How Does A Spacecraft Reach The Moon

How Does a
Spacecraft Reach
the Moon?
by Barbara J. Davis
Science and Curriculum Consultant: Debra Voege, M.A.,
Science Curriculum Resource Teacher
SpacecraftFNL.indd 1 8/10/09 4:42:02 PM
Science in the Real World: How Does a Spacecraft Reach the Moon?
Copyright 2010 by Infobase Publishing
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davis, Barbara J.
How does a spacecraft reach the moon? / by Barbara J. Davis;
science and curriculum consultant, Debra Voege.
p. cm. (Science in the real world)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-60413-470-4
1. Space ightJuvenile literature. 2. AstronauticsJuvenile literature.
3. Aerospace engineeringJuvenile literature. I. Title. II. Series.
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Index by Nila Glikin
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5
Table of Contents
Destination: The Moon ............................................ 4
Motion Is Relative ................................................... 6
Speed ....................................................................... 8
Acceleration .......................................................... 10
Forces ..................................................................... 12
Inertia .................................................................... 14
Gravity ................................................................... 16
Friction .................................................................. 18
Mass and Payload ................................................. 20
Action and Reaction ............................................. 22
Engines Big and Small .......................................... 24
Fueling Moon Flights ............................................. 26
50 Years of Moon Shots ......................................... 28
Glossary ................................................................. 30
To Learn More ....................................................... 31
Index ...................................................................... 32
Words that are dened in the Glossary are in bold type
the rst time they appear in the text.
T
he temperature is perfect.
The surface on the half-pipe
is smooth. Theres a nice breeze
at your back. Youre thinking this
is going to be a really cool run on
your skateboard. As you zip along
the ramps, you notice a big full
Moon starting to rise above the
skate parks lights. You have a quick
thought about how much fun it
would be to skateboard to the Moon.
But skateboards have nothing to do
with the Moon, do they?
Actually, they do. You and your
skateboard rely on some of the same
science principles as a spacecraft
heading for the Moon. These
Destination:
The Moon
4
The rocket being launched
here sent American astro-
nauts on their way to the
Moon in 1969.
principles deal with motion and with gravity.
They govern how things move. They also de-
scribe the effects of gravitysuch as Earths
gravity, which holds us all on the ground.
Rocket Power
Another set of science principles also plays
a big role in how a spacecraft works. These
have to do with what makes the spacecraft
go. You yourself make your skateboard go,
but spacecraft are powered by rockets. Most
space rockets get their power by burning
fuel. This involves a reaction between two
or more chemicals. So along with the science
of motion and gravity, the science of how
chemicals react with each other is important
in understanding how a heavy spacecraft
can leave Earth and reach the Moon.
5
Moon Shots
The Moon is about 238,000 miles (383,000 kilometers) from Earth. Dozens
of spacecraft have own there. Some of them simply ew past the Moon.
Some went into orbit around itthat is, they circled around it. Some land-
ed on it. Several of these Moon shots included a return trip to Earth.
Missions between 1968 and 1972 in the Apollo program of the United
States carried people. All the rest of the ights had no crew and were
controlled by signals from Earth and by onboard computers. Most Moon
shots have been launched by just two countries: the United States and the
Soviet Union (which is now split up into Russia and many other countries).
DID YOU KNOW
?
T
o understand how a spacecraft
can reach the Moon, you rst
have to understand a basic fact
about motion.
Say you watch a bird y away from
a tree. What really happens? The
bird changes its position. A scientist
wanting to study this movement will
measure how much and how quickly
the birds position changes in rela-
tion to the tree. In other words, the
birds motion is relative to the tree.
The tree serves as what is called a
reference point.
Motion Is
Relative
6
Earth and the Moon in Motion
Sun
Moon
Earth
Earth is spinning around an
imaginary line through its cen-
ter called its axis. Earth is also
going around, or orbiting, the
Sun. At the same time,
the Moon is orbiting Earth.
In fact, every example of motion you can
nd is relative. You see the motion in rela-
tion to some reference point or some frame
of reference. Watch a kid on a skateboard, for
instance. He seems to be moving relative to
the ground.
Everythings Moving
If youre sitting at a desk reading this book
and you use the objects around you as a
frame of reference, it doesnt seem like you
are moving at all. Actually, Earth is constantly
spinning. So the ground, you, and everything
else on Earths surface are always moving
relative to Earths center. Earth is moving in
another important way as well, with the Sun
as a reference point. It circles the Sun follow-
ing a path called an orbit. It takes one year
for Earth to go once around the Sun.
