Education Pack Support Material for Teachers and Educators littleangeltheatre.com | 020 7226 1787 Out of This World is an interactive theatre experience, combining learning, drama and micro cinema technology. Audiences are immersed in the world of L.A.S.A (Little Angel Space Agency), meeting three amazing women who are scientists and engineers. As well as the excitement of a fictional story there is much factual information to learn on a visit to L.A.S.A! This pack is designed to support some of the themes and learning points that are covered in more detail and can be used either before or after a visit to the show to enhance the learning experience. Curriculum links Science: Earth and space, the solar system and planets, the living world and humans and the environment The Little Angel Space Agency (L.A.S.A) is having a rare Open Day and you’re invited. This TOP SECRET space exploration and communication centre has been set up by local astronomer and space fanatic Astrid. It is an exciting time at L.A.S.A as Astrid and her friends Mercury and Hub have built a space rocket, and their dream of being astronauts is about to come true. Come and share their wonder of the universe. Learn about the planets and hear all about their plans to travel to the far reaches of space to explore alien territories and unknown galaxies. If you are very lucky you may even get to meet Zed, and Zed is not like anyone you would have met before! But there’s a problem – a little planet in the far reaches of our universe has sent out an SOS and desperately needs our help… This show uses micro-cinema technology to explore distant planets and rocky terrains. It includes audience interaction and a post-show discussion covering earth, outer space and everything in between. A thought provoking and fun experience for children and families where you can have your say on how we can make our planet, galaxy and universe a better place. Through this new immersive production Little Angel Theatre celebrates the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing as well as encouraging women into space exploration. About The Show and This Pack This The Show and About When you enter L.A.S.A. you will meet Astrid, Mercury and Hub. These are three fictional characters who work at our space station. In Workshop Laboratory One lobby area Mercury and Astrid talk about some of the inspirational women who inspired them to become scientists, inventors or astronauts. The Mercury 13 Crew The Mercury 13 were thirteen American women who, as part of a privately funded program, underwent the same physiological screening tests as the male astronauts selected by NASA Project Mercury. However, the Mercury 13 were not part of NASA's astronaut program, never flew in space and never met as a group. These 13 women, Myrtle Cagle, Jerrie Cobb, Janet Dietrich, Marion Dietrich, Wally Funk, Sarah Gorelick, Jane Hart, Jean Hixson, Rhea Hurrle, Gene Nora Stumbough, Irene Leverton, Jerri Sloan and Bernice Steadman, all passed the same examinations that the Lovelace Foundation had also used on NASA’s original male ‘Mercury 7’ crew, hence the coined name, ‘Mercury 13’. All of the candidates were accomplished pilots. Over 700 women pilots were considered in order to select candidates, and they did not invite anyone with less than 1,000 hours of Mercury 13 Mercury flight experience. Since doctors didn't know what stresses astronauts would experience in space, tests ranged from the typical X-ray and general body physicals to the unusual in which the women had to swallow a rubber tube so their stomach acids could be tested. Doctors tested the reflexes in the nerves of the woman's forearms using electric shock. To induce vertigo (feeling like the world is spinning), ice water was shot into their ears, freezing the inner ear so doctors could time how quickly they recovered. The women were pushed to exhaustion using specially weighted stationary bicycles to test their breathing. They subjected themselves to many more invasive and uncomfortable tests. NASA found out about the project and further tests were shut down. These women never got the chance to go into space, and they had to watch their male competitors fulfil dreams they knew they could achieve. With the Russians sending their first female cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova, into space in 1963, NASA’s gender discrimination became apparent to many, however it wasn’t until 1978 that Kristen Ride joined NASA and became the first American woman in space in 1983. Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova was born 6 March 1937 in Russia. She is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than 400 applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963. In order to join the Cosmonaut Corps, Tereshkova was inducted into the Soviet Air Force but because she had not served in the forces beforehand she also became the first civilian (non military person) to fly in space. Before her recruitment as a cosmonaut, Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker and an amateur skydiver. Her training included weightless flights, isolation tests, centrifuge tests, rocket theory, spacecraft engineering, 120 parachute jumps and pilot training in MiG-15UTI jet fighters. She spent several months in intensive training, concluding with examinations in November 1962. Tereshkova began final preparations for her flight. She was 26 at the time. On the morning of 16 June 1963, Tereshkova was dressed in a spacesuit and taken to the launch pad by bus. After completing her communication and life support checks, she was sealed inside the Vostok. After a two-hour countdown, Vostok 6 launched faultlessly, and Tereshkova became the first woman in space. Having orbited Earth 48 times, Tereshkova remains the only woman ever to have Women in Space been on a solo space mission. In 2013, she offered to go on a one-way trip to Mars if the opportunity arose. The U.S. civil space agency did not select any female astronaut candidates untilAstronaut Group 8 in 1978, which selected astronauts for the operational Space Shuttle program. Astronaut Sally Ride became the first American woman in space in 1983 on STS-7, After responding to a radio advertisement asking for applicants to be the first British astronaut, Helen Sharman was selected for the mission live on ITV, on 25 November 1989, ahead of nearly 13,000 other applicants. The programme was known as Project Juno and was a cooperative Soviet Union– British mission. Helen Sharman There are lots of different mnemonics to help you to remember the names of the planets. We use ‘Many Vile Earthlings Munch Jam Sandwiches Under Newspapers’ in the show! Can you make up one of your own? "How many planets are there?" Some people might answer "Nine!" to this question, because between 1930, when Pluto was discovered, and 2006, when it was re-designated a dwarf planet, this was the correct answer. Since Pluto’s removal from the list there are now officially eight planets in the suns orbit. When people learn the names of the planets, they usually learn them in order from innermost to outermost, that is, in order of increasing distance from the Sun, so Mercury is the planet closet to the Sun and Neptune is furthest away. Many (Mercury) Vile (Venus) Earthlings (Earth) Munch (Mars) Jam (Jupiter) Sandwiches (Saturn) Under (Uranus) Names of the Names planets Newspapers (Neptune) Write your own mnemonic for remembering the names of the planets in order from the sun. M_______________________________________ V_____________________________________ E________________________________________ M_____________________________________ J________________________________________ S______________________________________ U_______________________________________ N______________________________________ More than 500,000 pieces of debris, or “space junk,” are tracked by NASA as they orbit the Earth. They all travel at speeds of up to 17,500 mph, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to damage a satellite or a spacecraft. The rise of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, but especially to the International Space Station, space shuttles and other spacecraft with humans aboard. Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit about the Earth which no longer serves a useful function. Such debris includes non-functional spacecraft, abandoned launch vehicle stages, mission-related debris and fragmentation debris. Even tiny paint flecks can damage a spacecraft when traveling at high speed. In fact a number of space shuttle windows have had to be replaced because of damage caused by material that was analysed and shown to be paint flecks. In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier. On Feb. 10, 2009, a defunct Russian satellite collided with and destroyed a functioning U.S. Iridium commercial satellite. The collision added more than 2,000 pieces of trackable debris to the inventory of space junk. China's 2007 anti-satellite test, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added more than 3,000 pieces to the debris problem. Research methods that have been tested for clearing up space junk. Space Junk Space Design your own method for collecting space junk. What do you think could be done to prevent any more junk filling space. “I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space.” Stephen Hawking in conversation with Roger Highfield of The Telegraph (2001) Astrid has discovered life on a new planet. Zenadora is a planet in the Sunflower Galaxy, and Zed is an alien lifeform living on Zenadora that Astrid has made friends with.