Science Trail
Spectacular Space
This pack has been designed for teachers and adult group leaders
to use while guiding groups around the Museum. Explore the topic
of Earth and Space and uncover the science and stories behind
some of our amazing objects.
Tips for using this pack
1.Use each page as your guide to help your students engage
with an object – challenge them to find the object in its
particular gallery and then take the lead on facilitating
the activities.
2.You can use the pack as a trail, or dip in and out to fit around
your schedule for the day. We recommend allowing at least
15mins for each object.
3.The activities work best with smaller groups, each lead by
an adult. Give a pack to each adult in your group, the activities
are easy to facilitate and don’t require any pre-planning or
prior knowledge.
4.The activities can be done in any order, so explore at your
own pace.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International License
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
4
5
6
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
Apollo 10 Command Module
Making the Modern World, Ground Floor
The Apollo 10 mission was the practice run for the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969.
The command module is where the three astronauts lived during the eight-day mission.
It was never planned for the astronauts to land on the Moon on this mission – if they had
tried, they wouldn’t have had enough fuel to get back to the command module and travel
back home!
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Have a look at the command module. The three astronauts lived in here for about a week.
What do you think it would have been like? Could you have done it?
Investigate the command module closely – can you spot any evidence that it actually went
into space?
The underside is burnt and charred where it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
Take a pen and a sheet of paper from your bag. Drop them at the same time from the same
height. Which hits the ground first? A similar experiment was done on the Moon and the
two objects hit the ground at the same time. Why do you think this happened?
?
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Gravity pulls both objects to the ground. Air resistance slows the fall of the paper more than the pen. But
on the Moon there is no air. Astronaut David Scott carried out this experiment on the Moon, with a feather
and a hammer, during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971. Both objects reached the ground at the same time.
Photo Credit: NASA
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
4
5
6
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
Black Arrow
Exploring Space, Ground Floor
Black Arrow was Britain’s only satellite launcher. It delivered its satellite into orbit in 1971.
The Black Arrow R4 on display is a genuine rocket. With the addition of a few parts and
some fuel it could be launched into space!
What are satellites used for? Can you name 5 different things?
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Examples: TV, telephone, GPS navigation, weather and climate monitoring, studying space, observing
natural phenomena, military communications, Earth observations.
Once the fuel storage sections of rockets such as Black Arrow are empty they are
dumped in space, along with other space junk such as old satellites and space
exploration equipment. Have a look around the gallery. Some of the objects are
replicas because the real thing is still in space. How many can you find?
The Apollo 11 lunar module, Beagle 2 and the Huygens Titan Lander are all full-size replicas. There
are many other models in the gallery, but they are built to be smaller than the real thing.
?
?
What do you think the different sections of the rocket are for? Call out the names of
each section and see if your group can stand under the correct part.
a) First stage – fuel storage + eight engines
c) Third stage – fuel storage + one engine
b) Second stage – fuel storage + two engines
d) Prospero satellite
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
4
5
6
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
Beagle 2
Exploring Space, Ground Floor
Built by a team of British scientists, Beagle 2 was a landing craft designed to search for
signs of life on Mars.
After being lost in space for a long time, scientists have now discovered that Beagle 2 did
make it to Mars. Sadly it hasn’t been able to send information back to Earth.
What could the discovery of life on Mars mean for humans? How would you feel about
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living on Mars in the future?
Have a look at Beagle 2. What do you think the four shiny circular panels are for?
Solar panels to charge the batteries and power the equipment.
What might you take with you on a manned mission to Mars? In small groups, give
yourselves two minutes to decide on the five most important things. Then come
together at the end and see if you can all work as one big group to decide on a list of
five for the whole class, thinking about why each item is important.
?
Photo Credit: All rights reserved Beagle 2 (Beagle2.com)
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
4
5
6
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
J2 Engine
Exploring Space, Ground Floor
The J2 engine was used on NASA’s Apollo missions to the Moon and ran on liquid
hydrogen and oxygen.