7
Moon Motion
Several types of motion affect the path taken by a spacecraft going from
Earth to the Moon. Scientists have to take these into account when plan-
ning the spacecrafts course. One example is the upward movement, rela-
tive to the ground, of the rocket launching the spacecraft as it blasts off.
Another important motion is the spinning of Earth, relative to its center,
from west to east. A spacecraft launched from Earths surface shares this
motion. Mission planners also have to pay attention to movement of the
Moon as the spacecraft is in ight. The Moon is constantly traveling in an
orbit around Earth.
DID YOU KNOW
?
S
peed is one important way
of describing the motion of a
skateboard, a rocket, or any other
object. Speed is the amount of dis-
tance something travels in a certain
amount of time. It is talked about
as a unit of distance divided by a
unit of time, such as miles per hour
(mph) or kilometers per hour (km/
hr). For example, a car moving at 50
mph (80 km/hr) will travel 50 miles
(80 kilometers) in one hour. A rocket
launched from Earth has to reach a
speed of about 25,000 mph (40,300
km/hr) to escape the pull of Earths
gravity.
Changing Speed
An object that always stays at the
same speed is said to travel at con-
stant speed. Most things do not
travel at a constant speed, though.
Their speed changes to t the situ-
ation. For example, a runner might
run quickly on level ground. Then, as
she starts to go up a hill, her speed
drops. Coming down the hill, her
speed increases again.
Speed
8
When a spacecraft is
launched to the Moon, it starts
slowly on takeoff but quickly
increases its speed. On many
Moon missions, the spacecraft
picks up enough speed to go
into orbit around Earth. It has
a certain speed in this orbit.
When the time comes to head
for the Moon, the spacecraft
increases its speed in order to break out
of orbit. As it comes near the Moon, the
craft adjusts its speed in order to go into
orbit around the Moon or land on it.
Velocity and Speed
Besides knowing the speed at which an object is traveling, it is also im-
portant to know the direction in which it is traveling. Velocity describes
the speed of an object in a given direction. When scientists calculate the
time it takes a spacecraft to reach its destination, they look at both the
speed at which the spacecraft has to travel and the direction in which it
needs to go.
DID YOU KNOW
?
9
The table shows how
the Apollo 17 spacecraft
increased its speed in the
rst hours after launch. The
crafts three astronauts are
shown shortly before liftoff.
Speed of Apollo 17 Spacecraft as It Headed for the Moon
Time After Takeof
0 seconds (resting on launch pad)
2 minutes, 42 seconds
3 hours, 18 minutes, 28.5 seconds
Approximate Speed
0 mph (0 km/hr)
5,300 mph (8,500 km/hr)
14,700 mph (23,700 km/hr)
16,500 mph (26,600 km/hr)
23,300 mph (37,500 km/hr)
10
I
magine a track meet. The runners
all line up at the starting line. At
this point, their velocity is 0they
arent moving. Then, the starting gun
goes off, and the runners push off.
They begin to increase their speed.
We say that they accelerate.
To most people, acceleration
means simply speeding up. In
science, though, the word has a
different meaning. It is the rate at
which velocity changes. Remember
that velocity involves the direction
in which an object moves as well as
its speed. So accelerating the object
may involve changing its speed or
changing its direction (or both).
Acceleration
A Two-Stage Rocket
Spacecraft Going
to the Moon
Spacecraft Going
to the Moon
Launch Rocket
Second Stage
Launch Rocket
Second Stage
Launch Rocket
First Stage
Launch Rocket
First Stage
The powerful rockets that
launch spacecraft to the
Moon often have stages. As
the fuel in each stage gets
used up, that stage drops off
and the next stage takes over
the job of accelerating the
spacecraft.
11
Rocket Acceleration
Scientists planning a space mission have to
think carefully about acceleration. Spacecraft
traveling to the Moon have rocket engines
in them. Whenever the spacecraft needs to
change its speed or change its direction dur-
ing ight, it has to use its engines. Flight plan-
ners need to make sure the craft has the right
amount of fuel and the right engines to follow
the correct ight path to get it to the Moon.
