Proposed Lego set honors illustrious women from NASA

1

For many decades, a large chunk of Lego collectibles available in the market has belonged to the male gender.  Now, a woman wants to erode this male dominance by designing toy collectibles of “the ladies who rock outer space.”

Maia Weinstock, deputy editor of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) News, submitted a proposal to create a Lego set praising the hard work and dedication of five diligent women who pioneered space technology in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

SCREENGRAB from Maia Weinstock/ Lego Ideas’ website

The NASA women Lego set. SCREENGRAB from Maia Weinstock/ Lego Ideas website

The five women featured in the set are Margaret Hamilton, a computer scientist who worked at MIT and NASA in the 1960s; Katherine Johnson, a mathematician and space scientist who calculated trajectories for Apollo missions to the moon; Sally Ride, the first female astronaut who reached outer space in 1983; Nancy Grace Roman, the first female executive of NASA who ironed out plans for its Hubble Space Telescope; and Mae Jemison, the first African-American in space in 1992.

“This proposed set celebrates five notable NASA pioneers and provides an educational building experience to help young ones and adults alike learn about the history of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics,” Weinstock wrote in the caption.

Her virtuoso Lego blueprint is featured on Lego Ideas website, which showcases proposals for future Lego sets. Currently, it has nearly 8,960 votes, and it needs to reach 10,000 in order for the Lego Review Board to examine it for possible release.  Gianna Francesca Catolico

Read more...