Experience Space

Hubble Rescue

Objects, including astronauts, move differently in space than they do on Earth.

When astronauts need to move around in space, they can use a Manned Manoeuvring Unit (MMU).

When you start something moving in space, it will keep moving until a force is applied to make it stop. This means that in space you need to be very careful about how you move. If you didn't have an MMU and you pushed yourself off from the spacecraft, you would just keep on going and never stop! That's because in space there is nothing, such as the friction of air, to slow you down.

A scientist called Sir Isaac Newton, who described three important laws of motion, explained this idea. His first law says: 'A body continues in its state of rest [object isn't moving] or uniform motion [object is moving] unless an unbalanced external force [such as the friction of air or a thruster jet rocket] acts on it.'

Life in a Vaccum

Sound does not travel in space.

Sound is carried through air by sound waves moving the molecules in the air. As the number of air molecules decreases, the sound level you hear decreases too.

There is no air in space. For this reason sound does not travel at all! When they say in the movies that 'in space no one can hear you scream' they're not joking!

Luckily, astronauts can use radio transmitters and receivers to talk to each other in space. In their spacecraft, air is pumped into the cabin so that they can breathe and talk normally.

The temperature at which water boils depends on the air pressure around it.

Water boils and turns to steam at certain temperatures, depending on the air pressure pressing on its surface. If the air pressure is reduced, water will boil at a lower temperature.

In space, or on planets that do not have an atmosphere, there is no air pressure. Liquid surface water cannot exist on planets that do not have an atmosphere.

Air pressure decreases as you increase in altitude in the atmosphere. A kettle will boil at about 60°C on the top of Mt Everest, not the 100°C it does at sea level - which is why a cup of tea on Mt Everest doesn't taste the same or feel as hot as it does at sea level.

How much would you weigh?

Weight is different to mass. On different planets, your weight will change, but your mass will stay the same.

When people talk about weight, they are really talking about the force required to lift an object. The effect of gravity determines this force. So weight depends on gravity! The higher the gravity, the more something weighs!

An object also has a property called 'mass'. Mass doesn't change with gravity. All objects (including people) have a constant mass (unless they eat more or less food!) Your weight on another planet will depend on the gravity on that planet, but your mass will be the same whether you are on Earth or another planet.

A planet's gravity will depend on how big it is - the greater the mass of the planet the greater its gravity and, therefore, the more you will weigh (for example, on Jupiter which is bigger than Earth). Going to somewhere like the Moon, which is smaller than Earth and therefore has less gravity, will reduce your weight.

Remote Mars Rover

Robots are useful for doing jobs that humans can't or are too dangerous .

Robots are often sent to do jobs that are considered too dangerous for humans. On Earth these jobs include bomb disposal and working at great depths underwater. Robots are used on other planets to carry equipment and take measurements. The Mars Pathfinder was a small robotic vehicle that carried sensors to make measurements on Mars.

Stereoscopic vision allows an operator to see what is near a robot in 3D. Because 'it's just like being there', the robot operator has a much better understanding of where objects are.

Communications to and from Earth can take a long time, depending on how far away from Earth you are.

It takes time for a radio signal to travel through space. This creates a delay in sending commands to, and receiving data from, a distant space robot. The delay to Mars is about 10 minutes (this depends on where Earth and Mars are in their orbits around the Sun). It therefore takes 20 minutes to send a command and then receive a response from a robot on Mars.

Star Positions

Constellations, or groups of stars, can be made of stars that exist a long way away from each other.

Stars are spread out over great distances in space. When we see collections of stars such as the Southern Cross from the Earth it is easy to think that the stars are all the same distance away. The stars are actually at very different distances from Earth. In the Southern Cross, the closest star is 836 million kilometres from earth and the farthest one is 3458 million kilometres.

Land the Space Shuttle

You only get one chance when you are landing the space shuttle!

The space shuttle is a complicated reuseable rocket used by NASA to launch spacecraft into low Earth orbit (at about 300km altitude). When astronauts are learning to fly they spend many hours in simulators practising how to control the shuttle. Simulators also allow the shuttle pilots to try difficult or dangerous manoeuvres many times before having to do them 'for real'.

The space shuttle lands like a glider. The engines are only used during its launch. Because there is no power the pilot only has one chance to land correctly once the landing sequence has begun.

Dig it Up

Scientists can find out lots of information about planets from samples collected by probes

NASA scientists propose that the single critical factor that determines whether life is possible on another planet is the presence of water. Robot probes sent to Mars over the past thirty years have been looking for both water and biological activity. They have also analysed rocks for their chemical content.

The Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor is an integrated scientific payload that can analyse samples on-site with a probe. It contains a Stereo Surface Imager, Robotic Arm and Robotic Arm Camera, Meteorology Package, and a Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer (TEGA).

The instruments are designed to study the distribution and behaviour of water and other volatiles (chemicals that evaporate easily) on Mars and their role in Mars' weather and climate history.

The TEGA is designed to measure the amounts of ice, absorbed carbon dioxide, oxygen, water, and volatile-bearing minerals in surface and subsurface samples collected by the Robotic Arm. A sample collected by the Robotic Arm is heated at a controlled rate of a few degrees per minute to 1000°C. Carbon dioxide, oxygen, and water vapour are driven off the sample as it is heated and measured.

Each of the TEGA's eight ovens can only be used once, so only eight samples can be examined. The total mass of the TEGA is 3.4 kg.

Plastic Bottle Rocket

Rockets need to supply their own oxygen to work.

