Astronaut Trading Cards

Astronauts have contributed to the advancement of space travel and exploration.

Introduction

An astronaut, or “star sailor,” is a person trained to travel in space. Astronauts include both men and women from 34 countries. More than 500 highly trained astronauts have traveled in space. In the United States, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) supervises research in space and trains astronauts.

In the late 1950s, the earliest astronauts were selected from experienced jet pilots. Today specialists and scientists who are not pilots also travel in space. On a space shuttle the four crew positions are commander, pilot, mission specialist, and payload specialist. The commander is responsible for the crew, flight safety, and the vehicle. The job of pilot is to help the commander operate the vehicle.

Mission specialists carry out the shuttle’s many jobs. Individuals who have specialized duties, but are not NASA-trained astronauts, are known as payload specialists. There may be several mission or payload specialists onboard a flight. Because space flight is a relatively young branch of science, it has seen many firsts. The first living thing in space was not a human but a chimp named Ham. In January 1961, Ham made a 16-minute flight into space in a Project Mercury capsule. In April 1961, Yuri Gagarin (1934–68) of the Soviet Union was the first human in space.

A month later, NASA sent Alan Shepherd (1923–98) on a 15-minute, suborbital flight on the Freedom 7. Almost a year later, John Glenn (1921– ) piloted the Friendship 7 on a three-orbit trip around the Earth. The first astronauts to walk on the Moon were Neil Armstrong (1930– ) and Buzz Aldrin (1930– ) in 1969, only 8 years after the first man in space (see Figure 1). In this experiment, you are going to select two astronauts that interest you, research their contributions to space travel, and share your findings with the class.

Figure 1

Time Required

55 minutes part A

30 minutes part B

Materials

• 2 index cards
• colored pencils or markers
• glue
• scissors
• access to the Internet
• printer
• science notebook

Please review and follow the safety guidelines at the beginning of this volume.

Procedure, Part A

1. Use the Internet to visit http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/more.html. This Web site lists the names and accomplishments of astronauts. Almost 500 astronauts have traveled in space.

2. Select two astronauts that interest you and write their names on the classroom board. Do not select names that other students have already chosen.

3. Conduct Internet research on the names you have selected. Find the following information about each astronaut:

a. birth and death dates (if applicable)

b. home

c. education

d. missions flown

e. role on those missions

f. age when flying mission(s)

g. other interesting information

h. picture

4. Write the information you find (a through g) in your science notebook.

5. Print a small picture of the astronaut. The picture should fit on an index card.

6. Use the picture and the information you gathered to create two astronaut trading cards. Your finished cards should contain all of the required information and be neat, attractive, and colorful.

Procedure, Part B

1. Swap your two trading cards with a classmate. Examine their cards and write down information about their astronauts in your science notebook.

2. Continue swapping cards until you have gathered information about 10 astronauts.

Analysis

1. What is an astronaut?

2. Why do you think the first “astronaut” was a chimp instead of a

human?

6. Astronaut Trading Cards 35

3. Match the astronaut with the mission.

______first U.S. astronaut in space

______first astronaut to orbit the Earth three times

______first person in space

______one of the first men to walk on the Moon

a. John Glenn

b. Neil Armstrong

c. Alan Sheperd

d. Yuri Gagarin

4. List some of the jobs that astronauts are asked to do during space travel.

5. From your research and from reading other students’ trading cards, what is the average age of an astronaut?

New astronauts are selected every two years. Applicants for the job must have degrees in some area of math or science. Physically, applicants are required to have 20/20 eyesight (naturally or when they are wearing contact lenses or glasses), blood pressure below 140/90, and height from 62 to 75 inches (in.) (157.5 to 190.5 centimeters [cm]).

Training is difficult and takes two or three years. Today’s astronauts are training for work on the International Space Station (ISS), an outpost developed by agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, Europe, and Brazil. They receive instructions on all parts of the vehicle, including how to assemble it and how to carry out operations while in orbit.

Astronauts must be able to work outside the station in extravehicular activities, conduct experiments, carry out maintenance, and use robotic equipment. Missions on the ISS will last 3 to 6 months. Until 2010, astronauts will reach the ISS on board the shuttle. After that time, the shuttle will be retired and astronauts will travel to the station on the Russian Soyuz vehicle. For this reason, trainees must also be proficient with the Soyuz systems and operation.

Connections

NASA was established by President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) in 1958 in response to the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of an unmanned satellite, Sputnik. In 1959, seven men were selected to train for Project Mercury, a mission to send a manned space craft in orbit. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy (1917–63) gave a boost to the space program by setting the goal of putting a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth before the end of the decade.

Although this seemed like an almost insurmountable task, the Apollo 11 astronauts met the president’s dream in 1969 when they landed on the Moon. Eventually, 12 astronauts walked on Moon.

After the Moon missions, NASA developed the space shuttle, a ship that could be used more than once. The first shuttle (see Figure 2) was launched in 1981. The Mars Pathfinder left Earth in 1997 to explore our closest planetary neighbor. In 2000, the International Space Station, a multinational project was put into place. From this outpost, scientists hope to learn more about space and space travel to benefit life on Earth.

Figure 2