This shuttle I originally built last year using a classic black-and-white color scheme to fit in with traditional NASA design and the design of my moon base which is based on the Exploriens Theme. Later when I made the comic, I desided to use this ship for the bad guys (earth-based space venture Extreme Exploration), because I liked the exterior design. The interior didn’t really allow for inside shots, and in minifig scale the ship would have had to be much bigger, so I built a separate scene to shoot the scenes playing on the inside. This scene included the cockpit, the cargo room/improvised prison and the airlock.

The ship is equipped with two nuclear-thermal rockets that employed LEGO part 11598 as nozzle extension. At the time I built this MOC (late 2016), the part was not yet available in pearl dark grey, only in trans-purple and trans-neon-yellow. That’s why I decided to spray-paint it in grey with a spray can I had left. This is not the prettiest solution, but it does the job and the drying dye has created some interesting erosion patterns on the inside of the cone. For the Integrity, which I built later, I used the pearl-dark-grey Ninjago Vermillion eggs as nozzle extensions.



Using a nuclear thermal rocket engine, any gas can be employed as propellant. That is why this ship has two ways of refilling fuel on-the-fly. There are two atmospheric scoops on each side, to suck in the atmosphere during reentry or close fly-bys of planets with an atmosphere. Furthermore, the ship has the old rainbow-color-sparkling PV-panel, which I imagine to be a proton collector instead. The idea is that the panel captures the solar wind, which consists of hydrogen and helium ions, which can be neutralized to form a gas. The gas is then compressed and used as propellant. This idea has been in my mind for a while, I’m not sure if there’s anyone researching it for space applications yet.

This way, the ship is independent of refuelling stations and can operate deep into the outer solar system.



The ship, like the Integrity, is designed to land vertically. For atmospheric reentry the legs fold in to enclose the engine bells, and immediatly before landing fold out to provide stability on the ground. The ship can be exited through the airlock in between the engines, from which a ladder will be extended to reach ground level.

The story behind the Ship

In the events taking place in the “Minifigures-on-Mars”-Comic, it is described how this long-range explorer was employed by the “Extreme Exploration” – space company to send a team of mercenaries to Mars to return the Martian Base crew and close down the base. They impovised a prison by converting the cargo sections into locked rooms.

Later, when Solomon Blaze and Viking rescued their friends from this ship, Viking stayed on the ship to launch it with the mercenaries on board. Having no fuel left, it was now impossible for the ship to return to Mars. This way, enough time could be bought to bring all Martians into the new secret underground base.

If you want more stories from Mars, feel free to read through the LEGO comic on this website!