Because there is no air in space to allow fuel to burn, rockets must take their own oxygen with them. Rockets have large tanks containing liquid oxygen (the oxidiser) and liquid hydrogen or kerosene (the fuel).

Rockets push expanding burnt gas away from them causing them to move forward (just like the water being pushed out of this rocket). They do not move by 'pushing against the air' like birds. This is why they can fly in space where there is no air. This also reflects Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion: 'For every force acting on an object [the rocket pushing air away] there is an equal and opposite force acting upon it [the rocket moving in the opposite direction to the exploding air].'

Orrery

The movements of the planets can be shown using an orrery - a clockwork model of the solar system.

The Earth's seasons are caused by the movement of the Earth and its tilt of 23.5°.

The Earth tilts at approximately 23.5 ° to the plane of its orbit around the sun. This means that parts of the Earth will receive different amounts of sunlight as the year progresses. The seasons are caused by these variations in sunlight.

In the southern summer, the North Pole is tilting away from the Sun, exposing the Southern Hemisphere to more sunlight during the longer days. In winter, the North Pole tilts toward the Sun causing less light to strike the Southern Hemisphere. In autumn and spring the days and nights are the same length.

Virtual Biosphere

Providing an environment that humans can live in on other planets requires much planning.

To permanently live on another planet, humans would need to create an environment like Earth's to live in. This environment will need to protect them from harmful solar rays and provide food and clean air to ensure their survival. In this exhibit, students get to control the atmosphere of a simulated biosphere to learn about what we need to survive.

If we are to survive for long periods of time on another planet, we need to have an environment that provides clean air, food, and water. We must also recycle or dispose of waste products in a sustainable way.

To create an inhabitable and sustainable world on a planet such as Mars or Venus, we would need to build a very large sealed environment containing all the elements we need for survival.

The environment would need to remain in balance and be self-sustaining because it would be too expensive to continuously re-supply it from Earth. The environment would have to grow its own food and maintain an inhabitable temperature and atmosphere to sustain life.

Timing is Everything

The timing of a rocket launch is very important

When a rocket is being sent from Earth to the Moon or another planet, scientists and engineers must calculate the best time for the launch. They must allow for the movement of the Earth and the target planet in their orbits when planning a launch date.

This exhibit showed a simplification of some of the timings that are necessary to successfully reach the Moon. In real life, the situation is more complex because the Earth is moving around the Sun and gravity affects the spacecraft's flight path. Students have to time exactly when the ball is flicked from the rotating Earth so it 'lands' on the moon.

A spacecraft launched from Earth can be either hindered or helped on its journey by the Earth's rotation. This will depend on when the spacecraft leaves Earth. Scientists and engineers determine a 'launch window' - the time when the rocket must be launched to reach its destination.

Take Control

During the launch and throughout the life of all spacecraft, control room operators keep a close eye on how well the spacecraft is operating and that it is following its correct path through space.

We have always had a fascination and an interest in space - since ancient times humans have been studying the heavens. But it has only been in the last forty years that we have been able to reach out and visit some of our closest neighbours in space.

Space Race

If you ran as fast as you could, how long would it take you to reach the Moon, the Sun, or Saturn?

Earth is on average 384,401 kilometres away from the Moon. It took the first rocket four days and seven hours to reach the moon.

The distance from Earth to the Moon is tiny compared to other distances in the solar system. At its closest point, the Sun is 146 million kilometres away - and we can still feel its heat!

Voyage to Aotearoa

When legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe returned from Aotearoa to his homeland Hawaiki, he provided instructions for the journey back here. In 1985, the waka hourua Hawaikinui sailed to New Zealand from Rarotonga, navigating by the instructions that had been passed down for generations.

For Polynesian navigators, the important stars and constellations included Tamanui-te-rä (Sun), Matariki (Pleiades), Tautoru (Orion), and Mähutonga (Southern Cross). Traditional knowledge of stars and of navigation was passed on by a master navigator to chosen young people. Then they became the navigators and instructors of the next generation.

Space Lounge

This area had a variety of objects and audio-visuals as well as books and games. The objects included:

Meteorite

This meteorite crashed into a house in Auckland at about 9.15am on Saturday 12 June 2004. When it landed, it was still too hot to touch. It would have been much bigger when it entered Earth's atmosphere. Friction had burnt most of it up, and one side was burnt smooth.

The meteorite punched a hole right through a metal roof. 'I was at the kitchen sink when there was this incredible crash,' said Brenda Archer, one of the house-owners. The meteorite landed on a couch, bounced up to the ceiling, and then clattered to the floor.

Moon rock

This rock was brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972. The astronauts who collected it were the last people to set foot on the Moon.

Astronauts have been to the Moon six times: twice in 1969, twice in 1971, and twice in 1972. They have brought back about 360 kilograms of lunar rock to Earth. Most of it has not been analysed.

These Moon samples can tell us about the composition and age of the Moon's surface and how it compares with Earth's surface. Scientists believe that the Moon was formed about 4.25 billion years ago when a massive asteroid collided with Earth, which was then only about 280 million years old. The composition of the Moon matches the composition of a young and still evolving Earth.

Flag and patch from Columbia mission

The space shuttles were designed as the first reusable spacecraft. Solid rocket boosters blasted them into space, where they could orbit Earth then land again like an aeroplane.

Columbia flew 28 flights between 1981 and 2003. In February 2003, the shuttle exploded as it re-entered Earth's atmosphere and all seven astronauts on board were killed.