In order to get enough acceleration to get
off the ground and out into space, a spacecraft
going to the Moon is put on top of a big, very
powerful rocket. Big rockets like those used
to launch Moon shots usually have stages.
Each stage carries fuel and engines. The
stages are usually arranged in a stack. When
the fuel in each stage is used up, that stage
separates and drops away. (Often it falls
into the ocean or onto an empty area of land.)
Eventually, all of the stages of the launch
rocket drop away, and only the spacecraft
going to the Moon is left.
Booster Rockets
Big rockets may also have booster rockets attached. Like stages, boost-
ers carry engines and fuel, and they drop away when their job is nished.
DID YOU KNOW
?
H
ow do you make something ac-
celerate? How do you make it
move, change its speed or direction,
or stop? You give it a push or a pull.
Pushes and pulls are examples of
what scientists call forces. When you
pull at the zipper on your jacket, you
are using force. Scientists designing
a Moon rocket have to take into ac-
count all the forces that will act on
it. These include not only the forces
generated by its engines to make it
go, but also other forces that affect
its motion, such as gravity.
Force is described by the amount
of push or pull. It is also described
by the direction of the push or pull.
When you push on a door, you are
using force in one direction. When
you pull on that same door, you are
using force in the opposite direction.
Balanced and Unbalanced Forces
In a tug-of-war, two teams pull on
a rope in opposite directions. The
team that uses the most force pulls
the other team across a line. This
is an example of how motion is af-
Forces
12
fected by unbal-
anced force. The
force of the pull
from one team is
greater than the
force of the pull
from the other
team. Unbalanced
forces acting on
an object will
change the ob-
jects motion.
If the two tug-
of-war teams are evenly matched, however,
the situation is different. The teams both
pull as hard as they can, but the one force
is exactly balanced by the other force.
When balanced forces act on an object,
they will not change that objects motion.
Rockets that launch
spacecraft to the Moon
produce a powerful up-
ward force called thrust
that is stronger than the
force of gravity pulling
down on the rocket and
spacecraft.
Measuring Force
The strength of a force is often measured in units called newtons. One
newton is not a very big force. It is about the force you would need to
lift a normal-sized empty glass. The thrust, or upward force, produced
by a Moon rockets engine is much greater. The engines in the rst stage
of the huge Saturn V rocket used to launch the Apollo spacecraft to the
Moon could produce about 34.5 million newtonsenough to lift the
colossal rocket, which weighed about 6.7 million pounds (3 million kilo-
grams), off the launchpad.
DID YOU KNOW
?
13
Thrust Lifts a Rocket
Gravity Gravity
Thrust Thrust
T
he unit of measurement for force
called the newton is named in
honor of the English scientist and
mathematician Isaac Newton. In
the late 1600s, Newton discovered
three basic laws, or principles, that
describe how forces affect objects.
Scientists still rely on these laws of
motion when guring out how to get
a spacecraft to the Moon.
Newtons rst law of motion deals
both with objects that are at rest
(that is, not moving at all) and with
objects that are moving. It says that
an object at rest will remain at rest
unless it is acted upon by a force
strong enough to make it move. The
rst law also says that an object
in motion will move at a constant
Inertia
14
Seatbelts in a car stop the
continued forward motion
of the people when the
car is stopped suddenly.
In this photo, the strength
of these seatbelts is being
tested using crash
dummies.
speed in a straight line unless acted upon by
a force strong enough to make it change its
speed or direction.
The rst law is sometimes called the
law of inertia. Inertia is the tendency of an
object to resist change in its motion. For
example, the passengers in a moving car
keep moving forward when the car stops
suddenly. The passengers have inertia.
The only way to stop inertia is to exert an
opposite force. That is what seatbelts do.
Mass and Inertia
The inertia an object has depends on its
mass. Mass is the amount of matter in
the object. Think of two glass jars that
are exactly alike in size and shape.
Fill one jar with nickels. Fill the other
jar with feathers. The mass of the jar
with the nickels is much greater. You
have to use more force to move the
jar of nickels. It has greater inertia.
Isaac Newton (16421727)
Isaac Newton lived from 1642 to 1727. He was one of the greatest
scientists of all time. In addition to the three laws of motion, he made
important discoveries about gravity, light, and color. He also developed
new ideas about mathematics.
DID YOU KNOW
?
15
G
ravity is a force that acts to pull
objects straight down toward
the center of Earth. It pulls you down
to the ground when you fall off your
skateboard. Actually, everything
not just Earthhas this sort of pull.
