User:Trevor MacInnis/Discussion questions

Space
1. Many people believe that time and money would be better spent at home to fight poverty and crime than on the space program. What do you think? How do you think NASA would answer?

2. Why was it so important to the U.S. to get a man on the moon?

3. Astronomer Carl Sagan said "The U.S.'s first mistake was to go to the moon. Its second was not to go back." Why do you think he said this?

4. For many years the "Space Race" was on between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. (now Russia). What were the motivations for competition between the two countries? Why were the Soviets more secretive, not even announcing their missions? Why is there less secrecy now?

5. Why do some spacecraft carry people and others do not? Try to come up with several reasons.

6. Why are spacecraft sent to other planets?

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Space Shuttle project?

8. For 22 years, until 1983, all U.S. astronauts were white males. That year the first female, Sally Ride, and the first person of color, Guy Bluford, flew on the Space Shuttle. Why did NASA use only white, male astronauts between 1961 and 1983? Why did the Russians send a woman into space in 1963, twenty years before the U.S.?

9. How is space travel different today than it was when it started in the 1960's?

10. What is easier about funding space travel now than it was in the 1960's, when it started? What is more difficult?

11. In what ways can space travel help people here on Earth?

12. If you were in charge of the next space mission, where would your craft go and what would it do? Why?