Lego’s Mars Rover Perseverance has 360-degree steering and a swinging arm

Lego’s last Mars Rover was a little simplistic (pdf) — so I’m glad to see that the new Lego Technic NASA Mars Rover Perseverance, just announced today for $100, puts more of the real rover’s engineering front and center.

With the flick of a lever, the rover’s iconic six-wheel suspension spins a set of ball-tipped gears — to turn four of its wheels inward so you can spin the entire craft 360-degrees. You can switch back and forth between that 360-degree mode and a normal driving mode, much like you can see in the NASA JPL video here:

There’s also pair of additional dials on the back to move the sample arm up, down, left and right for play. It’s a fairly large set, at 9 inches high, 9 inches wide, and 12.5 inches long.

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