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Description

Young people investigate different ways of collecting space junk and then design a space craft.

Resources

rice, tin foil, foam pieces, old and new pennies, magnets, tweezers or clothes pegs, straws, squares of plastic bag, cocktail sticks, sellotape, trays

Instructions

Talk to them about space junk and why it is a problem. Tell them that scientists are currently trying to work out how to get rid of space junk.
Put space junk (a mix of pieces of tin foil, pieces of foam, raw rice and new and old pennies) on each groups tray.
Tell them that they are going to investigate different ways of collecting space junk.
Get them to try:
spiking things with cocktail sticks
picking up things with magnets (pennies older than 1992 are not magnetic / newer ones are so a mix of both is really good)
picking things up with clothes pegs
making a space net by sellotaping two straws to parallel sides of a rectangular piece of plastic bag. See what the can sweep to one side

After each, discuss what they could and couldn't pick up and whether they thought that was a good way to collect space junk.

Young people then design a spacecraft on a piece of paper to collect space junk. It could incorporate one or more of the ideas they have tested or an entirely new one. They label bits of it to say how it works.

Tags

• experiment badge
• machines
• My Skills Challenge
• space

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