K-6 Activities - Dudley Observatory

Name_________________________________________________________ Date_________________________
Lost on the Moon Worksheet
You are in a space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon.
Mechanical difficulties, however, have forced your ship to crash-land at a spot some 200 miles from the rendezvous
point. The rough landing has damaged much of the equipment on board. Since survival depends on reaching the
mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200 mile trip. Below are listed the 15 items
left intact after landing. Your task is to rate them in terms of their importance to your crew in its attempt to reach the
rendezvous point. Place number 1 by the most important item, 2 by the second most important, and so on through
number 15 for the least important.
___ Box of matches
___ Food concentrate (4 packages)
___ 50 feet of nylon rope
___ Parachute silk (1 large piece)
___ Portable heating unit
___ Two .45 caliber pistols (with shells)
___ One case dehydrated milk
___ Two 100 lb. tanks of oxygen
___ Stellar map (of the moon’s constellations)
___ Flashlight
___ Magnetic compass
___ Gallons of water (5)
___ Signal flares (3)
___ First aid kit with injection needles
___ Solar-powered FM receiver transmitter
Compare your ranking with the astronauts’ list supplied by your teacher, then do the following:
• 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 ranked it third you would write 2, and so on.
• After placing a score beside each item on your list, add up the individual scores to set a total score.
• The lower your score, the closer you came to surviving the return trip to the base ship.
• What is your survival score?
• Compare your score with others in your class.
Refer to the above list to answer the following questions.
1. Oxygen, water, and food concentrate are very important items. Why?
2. How would the star chart and solar-powered receiver-transmitter be useful?
3. For each one of the following items, briefly explain why it would be almost useless for your survival: box of
matches, magnetic compass, flashlight, portable heating unit.
4. If you were stranded on the dark side of the moon would your ranking of items be different?
5. Which two items named in Question 3 would become important on the dark side of the moon? Why?
K-6 Activities • B–84 •