Even you have a gravitational pull
on things.
Weight and Mass
People sometimes think the words
weight and mass mean the same
thing. But for scientists, they mean
Gravity
Weight and Gravity
Jupiter Jupiter
236 Pounds
100 Pounds
Earth Earth
16
The planet Jupiter, much
larger than Earth, has more
mass. Therefore, the pull of
Jupiters gravity is stronger.
For this reason, a person
who weighs 100 pounds
on Earth would weigh 236
pounds on Jupiter!
different things. Weight is the force of grav-
ity on a person or object at the surface of
a planet. When you stand on a scale, the
scale measures the force with which Earth
pulls on you. Mass is something different. It
is a measure of the amount of matter in an
object. Far out in space, far from the pull of
Earths gravity, your weight might go down
to just about zero, but you would still have
the same mass.
The gravitational pull of an object de-
pends on the amount of mass it has. The
greater the mass, the stronger the pull.
When you fall off your skateboard, you pull
Earth to you at the same time Earth pulls
you toward its center. But your mass is tiny
compared to that of Earth. So the pull you
exert on Earth is much, much weaker than
the pull of Earths gravity on you.
Pulling Away from Earthand from the Moon
A spacecraft heading to the Moon has to deal with the force of gravity
before it can get anywhere. The thrust of a powerful rocket is needed
to overcome the pull of gravity, lift it up, and send it on its way. As the
spacecraft gets farther from Earth, the pull of Earths gravity decreases. Of
course, the Moon has its own gravity. As the spacecraft gets closer to the
Moon, at a certain point it will be pulled toward the Moon by the Moons
gravity. For a spacecraft that has landed on the Moon to return to Earth,
it has to rst pick up enough speed to escape from the Moons gravity.
DID YOU KNOW
?
17
Friction
18
L
ike gravity, friction is a force
that can affect the motion of an
object. Friction occurs when two
surfaces rub together. Think of the
wheels of a skateboard on pavement.
It may seem that the wheels and the
pavement are both smooth. But ac-
tually both have bumps and ridges.
Friction is created when the bumps
and ridges of the two surfaces come
into contact with each other.
The launch rocket in the right-
hand photo has a streamlined
shape to reduce friction as it
travels through the air. The
spacecraft in the left-hand
photo does not need a stream-
lined shape. It travels in space,
where there is no air.
Friction Opposes Motion
If a moving object meets continuous fric-
tion, sooner or later it will be brought to
a stop. Without friction, the object would
keep moving at a constant speed forever.
With friction, the only way the object can
keep moving is if it gets a push (or a pull)
from some other force. For the skate-
board, you supply the push.
How strong the force of friction will be
depends on a couple of factors. One is the
type of surfaces involved. For example,
the rougher the surfaces, the greater the
friction. Another factor is how hard the
surfaces push together. There is more
friction if you rub your hands together
with some force than if you rub your
hands together lightly.
Friction and Rockets
Air can also be a source of friction. Air particles hit an object as it moves
through the air. The faster the object goes, the more it is hit with air par-
ticles. The more air particles that collide with it, the greater the resistance
it meets from the air. Designers of rockets have to pay attention to this
fact. They want to make this air resistance, or drag, as small as possible.
That is why rockets are given a streamlined shape. Such a shape reduces
the surface hit by air particles, making it easier for the rocket to move
smoothly through the air and lift its spacecraft. Of course, drag is not a
problem for spacecraft that operate only in space, where there is no air.
Such spacecraft do not need to be streamlined.
DID YOU KNOW
?
19
I
magine an empty cardboard box.
It has very little mass. It is very
easy to push. Suppose you ll it with
rocks. Now the mass is much greater,
and you have to use a lot more force
to push it. This fact is explained by
Isaac Newtons second law of motion.
This science principle says that the
amount of force needed to move an
objectthat is, change its speed or
directiondepends on the size of the
objects mass. The greater the mass,
the greater the amount of force re-
quired. The law also says that for a
given mass, a greater force will pro-
duce a greater change in speed
or direction.
Mass and
Payload
20
Astronaut Neil Armstrong
was part of the payload of
the spacecraft that took
him to the Moon in 1969.
The change in speed or in
direction, by the way, will oc-
cur in the same direction as the
force. The cardboard box will
move in the direction you push.
