In 1961, President Kennedy issued a challenge: before the end of the
decade, the United States would land a person on the moon and return him
safely to Earth--a bold proclamation at the time given that only one US
astronaut had ever been to space, for just 15 minutes. To answer
President
Kennedy's call, NASA embarked on the Apollo missions: a complicated,
dangerous, and expensive adventure involving 400,000 people. Before the
missions were over, NASA astronauts had made eleven Apollo flights, six
of which landed on the moon, and eight astronauts had lost their
lives.
The Apollo Missions for Kids tells the story of this pivotal era in
space exploration from the perspective of those who lived it--the
astronauts and their families, the controllers and engineers, and the
technicians and politicians who made the impossible possible. The book
includes a time line, resources for further study, and places to visit
to see Apollo mission artifacts, along with 21 hands-on activities to
better understand the missions and the science behind them. Kids will:
- Determine what they would weigh on the moon
- Learn to identify the moon's features
- Demonstrate orbital mechanics with a marble and a shallow bowl
- Calculate how far away the moon is using sports equipment
- Recreate the shape and size of the command module
- Eat like an astronaut and make "space food"
- Design a mission patch
- And much more!