Survival on the Moon 
An Exercise for 9th Grade Earth Science

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Procedure:
A.  You and two of your crew are returning to the base ship on the sunlit side of the moon after carrying out a 72-hour exploration trip.  Your small rocket craft has crash-landed about 300 kilometers from the base ship.  You and the crew need to reach the base ship.  In addition to your spacesuits, your crew was able to remove the following items from the rocket craft:
        4 packages of food concentrate
        20m nylon rope
        1 portable heating unit
        1 magnetic compass
        1 box of matches
        1 first-aid kit
        2 50-kg tanks of oxygen
        20 L of water
        1 star chart
        1 case of dehydrated milk
        1 solar-powered radio set
        3 signal flares
        1 large piece of insulating fabric
        1 flashlight
        2 45-caliber pistols, loaded

B.  Using what you know about the moon, rate each item in the above list according to how important it would be in getting you back to the base ship.  List the most important first, the least important last.  Number them 1 through 15. Then, answer the following:

1. Which three items were the most important? Explain.

2. Which items would be useless?  Explain your answer.
(For help in ranking your items, you may wish to refer to the Resources Page.)

  Stop here after completing parts A & B and await further instruction from your teacher.

C.  Compare your list with the one supplied by your teacher. Astronauts would list the items in this order.

D.  To score your list against the astronauts' list, do the following:

3. Beside each item on your list place the number that represents the difference between your ranking and the astronauts' ranking.  For example, if you listed oxygen first, you would write 0 in front of oxygen on your list.  If you had listed it third, then you would write 2, and so on.

4. After placing a score beside each item on your list, add up each crew's scores to get a total.  Compare your score with those of other crews.

5. What is your total score?

6. The lower your total score, the closer you came to surviving the return trip to the base ship.  How did your chance of surviving compare to other crews' chances?

Conclusions:

1. What does the moon lack that humans need for survival?

2. What materials would you need to survive on the moon?

For a printable version this worksheet -

Author: Patrick Gallagher
Last Updated: Jul-06