Tying Together Force, Mass, Acceleration
Remember that a change in the speed or
direction of motion of an object is known
as acceleration. So Newtons second law
shows the connection between mass, force,
and acceleration.
If you want the box full of rocks to move
quickly, you have to push hard. In other
words, you have to use a lot of force to
accelerate it to a fast speed. If you want
the full box to move slowly, you use less
force. According to the second law, however,
there is a way you can make the box move
quickly without pushing hard. You can re-
duce the boxs mass: Take some rocks out!
Payloads and the Second Law
The payload of a spacecraft consists of the things it carries. Payload can
include cargo, scientic instruments, and (for some missions) the crew.
When scientists design spacecraft, they must take into consideration the
mass of the payload. Many factors affect how big a payload a spacecraft
can carry. However, in simple terms, if everything else is equal, you can
make the spacecraft go faster simply by lightening the payload.
DID YOU KNOW
?
21
These rocks brought
back from the Moon
by Apollo program
astronauts were part
of the payload on the
trip home.
T
he third of Newtons three laws
of motion says that forces are
not one-sided. Whenever one ob-
ject exerts a force on a second ob-
ject, the second object also exerts
a force back on the rst object. The
second force is equal in strength to
the rst force. However, that second
force acts in the opposite direction
from the rst force.
Newtons third law is often stated
in the following easy-to-remember
Action and
Reaction
22
The downward force
of the hot gas created
when fuel is burned in
a rocket produces the
opposite upward force
the thrustthat lifts the
rocket off the ground.
way: For every action,
there is an equal and op-
posite reaction.
Look Around
You can see examples
of the third law every-
where. When you walk, you push against
the ground with your feet. The ground
pushes back on your feet with an equal
and opposite force. If you use a hammer
to pound a nail into a piece of wood, the
nail exerts an equal force back on the
hammer. Thats why the act of hitting
the nail with the hammer causes the
hammer to stop moving. Bumper cars
at amusement parks are so much fun
because of Newtons third law. If your
car rams another car, your car bounces
back. The other car pushes your car
with a force equal to yours, but in the
opposite direction.
Thrust and Newtons Third Law
Rockets lift spacecraft because of the principle of action and reaction. A
rocket engine contains fuel inside it that produces hot gas that rushes out
the rockets back end. The downward force of this stream of hot gas has
an equal and opposite reaction: the upward thrust that lifts the rocket off
the groundand lifts the spacecraft the rocket carries.
DID YOU KNOW
?
23
When you ram another
car on a bumper car
ride, an equal and
opposite force pushes
your car back.
R
ockets that launch spacecraft
from Earths surface have a
tough job. They have to produce
enough thrust to overcome gravity
and drag and to lift a heavy payload
off the ground and into space. This
is why the Apollo missions that took
people to the Moon and back used
the huge Saturn V rocket. The Saturn
V stood about 360 feet (110 meters)
tall. It had three stages, with ve
engines in each of the rst two stages
and one engine in the third stage.
Engines
Big and
Small
24
The small landing craft
that brought Apollo 15
astronauts to the Moons
surface in 1971 is on
the left in this photo. The
rover the astronauts
used to ride around
the landing area is on
the right.
Launching from Space
The job is easier if you
launch a spacecraft to
the Moon from space
say, from orbit around
Earth, where Earths
gravity is weaker and
there is no air resis-
tance. The European Space Agencys
Smart-1 spacecraft was launched to the
Moon from orbit in 2003. Of course,
Smart-1 rst had to be lifted into orbit
by a large rocket. Perhaps someday it
will be possible to put together space-
craft in orbit, using parts lifted into
orbit by smaller rockets.
Apollo Engines
The Apollo missions had a special spacecraft atop the Saturn V rocket.
On some missions this spacecraft had to go into orbit around the Moon,
send a small craft to the Moons surface, receive the craft back, and re-
turn to Earth. The little craft that visited the Moons surface had engines
for landing and takeoff as well as more than a dozen small engines called
thrusters for maneuvering. Only part of the Apollo spacecraft returned to
Earth. Called the command module, it included the crews living space
and had several thrusters. Another part of the Apollo spacecraft, called
the service module, was linked to the command module for most of the
mission. It had thrusters along with an engine for getting into and out of
lunar orbit. The command module separated from the service module
before reaching Earth.
DID YOU KNOW
?
