Jacobs School Alum Designs LEGO's New Mars Rover

Stephen Pakbaz, who earned a master's in mechanical engineering in 2007 from the Jacobs School, can now add another prestigious item to his resume: LEGO will start manufacturing a replica of the Curiosity rover that he built during his spare time. 

Pakbaz had uploaded a picture of his rover to LEGO's online fans community, known as CUUSOO (Japanese for imagination). He also included a PDF with step-by-step instructions to build the rover out of pieces LEGO enthusiasts already own. 

Fan submissions on CUUSOO need to collect 10,000 to be considered for commercial release. Pakbaz' Curiosity reached that goal in August 2012, according to Space.com. "My hope was to have a set produced while the real rover was still active on Mars so that the model could help kids learn about the real rover's discoveries as they occurred," Pakbaz told collectSPACE.com in an interview last year. 

"I'm sure that LEGO played a major part in me becoming a mechanical engineer and I thought that designing the Mars Curiosity rover was a nice way to return the favor," Pakbaz told his hometown newspaper, the Vacaville Reporter. 

By the way, Pakbaz also built a replica of the Curiosity's famous Sky Crane out of LEGOs. He posted instructions here -- just in case you're looking for something to do this weekend.

LEGO hasn't said yet when the model will be available in stores.