2. By- Martin. Next Slide References

3. What Is The Moon?  The moon is a natural satellite of the earth; it orbits at a height of 350,000 kilometres above earth. You would weigh one sixth of your earth weight on the moon because the moon has less gravity. The sky is dark.  Because of the lack of air on the moon, you cannot smell things or hear things. Meteorites don’t burn up in the atmosphere like they could on earth. Footprints can stay on the moon for millions of years, as there is no wind to wear it away. Eventually they will disappear as the moon quakes and meteorites will level it out.  The moon’s temperature varies from +123  C in the day and -223  C at night. The reason the moon has no atmosphere is because the moon is six times smaller than earth so it has less powerful gravity to pull air down to it’s surface. The moon has some gravity, but it is only powerful enough to pull down very light gases, neon (which you put in a neon tube) is among one of these useless air-making gases.  The moon also has enough gravitational pull to affect our oceans on earth to cause tides. Due to the lack of atmosphere, tiny micrometeorites rain down on the atmosphere every day on the lunar surface instead of burning up like they do in the earth’s atmosphere. No atmosphere means no protection from the sun’s deadly radiation. Next Slide Home

4. What Is The Moon Made Of?  Moon dust is a sticky powdery substance called ‘Regolith’. It will rust most joints, (e.g. space suit joints), switches and play havoc with hydraulics (metal tubes that move up and down in fluid with the aid of electricity). Regolith sticks to everything it can and smells like gunpowder when exposed to breathable air. Regolith is packed so densely in some places that it is hard to work below a depth of 4 cm deep in the lunar surface. Almost half of the dust is oxygen (O2) by weight so incinerating the dust will create a bricklike building material for making habitats. Adding hydrogen will make water and extracting the weight will make breathable air. Home Next Slide

5. How Do We Explore The Moon?  In the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s we explored the moon with Apollo spacecraft.  Apollo 1 blasted off on the 27 th of January 1967. The crew were Gus Grisson, Edward White and Roger Chaffee. All had flown into space before except Roger Chaffee. He was a rookie. The craft made a test flight on the ground. A fire broke out in the command module. It spread quickly and filled the cabin with toxic smoke and fumes. All three were killed. The fire was thought to be caused by bare electrical wires that caused a spark. The command module contained certain plastics that had caused the fire to spread rapidly. NASA quickly re- designed the command module and introduced a new paper that will not burn. The later missions were launched without a crew.  Apollo 7 was the first flight with a crew to orbit earth. It was very successful. In fact it was the biggest relief to NASA after the Apollo 1 disaster fire.  Apollo 11 was the first mission to land on the moon. The crew consisted of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. All had flown on Gemini missions before. Apollo 11 lifted off on the 16 th of July 1969. On July the 21 st Asia- pacific time, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had entered the brand new lunar module named Eagle. They un- docked from the command module named Columbia, leaving Michael Collins to orbit the moon. There were two problems; one computer named DSKY (pronounced ‘Disky’) went into processor overload, that didn’t matter much but what did was the original landing site was cluttered with rocks and boulders that was not seen on earlier photography. So Buzz steered the craft to another place near it. They landed with only twenty seconds of fuel left in their fuel tank. Next Slide Home

6. Does The Moon Support Life?  The temperature of the moon varies from 123  C during the day to - 223  C during the night. There is no air on the moon; so tiny micrometeorites rain down on the lunar surface every day. Unfortunately, scientists say that it would be too hard to live on the moon as it will cost too much, and take lots of effort and fuel. Home Next Slide

7. Could We Live On The Moon?  No one has landed on the moon since the Apollo 17 mission on December 1972. If another moon landing occurs, astronauts would stay for longer so they would need somewhere to live apart from their spacecraft, so a space habitat will be necessary. NASA is now working on multiple solutions where an astronaut can live for months.  Astronauts staying on the moon will have to build their own habitat so the materials must be small and lightweight. Their habitat must protect them from the sun’s rays, 123  C heat of the day and the -223  C cold of the night. Their habitat must be more protective than homes on earth.  As you may know, a moon habitat has to be tough and very sturdy. It must be airtight so that air can be pumped inside without exploding or leaking. The habitat must have a water recycling system, a power generating system and food storing systems. The habitat must be heated during the night and cooled during the day.  Building materials have to be light enough to be boosted out of the earth’s atmosphere and to be built by hand on the moon. It has to be sent to the moon in pieces and assembled on there.  The habitat has to have an airlock to allow astronauts to access the habitat. The airlock is a small room between the inside and the outside. The astronaut enters the airlock from the inside and closes the door behind him/her, then the airlock’s air gets pumped out and then he/she steps outside. When he/she enters the airlock from the outside, he/she shuts the door behind him/her, pumps up the airlock with air and enters the habitat. Home Next Slide

8. What Causes An Eclipse?  An eclipse is when one object (the moon) moves into the shadow of another shining object (the sun) blocking its view from earth.  An eclipse on earth is when the sun, the earth and the moon are all aligned. There are two types of eclipse: a lunar eclipse and a solar eclipse. A solar eclipse is where the moon blocks the views of the sun, lunar eclipses happen when the earth blocks the sun reaching the moon, so it doesn’t look like the moon is up. A solar eclipse looks like a ring of light in a dark sky.  Eclipses have also been known to occur on other planets. There can be four to seven eclipses per year anywhere in the world. Home Next Slide

9. References Information from: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/mar/can-we-survive-on-the-moon/ http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/en/kids/exploration/habitat/ http://www.space.com/eclipse/ Jones, Morris. When men walked on the moon. Space Frontier Science Press, 2007. Animations from: http://www.animationfactory.com/ Thanks to Microsoft Office 2000- 2003 PowerPoint. Home