once and receive them once than to stop-and-start the build many times as you continue from bag to bag discovering missing pieces.

Edit - You say you personally worked on a number of GN&C systems for Artemis. Can you tell us a little more about your work for the Artemis program? I'm graduating with my PhD pretty soon (knock on wood) and looking for jobs in space GN&C (knock on wood again), and during my master's program several years ago we regularly had guest speakers talk about their work planning trajectories or working on navigation problems for Orion, before the Artemis 1 mission plan had been finalized. I'd be fascinated to hear any stories you can tell about your work on Artemis and/or SLS.

Edited 18 hours ago by icm

[JesseNight]

Sounds like you had some really bad luck. A missing piece or two is always possible on any set, but this many is quite exceptional.
Considering the situation, I'm afraid getting the missing pieces from LEGO is really all you can do. If it's common parts you're missing, you can always take them from a later bag so your building isn't interrupted for every single missing piece. I can imagine it being a frustrating experience on a set of this size.

Despite all that, I hope you get all the missing pieces within a reasonable amount of time and can still enjoy the building experience.

Also like icm said, please use a regular size font (default preferably) to keep it comfortable to read for everyone.

[Roger Wacker]

Sorry about the font all. Yes, eyes are 67 yrs old. My worked at NASA spanned Shuttle, ISS, X-38 and Artemis, specifically the Orion spacecraft. BTW, I built the Lego Saturn V rocket with NO issues. My worked focused primarily in control. I did receive a masters and stopped my PhD work to start making money. I worked both on- orbit and entry for all vehicles ( yes I even did one of the first studies in de-commissioning ISS). I would say my expertise is in flight control. That discipline still demanded systems knowledge of sensors, actuators, effectors as well as guidance & navigation. Myself and an a colleague designed a complete entry flight control system using dynamic inversion to control aero surfaces. Successfully tested it 4 times launched from a B52. I did the entry flight control design for Artemis. Pretty simple because you only have one degree of freedom (roll) to control the lift vector. I will mention that achievement of guidance trajectory commands of a spacecraft in LEO, cis-Lunar and LLO that carry many different types of engines (RCS, AUX and OME) in the face of rigid-body, flex and slosh dynamics with imperfect Navigation (we do use GPS when we possible) can present challenges. I worked using various effectors alone and in concert to achieve flight objectives (delta-V, pointing, rendezvous & docking, etc). Good luck with your studies. Aerospace is a very exciting field to be in if that’s your goal!

[icm]

Cool, thanks for your reply. I found some of your abstracts on the NASA technical reports server, but I don't have time to find and read the full reports right now. I guess you were first looking for work in the mid-eighties? What was your masters work in, and what was your PhD work in before you decided to leave the program? Back before covid, I did my masters work with a simple problem in autonomous EKF angles-only navigation during a hyperbolic flyby, but my PhD work has been partly a simple problem in solar system dynamics and partly a simple application of statistics to asteroid orbits. I don't really see much of a future for myself in solar system dynamics, so I'm looking for work in space GN&C, but it's been so long since my masters that I'm worried I won't be able to get work in that field either. 

I guess you worked at Honeywell? What was it like working there, would you recommend it?