Would you like to be the first astronaut to walk on Mars? It wouldn't be the same as just hopping on the school bus. Even after you completed your astronaut's training, you might have to wait until they built a launch site on the moon. It's much easier to jump on the moon and it is also easier to lift off for a spaceship. Can you guess why? If you thought it was due to the weak gravity, you're right! Maybe you have watched the Mars rovers traveling over its surface. How do you think NASA managed to send them hundreds of thousands of miles and then six months later have them land exactly where they wanted them? It's a lot like football players who throw the ball to where they think the other running player will be; they figure out when the rovers' spaceship will meet with Mars as its orbit nears Earth. They could probably send men to Mars, but what would they do about the supplies they would need for the long wait until they were once again near Earth's orbit? Astronauts in the space shuttle and the space station have learned to live in small spaces; they enjoy floating in the zero gravity, sleeping upside down, and throwing orange juice bubbles. How would you like to live with your friends every day for at least two years? It will probably be many more years before you have to be worrying about traveling to another galaxy, but who would have guessed that we would ever travel to the moon?

Try This

Pretty Flashy

How about borrowing someone's strobe light? The beam of light or beacon that they produce moves very fast, like some of the items in space. You can change the setting on the strobe light to move slowly like an airport or lighthouse beacon or quickly like a pulsar. Can you move around the room when the light is flashing?

Journey into Space

Imagine what it must be like to take off into space. Astronauts who have traveled into space always talk about the view. From five miles up, you can see Interstate highways, large buildings, and rivers. But what do you think you would be able to see on Earth if you were actually on your way to the moon? Astronauts report seeing continents, really large rivers, and even the Great Wall of China! One of the best parts of being an astronaut is seeing the world from a different point of view, which few people ever get to see. Although there is a great deal of work to do on a mission, the astronauts are allowed a certain amount of time to sit and gaze at our planet. As they return from their mission and get closer to Earth, they begin to see more details like mountains and rivers, and eventually they get close enough to see houses and people. Even though you aren't traveling to space, you can take a closer look at this one-of-a-kind planet. Have you ever really looked at ants in an anthill, busily working away in their small world? Or how about watching what goes on in a nearby patch of flowers. You can learn more about Earth by using microscopes and binoculars to see what you might not have noticed at first glance. What does a piece of bread, a coin, or your skin look like under a magnifying glass?

Traveling Through Time

Do you ever wish that you were old enough to drive a car or go to college? If you could, would you just travel forward to those exciting times in a time machine like the people did in the book written by Jules Verne? In a way you actually do when you look up into the night sky. Many of the stars that you and the astronomers are looking at are no longer there; they were created and then ceased to exist billions of years ago. The diminishing light or explosion from their death just hasn't reached Earth! Astronomers believe that light from a star may just disappear, sucked in by all the gravity created by those massive black holes. A scientist named Albert Einstein believes that a time warp can happen as anything nears these holes, and that time and space are stretched like your body is when you look in the mirror in a fun house at an amusement park! If you were traveling in a spaceship and you passed around the edge of these whirlpools in space, would time slow down or speed up? No one knows for sure, because it's only a theory, but wouldn't it be fun if it were true? Eventually, we may solve all of the mysteries outer space has to offer, but until then it is fun to wonder about them.

Space of Tomorrow?

In the beginning, people only dreamed of living in space. Before they could live there, first they would have to find a way to get off the ground. Not only did we get off the ground, but today many people take turns living and working in space stations for up to a year or so at a time. How would you like to live in a traveling space hotel, like some people believe may happen someday? Will it ever be possible for mankind to live forever in a rocket type of mobile home, touring space and discovering the answers to all of our questions about time and space? Our adventures in space may be just beginning. Who knows what secrets we might learn from time warps, stardust, or how a lack of gravity will affect us? Does outer space hold the key to the fountain of youth, or will we find some of the cures for our diseases? Will we find new foods or materials to make new things out of? We can only imagine what we will learn as we spend more time living away from our world and traveling closer to other ones. No one really knows for sure what lies ahead, which is why they call it space exploration. Years ago, people may have thought they knew all there was to know about space, yet new discoveries are still being made, and people go on dreaming of what the future may hold. Maybe one day you will find out for yourself what lies beyond the nearest star.

Hello UFOs!

The Hubble Space Telescope took pictures of these UFOs on two different nights. Which two spacecraft do not appear in both pictures?