NASA Now: Lunar Mathematics and Mapping

Join Dr. James Garvin, Chief Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., as he describes the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission and how it is helping us explore the moon like never before. Learn why NASA is interested in studying the moon, what kinds of treasures exist there, and what we might be able to do with them!
 

Garvin shows how the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, uses an instrument called LOLA to create better maps of the moon than we have ever had and highlights the connection between mapping and mathematics.


NASA Now Minute: Lunar Mathematics and Mapping



Lunar Nautics: Newton’s Laws of Motion Activities

Isaac NewtonTeachers, if you are looking for a way to demonstrate Newton’s Laws of Motion in a NASA context, the NASA Explorer Schools module Lunar Nautics may be just what you’re hoping to find. The three featured activities in this module focus on a real-world understanding of Newton’s laws. In the activity Rocket Staging: Balloon Staging, students learn how rockets achieve greater distances through rocket staging. The Lunar Landing: Swinging Tray activity shows students how gravity is responsible for keeping satellites in orbit. The purpose of Lunar Base Supply Egg Drop is for student teams to design a method of packaging “supplies” and getting them safely to a “lunar base.”

Share your experiences with these three modules by posting on NEON. Register, log in, join the NASA Explorer Schools group and find the forum Lunar Nautics –Designing a Mission for Living and Working on the Moon. In your post, be sure to include your students’ problem-solving techniques for the design challenge and pictures.

Egg Drop-An Idea for a Family Night Event

The lesson from the NASA Explorer Schools module Lunar Nautics: Lunar Base Supply Egg Drop makes a great family night activity. Students and their parents design and construct a package for the raw egg payload. The package should allow the raw egg payload to be recovered unharmed (both the shell and yolk should be intact) when dropped from a second story (height of at least 9.144 meters).

Ask the local fire department to bring a ladder and drop the eggs from the ladder.