Space, Aeronautics and Bubbles

“Space, the final frontier…” These are the words the Star Trek captains spoke at the beginning of their programs, describing outer space, and the planets and moons, stars and galaxies that make up the universe. The universe is incredibly huge. It would take a modern jet fighter more than a million years to reach the nearest star to the Sun. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take 100,000 years to cross our Milky Way galaxy alone.

Read more about the planets at this website:

• https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/menu/solar-system/

Our Moon

We have one moon, and it orbits our Earth every 27.3 days. The Moon is the Earth’s only natural satellite. It is approximately 238,857 miles from the Moon to the Earth.

The Moon is the fifth largest moon in our Solar System. Other planets have moons, too. You can read about them at this link: https://www.planetsforkids.org/moon.html

The Dark Side of The Moon: The Moon takes about the same amount of time to rotate on its axis as it takes to orbit the Earth. This means that we only ever see about 50-60% of the Moon’s surface from the Earth. The side that we can see from Earth is called the near side while the other side is called the far side. The far side is sometimes called the dark side of the moon even though it is lit up by the Sun just as much as the side we can see.

Gravity on the Moon is only about one fifth or 17% as strong as it is on Earth. That means that if you were jumping on the moon, you would go much higher than on Earth.

The Northern Lights

The northern lights (called the aurora borealis) and the southern lights (aurora australis) appear when tiny particles stream out from the Sun and hit Earth’s atmosphere. The particles give some of their energy to atoms and molecules of gases in the upper atmosphere. But the atoms and molecules cannot hold the energy. They quickly give it off as another kind of energy—the colors of light that we call the aurora. These lights occur most often around the North Pole and South Pole because the incoming particles have an electric charge. As the particles arrive, Earth’s magnetic field guides them toward the poles.

Trivia!

The Milky Way candy bar was named after a popular milkshake (and formulated to taste like it) in the early 1900s. The Milky Way malted  milkshake was actually named after the galaxy.

An astronaut is a person who is specially trained to travel into outer space. There are so many different jobs an astronaut might do when exploring space. You might be a commander who leads the mission! You might pilot a spacecraft! And depending on the purpose of the mission, there are so many other scientists who might train to go into outer space as an astronaut. 

     Astronauts have to train extensively before they can take off into space. Both high gravity during launching, and weightlessness in orbit can be hard on the body. Astronauts need to know a lot: they need to have a lot of technical knowledge at their fingertips for quick decisions. There could be stressful situations in a flight and many problems that need to be solved quickly while on a mission. 

Blimps and Dirigibles! 

Airplanes are heavier than air. Their wings and speed help them to fly. An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. These types of airships, also called aerostats, gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense and thus lighter  than the surrounding air.

Want to read more? Try this website: https://www.airships.net/dirigible/

Make Bubble Solution!

Creating a bubble solution can be quite simple: 5 cups of water, 2 cups of dish soap. ¾ cup of corn syrup.  Pour the corn syrup into the water. Stir well. Add dish soap. Stir gently so that you don’t create foamy bubbles and store in plastic containers.  This recipe creates a large batch. You may want to scale down.

Make a Bubble Wand!

Bubble wands can be made from pipe cleaners twisted into a circle.  String a loop of cotton twine on a stick will create large bubbles! You may want to experiment with different tools, anything with a hole might work. Let the children try different methods to create a bubble. They may even want to use their hands to blow a bubble. If their hands are covered in the solutions the bubbles will stick to their hand.

Bubble Art

You will need:

• a shallow tub
• dish soap
• a straw
• food coloring
• paper.

Fill the tub with water, a few drops of food coloring and some dish soap. With your straw start blowing into the tub to create a bubble bath. When you have a sufficient amount of bubbles, gently place the piece of paper on top of the bubbles. Be sure not to submerge the paper. Gently lift the paper and voila! A bubble painting.

A Designer Spacesuit

Now that you know so much about spacesuits, design your own. Draw and color in your design. What extras would you add to make it fashion-forward? What technological gadgets would you include to make it do what you think a spacesuit should do? Would it have music, would it fly? Would it have a pizza oven sewn right in? Use your imagination!!

Extend the activity by writing and illustrating  a story about someone who wears your spacesuit for a mission in space. What will happen?

APPS:

• Skyview: See where every planet and star is all day and all night
• My Spacecraft: Very kid-friendly app about being an astronaut
• Solar Walk: Beautifully designed app that lets you explore the solar system