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Invitations

Space Shuttle invite_

You will need

What to do

  1. Fold the A4 card in half to make the invitation.
  2. Place the card so that the longest edge is at the bottom and draw a picture of a space shuttle flying past a planet.
  3. Cut out a hole near the front of the spacecraft and stick the photo of the birthday child’s face behind it.
  4. Inside the card write something like: "5,4,3,2,1 … Blast off to (child’s name)’s party!". Underneath can be the child’s name, Planet (address), Launch date (date), Blast Off (start time), Re-entry (end time), Report to Mission Control (RSVP) with phone number.
  5. Decorate the inside of the card with silver stars.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is one of the largest and most advanced planetary exploration missions ever launched. It consists of two parts - the Cassini orbiter and the Huygens probe. Cassini will spend a minimum of four years taking pictures and measurements of Saturn and its moons and Huygens parachuted down through the atmosphere of Titan at the start of 2005.

The mission launched in October 1997 and took 7 years to reach Saturn, arriving on the 1st July 2004. The route it took to Saturn involved fly-bys of Venus, Earth and Jupiter to help give it the energy necessary to reach Saturn.

Saturn itself is the second largest planet in the Solar System. Its day is 10 hours, 39 minutes long, and it takes 29.5 Earth years to revolve about the Sun.  It is made entirely of gas and is famous for its ring system made up of ice and rocks. The rings are split into a number of different parts, which include the bright A and B rings and a fainter C ring. The ring system has various gaps. The most notable gap is the Cassini Division, which separates the A and B rings. Giovanni Cassini discovered this division in 1675.

It also has 31 known moons, including Titan, which is the size of the planet Mercury. Titan has an atmosphere ten times thicker than that of Earth and is thought to be similar to our planet at the time life began. Titan is the only moon in the solar system with a thick atmosphere surrounding it. A thick haze at 200 km (120 mi) altitude hides Titan's surface at visible wavelengths. As on Earth, the most abundant gas in Titan's atmosphere is nitrogen.

How similar are Titan's surface and atmosphere to early pre-life conditions on Earth? Could life ever exist on Titan?  The Cassini-Huygens mission may give us some answers.

For more details on the Cassini-Huygens mission check out the BNSC site.

Astronaut invite_

You will need

What to do

  1. Fold the A4 card in half to make the invitation.
  2. On white paper draw a picture of an astronaut and cut it out.
  3. Draw and cut out pictures of planets and comets.
  4. Cut a hole in the astronaut’s helmet and stick a photo of the birthday child’s face behind it.
  5. Stick the astronaut to the card and decorate the background with silver stars, planets and comets.
  6. Draw a large speech bubble on white paper saying “One small step for (child’s name) … one giant party for everyone!”
  7. Stick the speech bubble to the card.
  8. Inside the card stick a piece of white paper with the words:

"Your presence is requested to launch (child's name) OUT OF THIS WORLD  (age –th) birthday party!!! Launch Date: (date), Launching site: (address), Lift-off time (time) and return to Earth (ending time - if there is one). RSVP to mother ship (phone #). It'll be a BLAST!!"

What is gravity?_

Gravity is a force pulling together all matter (which is anything you can physically touch). The more massive something is, the more of a gravitational pull it exerts. As we walk on the surface of the Earth, it pulls on us, and we pull back. In addition to depending on the amount of mass, gravity also depends on how far you are from something. This is why we are stuck to the surface of the Earth instead of being pulled off into the Sun, which has many more times the gravity of the Earth.

Is there gravity in space?_

There is gravity everywhere. It gives shape to the orbits of the planets, the solar system, and even galaxies. Gravity from the Sun reaches throughout the solar system and beyond, keeping the planets in their orbits. Gravity from Earth keeps the Moon and human-made satellites in orbit.

Gravity decreases with distance, so it is possible to be far away from a planet or star and feel less gravity. However that doesn't account for the weightless feeling that astronauts experience in space. The reason that astronauts feel weightless actually has to do with their position compared to their spaceship. We feel weight on Earth because gravity is pulling us down, while the floor or ground stops us from falling. We are pressed against it. Any ship in orbit around the Earth is falling slowly to Earth. Since the ship and the astronauts are falling at the same speed, the astronauts don't press against anything, so they feel weightless.

You can feel something very like what the astronauts feel for a moment in a fast-moving lift going down or in a roller coaster, when you start going down a big hill. You are going down rapidly, but so is the roller coaster or the elevator so for a second you feel weightless.

What does an astronaut wear to keep warm?
Apollo neck jumper!

Alien invite_

You will need

What to do

  1. Fold the A4 card in half to make the invitation.
  2. Draw a picture of an alien on the front.
  3. Decorate the picture with as many different materials as possible
  4. Across the top of the invitation write “Come to (child’s name) birthday party – it is OUT OF THIS WORLD!”
  5. Decorate the background with silver stars.
  6. Inside the card write something like: "5,4,3,2,1 … Blast off to (child’s name)’s party!". Underneath can be the child’s name, Planet (address), Launch date (date), Blast Off (start time), Re-entry (end time), Report to Mission Control (RSVP) with phone number.

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