Surviving a Crash Landing on the Moon

You are a member of a space crew scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. However, your ship crash-lands on a lighted spot some 320 km. from the rendezvous point. Much of the equipment was damaged during landing. Survival depends on reaching the mother ship.

Compare and contrast the environments of the earth and our moon.

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Item Your Reasoning Team NASA Your Team Rankin Rankin Rankin Error Error g g g Point Points s Box of matches

Food concentrate

50 meters of nylon rope

Parachute silk

Solar-powered portable heating unit Two .45-caliber pistols

One case of dehydrated milk

Two 50 kg-tanks of oxygen

Stellar map of Moon’s constellations Self-inflating life raft

Magnetic compass

Fifty liters of water

Signal flares

First-aid kit including injection needles

Solar powered, FM D - 23 Surviving a Crash Landing on the Moon receiver/transmitter

List the six most important items to keep. Justify your list.

List the six least important items to keep. Justify your list.

Discussion Questions:

Who was more likely to survive, individuals working alone or groups?

Did groups or individuals rank the items more accurately? Why?

In what types of situations are groups better than individuals at problem solving?

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