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The Earth goes around the Sun and the Moon goes around the Earth – so how do you send a space craft to the Moon and make sure you don’t miss? Katherine G Johnson knows the answer, she was a Aerospace Technologist at NASA and worked out the paths that space crafts had to take to reach their targets. She helped put Neil Armstrong on the Moon in 1969 and all without the kind of computers that are available today.
Set up the Sun, Moon and Earth on a table, by respectively using a bright torch or light bulb, a tennis ball and a golf ball. You can then move the tennis ball and golf ball to show changing day and night, and different phases of the Moon. You can also try launching space probes from the Earth (I’d use sweets like Smarties or M&Ms) and you’ll see how hard it is to estimate where the Moon is going to be.
Image For a brief biography of Katherine G Johnson have a look at this page. All you need to know about the moving Moon, and a fun activity if it still doesn’t make sense: Go Back to Curriculum Table |