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WEB QUEST

SPACE TRAVEL (doc and pdf)

(Answers for Grades 5 and 6)


 

ASSIGNMENT:

 

PART 1: THE DAWN OF THE SPACE AGE

 

  1. A step-rocket that separated into two parts after being launched

 

  2. North Atlantic Treaty

 

  3. Representatives of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Great Britain, Italy,

      Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and the United States

 

  4.  NATO--NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION

 

  5. To provide a common defense against the threat of Soviet invasion

 

  6. The transistorized descendents of this machine would in later years guide spacecraft to the moon, the planets, and the vast emptiness of space beyond our solar system.

      

  7.  The Soviet Union launched the first man-made Earth satellite, Sputnik I. As a result, politicians, scientists, and educators called for a major U.S. initiative to regain superiority in missile development and space technology.

 

  8. The invention of the first digital computer, UNIVAC

 

  9. The Space Race began.

 

10. Three months and twenty-seven days

 

11. Explorer I

 

12. The Soviet Union-----Yuri Gargarin

 

13. Lt. Colonel John Glenn

 

14. Mercury Capsule Friendship 7

 

15. How much time passed between when the first Russian and the first American orbited Earth? (Calculate this yourself.)

 

16. The Soviet Union made the each step first and the United States followed soon afterwards. This shows that the United States was very competitive with the Soviet Union. It also shows that the United States was already planning each step even though the Russians did each step first. They would never have been able to follow so closely to the Russians if they weren’t already working on it.

 

17. Project Mercury

      

18. It accomplished six successful manned flights.

      

19. Its purpose was to extend the existing manned space flight program by developing a two-manned spacecraft.

 

20. Its purpose was exploration of the moon and the operation of Skylab--the first American space station.

    

21. The event that ended the Space Race was when the United States put a man on the moon before the Russians did.

 

22. The Lunar Module Eagle landed on the Moon in the Sea of Tranquility.

 

PART 2: BEYOND THE MOON

 

  1. `Mariner 2 was the first U.S. spacecraft to fly past Venus and enter a solar orbit.

 

  2. December 14, 1962

 

  3. The first U.S. spacecraft to fly by Mars was the Mariner 4. It reached Mars on July 14, 1965.

 

  4. We learned that Mars has a thin atmosphere composed of CO2 in the range of 5-10 mbar and has a small intrinsic magnetic field.

 

  5. The recorded surface temperatures of Mercury were 1870 C on its day side and -1830C on its night side. A weak magnetic field and no atmosphere were detected.

 

  6. Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager, Voyager 2, Ulysses, and Galileo

 

  7. It sent information concerning the atmosphere and surface of Saturn’s moon, Titan.

 

  8. Voyager 2 flew by Uranus on January 24, 1986 ad Neptune on August 24, 1989.

 

  9. We are presently using the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station to do work in space.

 

10. The X-33 and the X-34 have been designed to eventually replace the space shuttles.

 

11. Student Opinion. Possible answers include: missions to Mars, space travel by people other than astronauts

 

12. Answers may vary. A possible answer is: the Space Race spurred both countries to work harder to invent new technology so they could be better than the other country. Without this competitive drive, it would have been longer before new technology was invented and the exploration of space would not have reached the levels it did as quickly.

 

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