As part of a special commission for NASA, the LEGO company has created three custom brick figures to travel into the outer realms affixed to 'Juno', one of the space agency's probes, which launched today. The three figures represent one scientist, Galileo Galilei and two roman gods, Jupiter and Juno (for whom the probe is named). Of course, these are not your average minifigures.

Comprised entirely of aluminum and designed to cause very little interference with Juno’s true mission, the trio will touch down on Jupiter in 2016 where the probe will gather data on the planet. But at $5,000 for each figurine, it is stunts like these that shed light as to why our space program is in funding danger.

via: Designboom