Introduction Have you ever tried to count the stars It’s hard to do You can count up only so high but eventually you lose track of where you started Space just like the number of stars that fill it is infinite It goes on and on and on 4
You can explore space by looking through a telescope For as long as human beings have lived we’ve been fascinated by the stars and planets The exciting thing about being alive today is that we have the technology to leave the Earth and explore those other planets What we’ll find there is a mystery Maybe we’ll meet other forms of life Maybe we’ll find other planets that the human race can colonize Maybe we’ll discover the origins of the universe In this book you’ll see how math helps scientists to understand space the size of the solar system and conditions on other planets If you’re interested in studying outer space you’re going to need to know math As you will see math is a large part of what makes space exploration possible 5
A Look at the Moon July 20 1969 is an important date for the human race It was on this day that a human being first walked on the surface of the moon The Apollo 11 mission that put men on the moon is one of the most extraordinary achievements of the human race STEM Fast Fact Neil Armstrong Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the moon Six hundred million people watched the first moon walk on TV His footprints can still be seen on the moon today The dust is thick but there isn’t any wind to remove them He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom which is the highest honor a civilian can earn from the U S government Neil Alden Armstrong 1930 2012 6
For years people watched the moon in the sky and wondered what it was really like But through careful study the astronauts who went to the moon had a good idea of what to expect Planet Earth revolves around a much larger body the Sun The same pattern follows with the Earth and the moon Because it is always in motion the moon is never precisely the same distance from the Earth When it is closest the moon is about 227,000 miles 365,321 09 kilometers from the Earth When it is farthest away the moon is about 254,000 miles 408,773 38 kilometers from the Earth Sun Earth Earth’s Orbit Moon Moon's Orbit 7
