Satellites fly at 17,000 miles an hour, completing a trip around the Earth in just an hour and a half! But at these speeds, we have a new problem: space junk. Space junk includes satellites that don’t work anymore, floating leftover pieces from rocket boosters, tools dropped during astronaut walks, and so on. If you’re up there doing a space walk, grab some garbage to help us clean up!
Wee ones: If you have 4 pieces of space junk, and 1 of them breaks in half, how many pieces do you have now?
Little kids: If you’ve made 9 trips around Earth so far today, what number is your next trip? Bonus: If you’ve made 9 trips around Earth so far today, how many more trips can you make today if you can make 16 trips in total?
Big kids: If you start your orbit at 3:30 pm and the trip takes 1 1/2 hours, at what time will you finish? Bonus: If there are 400 pieces of space junk in your path, and on each of your 16 trips today you scoop up 30 pieces, can you catch them all?
The sky’s the limit: If you start orbiting Earth today (May 24) and make 16 junk-collecting trips each day, on what date will you make your 100th orbit?
Answers:
Wee ones: 5 pieces.
Little kids: The 10th. Bonus: 7 more trips.
Big kids: At 5:00 pm. Bonus: Yes! You’ll be able to catch 480 pieces.
The sky’s the limit: On May 30. You finish 16 trips today, and another 80 trips 5 days after today, which is May 29. That brings you to 96 trips, so the 100th trip happens on May 30.
