Space+Command

SPACE COMMAND
SPACE COMMAND **You first entered the Space Academy where you learned the history of space research from ancient times to the present. Here are some challenging questions from the exhibit.**


 * 1. In the 1700s, a sundial was built in Jaipur, India that was 90 feet high. How many yards is that? If the sundial's base has a diameter of 180 feet, what is the radius of the sundial? What is the circumference? Hint: circumference = pi x diameter.**


 * 2. The Mayans determined that it takes 584 days for Venus to orbit the sun. If this is so, then how many times would Earth orbit the sun while Venus completes 5 orbits?**

Orion the Hunter
 * 3. On display was a piece of a 150 foot nickel and iron meteorite that fell to the Earth 50,000 years ago. It was 5.5 billion years old. Write 5.5 billion in scientific notation and standard form. It weighed 300,000 pounds. How many tons is that?**
 * 4. Since the beginning of time, man has been fascinated by the stars and the pictures they seem to form. These are called constellations. Give each point in the constellation a letter. Use this to identify the following:**
 * a quadrilateral
 * a pentagon
 * an obtuse angle
 * an acute angle


 * 5. Globular clusters have 100,000 stars. How many stars would be in 200 globular clusters? Give your answer in scientific notation and standard form. If there were 45 billion stars in globular clusters, how many clusters would that be?**


 * 6. There are 250 to 400 billion stars in every galaxy. There are 50 billion galaxies. Find the middle of the range to find out how many stars that would be.**


 * 7. The distance of the stars to Earth is measured in parsecs. One parsec equals 3.26 light years. The display showed that the innermost sphere of stars is 0.5 parsec. How many light years are these stars from Earth? The same illustration showed that another radius of stars is 6.5 parsecs from Earth. How many light years would that be? How many parsecs are stars that are about 114 light years away?**
 * 8. The weight of something depends on gravity, which is different on each planet. Things weigh less on small planets like Mars and Mercury. Something that weighs 100 pounds on Earth has a different weight on each planet. Use this information to make a bar graph.**


 * **PLANETS** || **WEIGHT IN POUNDS** ||
 * Mercury || 37.8 ||
 * Venus || 87.8 ||
 * Earth || 100 ||
 * Mars || 38 ||
 * Jupiter || 236.4 ||
 * Saturn || 91.6 ||
 * Uranus || 89 ||
 * Neptune || 112 ||
 * Pluto || 8 ||

Make a timeline of these events starting with 1930 and ending with 2000. Remember to use equal intervals.
 * 9. One wall was dedicated to the history of space exploration. These are some of the important events:**
 * 1937 The invention of the radio telegraph which picks up radio signals in space.
 * 1961 Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut, was the first human sent into space.
 * 1965 Gemini VI was the first spacecraft to dock with another.
 * 1966 Surveyor I was an unmanned spacecraft that took pictures of the moon.
 * 1976 Viking I was the first spacecraft to Mars.
 * 1990 The Hubble Space Telescope was launched.
 * 1997 Sojourner was the first rover to move away from the spacecraft to get rock and soil samples.
 * 1998 Sixteen nations joined to establish the International Space Station.


 * 10. When Yuri Gagarin left Earth in 1961, it took 89:34 minutes to circle the Earth. How many minutes and seconds less than 2 hours is this? Sputnik left Earth at 9:07 and returned 107 minutes later. Exactly what time did it return?**


 * 11. On its first trip out from Pathfinder, the Rover Sojourner went 0.4 meters in one minute. If it went 100 meters altogether, how long did it take in hours and minutes?**


 * 12. The Hubble Telescope went up into space on April 25, 1990. About how many weeks has it been up in space?**




 * 13. Pixels are dots that create an image. The more pixels, the better the image. Five hundred pixels per square inch creates a good picture. How many pixels would there be in a 3" x 5" picture?**


 * 14. Let's go shopping. At Outerspace Outfitters (one of the displays), a space suit costs $12 million. It is on sale for 45% off. How much would it cost? The geologists' shovel is on sale for 20% off the original $175. What would it cost?**
 * YOU HAVE LANDED!**

Space Command Middle Years Solutions
**1. 30 yards; 90 feet; 565.2 feet or 188.4 yards**


 * 2. 8 times**


 * 3. 5.5 x 109 ; 5,500,000,000 ; 150 tons**


 * 4. Check answers**


 * 5. 2 x 107 ; 20,000,000; 450,000 globular clusters**


 * 6. 1.625 x 1022**


 * 7. 1.63 light years; 21.19 light years; about 35 parsecs**


 * 8. Check graphs for labels and scale**


 * 9. Check timelines**


 * 10. 30:26 minutes; 10:54 AM**


 * 11. 6 hours 10 minutes**


 * 12. Answers will vary. 676 weeks the last week of April 2003.**


 * 13. 7,500 pixels**


 * 14. $6,600,000; $140**