ANSWERS
Item Ranking NASA's Reasoning
Box of matches 15 Virtually worthless -- there's no oxygen on the
moon to sustain combustion
Food concentrate 4 Efficient means of supplying energy requirements
50 feet of nylon rope 6 Useful in scaling cliffs and tying injured together
Parachute silk 8 Protection from the sun's rays
Portable heating unit 13 Not needed unless on the dark side
Two .45 calibre pistols 11 Possible means of self-propulsion
One case of
dehydrated milk 12 Bulkier duplication of food concentrate
Two 100 lb. tanks
of oxygen 1 Most pressing survival need (weight is not a factor
since gravity is one-sixth of the Earth's -- each tank
would weigh only about 17 lbs. on the moon)
Stellar map 3 Primary means of navigation - star patterns
appear essentially identical on the moon as on Earth
Self-inflating life raft 9 CO2 bottle in military raft may be used
for propulsion
Magnetic compass 14 The magnetic field on the moon is not
polarized, so it's worthless for navigation
20 litres of water 2 Needed for replacement of tremendous
liquid loss on the light side
Signal flares 10 Use as distress signal when the mother
ship is sighted
First aid kit, including 7 Needles connected to vials of vitamins,
injection needles medicines, etc. will fit special aperture in
NASA space suit
Solar-powered FM 5 For communication with mother ship (but
receiver-transmitter FM requires line-of-sight transmission
and can only be used over short ranges)
Scoring:
For each item, mark the number of
points that your score differs from
the NASA ranking, then add up all
the points. Disregard plus or minus
differences. The lower the total, the
better your score.
0 - 25 excellent
26 - 32 good
33 - 45 average
46 - 55 fair
56 - 70 poor – suggests use of
Earth-bound logic
71 - 112 very poor – you're one of the
casualties of the
space program!
... published in the July 1999 issue of the NightTimes
Off icialKidsMag.com • JULY 2019 • 49