25
In this photo, the
second stage of a
huge Saturn V rocket
is unloaded from its
shipping container at
the Kennedy Space
Center in Florida.
T
he chemical reaction produced
by rocket fuels has to be very
powerful. But it shouldnt be too
powerful. If it is too strong, and if the
fuel burns too fast, the rocket en-
gine will explode. Also, the reaction
must occur at a more or less steady
rate, so the engine can give a reliable
amount of power for a certain period
of time.
Two Different Types of Fuel
Some rocket engines use liquid fuel.
Others use solid fuel. Liquid-fuel
Fueling
Moon Flights
26
Liquid-Fuel and Solid-Fuel Rockets
Spacecraft
Liquid
Oxygen
Fuel
Pumps
Chamber
Where Fuel
Burns
Nozzle
Liquid-Fuel
Rocket
Spacecraft
Liquid
Oxygen
Fuel
Pumps
Chamber
Where Fuel
Burns
Nozzle
Liquid-Fuel
Rocket
Solid-Fuel
Rocket
Solid-Fuel
Rocket
Nozzle
Spacecraft
Igniter
Chamber
Where Fuel
Burns
Spacecraft
Igniter
Chamber
Where Fuel
Burns
In a liquid-fuel rocket, the fuel
and liquid oxygen are stored
separately until the fuel is to
be burned in another cham-
ber. In a solid-fuel rocket, the
fuel is stored in the chamber
where it is burned.
engines usually combine two chemicals
to produce a reaction. The chemicals are
stored in tanks. One chemical is the basic
fuel. It is fed to the engine, where it burns
when the other chemical, liquid oxygen or
something similar, is added to it. Solid-fuel
engines are something like giant reworks.
The solid fuel is kept in the engine. When it
is ignited (lit), it usually continues to burn
there once the reaction is started.
Military missiles that launch weapons
often use solid-fuel engines. Solid fuel, unlike
liquid fuel, can be loaded well in advance,
so the missile can be red at a moments
notice. Liquid-fuel engines are easier to
control. For that reason, they are more
often used in space rockets.
Some big rockets use both solid-fuel and
liquid-fuel engines. The European Space
Agencys Ariane 5 rocket has liquid-fuel
main stages and solid-fuel boosters.
A Different Kind of Fuel
Smart-1 used a third, and quite different, approach to getting to the
Moon: a kind of electric engine! This engine produced a thrust that was
very weak. The spacecraft had a very small mass, however, and it was
launched from space. The engine also worked for a long time, so the
thrust was enough to slowly move the craft toward the Moon. Smart-1
began to orbit the Moon more than a year after it was launched.
DID YOU KNOW
?
27
P
eople began sending spacecraft
to study the Moon in 1959. The
Soviet Unions spacecraft Luna 1
ew past the Moon early that year.
A couple of months later the U.S.
spacecraft Pioneer 4 also did a yby.
The following years saw many Moon
missions by both the United States
and the Soviet Union, ending with
the Soviet Unions Luna 24 in 1976.
Only the U.S. Apollo program sent
people to the Moon. Apollo 8 orbited
the Moon at the end of 1968. So did
Apollo 10 in May 1969. Landings were
made on the Moon by Apollo 11 and
12 in 1969, Apollo 14 and 15 in 1971,
and Apollo 16 and 17 in 1972. Apollo
13 in 1970 was also supposed to land
50 Years of
Moon Shots
28
This rocket launched a
Chinese spacecraft to
the Moon in 2007.
on the Moon, but there was
an explosion. The damaged
craft with its three astronauts
barely made it back to Earth.
A few Soviet spacecraft
without crews that landed
on the Moon also returned
to Earth. The U.S. and Soviet
missions brought scientists
valuable data and samples
of Moon rocks.
Back to the Moon
After Luna 24 people focused on developing
space stations and on sending space probes
to other parts of the solar system. Eventually,
space scientists again started sending space-
craft to study the Moon. In the past twenty
years, Japan, China, India, the European Space
Agency, and the United States have launched
missions to the Moon, all without crews.
One Small Step
People in the United States and around the world were proud and excited
when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the
rst people to walk on the Moon on July 20, 1969. Armstrong got out of
the spacecraft rst. When he set foot on the Moon, he said: Thats one
small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.
DID YOU KNOW
?
29
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin
looks at the American
ag he and Neil Arm-
strong placed on the
Moon in 1969.