Five of these engines were used to power the second stage of the Saturn V rockets which
took the Apollo astronauts to the Moon. Each Saturn V was about the same height as the
Big Ben clock tower at Westminster.
?
Do you think space exploration has changed your life? Where else do you think we
should explore?
Have a look at the J2 engine. Five of these helped to launch each Saturn V rocket.
These rockets were huge. In fact they had a circumference of about 33 metres – that’s
about the same as 24 children holding hands in a circle. Give it a try!
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The Saturn V was built to carry a lot of fuel, as the J2 engines burned about 900 kg (the
mass of a family car) every second. Hydrogen is burned to release energy, but why do
you think oxygen is in the fuel tanks as well? Think about the conditions of space and
the elements of the fire triangle.
For anything to burn all the elements of the fire triangle need to be present – fuel, oxygen and heat.
Oxygen is not present in space, so it has to be carried in the fuel tanks of the rocket.
Photo Credit: NASA
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
4
5
6
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Exploring Space, Ground Floor
Helen Sharman was the first Briton to travel into space. She was selected for the trip after responding
to an advert she heard on her car radio. It said, ‘Astronaut wanted, no experience necessary.’
?
Look at the spacesuit and imagine you are wearing it. What do you think it would feel like? What might
have been different about Helen’s daily life when she was in space, compared with life on Earth?
Is it heavy, light, warm, cold, stiff, comfortable...? How would you go to the toilet?
Investigate Helen’s spacesuit. Why do you think she had to wear it? How many features of the suit can you
spot that would have helped her to survive in space?
emperature can vary a lot in space. The liquid cooling garment can keep her temperature low enough, but the suit is
T
also insulated to keep her warm.
• The suit can be connected to the spacecraft for oxygen supply and also to remove carbon dioxide.
• The suit maintains a stable pressure – there’s a pressure gauge on the sleeve and a blue pressure valve on her chest.
• Emergency oxygen can be supplied through the helmet if the spacecraft cabin loses pressure.
•
?
?
Helen made it to the Mir space station and back, but how far away are the stars? Scientists can use a
phenomenon called ‘parallax’ to figure this out. Try it with your group. Hold up your finger and look at
it first with your left eye closed, then with your right eye closed. Do you notice how your finger appears
to move?
Parallax is the phenomenon where the position of an object appears to change when you observe it from different
positions. By observing a nearby star from different points during Earth’s orbit around the Sun, the apparent change
in position of the star can be used to estimate its distance from Earth.
2
3
Beagle 2
Black Arrow
J2
Wellcome Wing
Discovery
Motion Theatre
4
5
6
A
pollo 10
Command Module
V2
Helen Sharman’s Space Suit
Group
Entrance / Exit
Entrance
The
Theatre
Cravings
IMAX Theatre
Antenna
Deep Blue Diner
The Model Walkway
Making the
Modern World
6
Exploring
Space
Exhibition Road
1
Shop
Energy
Café
Churchill’s Scientists
Foucault’s
Pendulum
Energy
Hall
Exit
James Watt
and Our World
V2 Rocket
Making the Modern World, Ground Floor
The V2 rocket was developed by German engineers during the Second World War. It was
the first man-made object to travel faster than the speed of sound. More than a thousand
of these hit Britain during the war, and many people died as a consequence.
The rocket technology used in the V2 eventually led to the development of the first rockets
that took people into space.
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The V2 rocket killed many people during the Second World War, but it also led to
humans setting foot on the Moon. Would you still invent new technology if you knew how
it could affect people, in good ways or bad ways?
Find something else in the Making the Modern World gallery that you think represents:
a) Something helpful to mankind
b) Something dangerous
The V2 is so tall that it doesn’t fit properly in this gallery – look around and see if you can find
what had to be removed.
How many of you do you think would have to stand on each other’s shoulders to reach
the top?
?
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The nose cone had to be removed. It now sits right behind the V2. The rocket’s height is 14 metres – equivalent to
about 12 children standing on each other’s shoulders (with an average shoulder height of 1.2 metres at age ten).