30
accelerationA change in the
velocity of an object.
boosterA rocket that is attached
to a main rocket and helps provide
the thrust it needs.
forceA push or pull. Forces are
what cause, accelerate, or stop the
motion of objects.
frictionA force that resists the
movement of one surface over an-
other when the two surfaces are in
contact.
gravityA force that pulls objects
toward the center of a body. Its
strength depends on the mass of the
body.
inertiaThe tendency of objects to
resist a change in their motion.
lunarHaving to do with the Moon.
massThe amount of matter in an
object.
newtonA unit of measurement
for force. It is the amount of force
that can give a mass of 1 kilogram
an acceleration of 1 meter per
second per second.
orbitThe path followed by a body
as it circles around another body
because of the pull of the second
bodys gravity.
payloadThe things carried by a
rocket or other vehicle, such as a
spacecraft with scientic instruments
and crew.
reaction(1) A process in which
substances act on each other. Some
reactions can produce energy. (2)
A force opposite to another force.
rocketAn engine or vehicle that
carries all its own fuel and is powered
by the reaction force created by hot
gas rushing out of the back end.
stageA part of a rocket that
contains one or more engines and
separates away when its fuel is used
up. Usually stages are arranged in
a stack.
thrustThe reaction force that
pushes a rocket forward.
velocityThe rate at which an
object changes position. In the
strict sense, velocity involves both
the speed and the direction of an
objects motion.
weightThe force of gravity on an
object, especially as measured at the
surface of a planet, such as Earth.
Glossary
5
Read these books:
Green, Carl R. Apollo 11 Rockets to First Moon Landing. Berkeley Heights, N.J.:
MyReportLinks.com, 2004.
Jedicke, Peter. Great Moments in Space Exploration. New York: Chelsea House,
2007.
Miller, Ron. Rockets. Minneapolis: Twenty-First Century Books, 2007.
Thimmesh, Catherine. Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11
on the Moon. Boston: Houghton Mifin, 2006.
Look up these Web sites:
European Space Agency
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2S8WJD1E_index_0.html
Fear of Physics: Learn about Position, Velocity, and Acceleration
http://www.fearofphysics.com/Xva/xva.html
NASA: Solar System Exploration
http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/multimedia/gallery.cfm?Category=Spacecraft
Yahoo! Kids: Spacecraft
http://kids.yahoo.com/science/space/article/spacecraft
Key Internet search terms:
Apollo Program, Moon, NASA, Isaac Newton, rocket, Smart-1
To Learn More
31
32
Index
About the Author
Barbara J. Davis has written books on science topics for kids for
more than fteen years. She has published books on ecosys-
tems and biomes, as well as earth science subjects.
Acceleration 1011
Air resistance see Drag
Aldrin, Buzz 29
Apollo program 5, 9, 24, 25, 28, 29
Armstrong, Neil 20, 29
Axis (Earth) 6
Balanced force 13
Booster rockets 11
Chemical reaction 5, 2627
Command module 25
Computers (on spacecraft) 5
Constant speed 8
Course of spacecraft 7, 9
Design of rocket 12
Drag 19, 24
Earth (planet) 5, 6, 7, 17
Engines see Rocket engines
European Space Agency 25, 27, 29
First law of motion 1415
Forces 1213
Friction 1819
Fuel for rockets 5, 11, 22, 23, 2627
Gravity 5, 1617
History of Moon shots 5, 2829
Inertia 15
Jupiter (planet) 16
Liquid-fuel engines 2627
Mass 15, 17, 20
Motion 5, 67, 1415, 2021, 2223
Newton, Isaac 1415
Newtons (unit of measure) 13, 14
Orbit 5, 6, 7
Payload 20, 21
Planning of space mission 7, 11
Rocket engines 5, 11, 13, 23, 2425,
2627
Saturn V rocket 13, 24, 25
Seatbelts 14
Second law of motion 2021
Shape of rockets 18, 19
Skateboard 4, 8, 17, 18
Smart-1 (spacecraft) 25, 27
Solid-fuel engines 2627
Soviet Union 5, 28, 29
Speed 89, 10
Speed of rockets 8
Stages of rockets 11, 24, 25
Sun 6, 7
Takeoff 9, 25
Third law of motion 2223
Thrust 13, 22, 23
Two-stage rockets 10
Unbalanced force 13
Velocity 9, 10
Weight 1617

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