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Build vocabulary by finding words related to the lesson concept. |
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Listen to draw conclusions. |
| Day 1 | What are the risks when walking on the moon? |
| Day 2 | Why would the moon be an exciting place to explore? |
| Day 3 | What did Vern and Gerry learn about themselves when faced with danger? |
| Day 4 | What questions would you want to ask an astronaut who has walked on the moon? |
| Day 5 | Revisit the Day 1 question to wrap up the lesson. |
1. |
Do you think the authors know a lot about what the moon is like? Why or why not? (Possible response: Yes, because they included several statements of fact about the moon's features.) Draw Conclusions |
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2. |
Do you think it is likely that there will be a moonbase like the one described in the selection by 2019? Why or why not? (Possible response: Probably not, because there has been no talk of a moonbase in the news, and the underground base and factories described would take many years to set up.) Draw Conclusions |
Clavius Base: July 20, 2019. On the fiftieth anniversary of man's first "small step" on the Moon, the first permanent colonists of the Moon have landed to take up residence in their new underground base, set in the huge crater Clavius, near the Moon's south pole.The names we use today date from a map published by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Riccioli in 1651. He gave the flat plains poetic names like the Sea of Nectar and the Bay of Rainbows. He also named the bigger craters after famous astronomers, philosophers and scientists. Two prominent craters near the center of the Moon's disc, for example, were called Copernicus and Kepler, after the two astronomers who showed that the Earth goes around the Sun. Riccioli gave many of the craters the tongue-twisting names of ancient Greek philosophers, like Eratosthenes.Later astronomers measured the positions of the Moon's mountains, valleys and craters so accurately that in the eighteenth century scientists had maps of the Moon that were more detailed than the maps of remote parts of the Earth like central Africa.In the twentieth century, astronomers were able to photograph the Moon, and could measure the positions of its features even more accurately. But even the best maps made from the Earth only show the half of the Moon that faces us, plus a few more features just over the edge: the far side was unknown until space probes photographed it.From the start, the planners had seen the moonbase as a commercial proposition, as well as a scientific base. The Apollo missions had shown that the Moon's rocks are rich in useful metals, such as aluminum, chromium, magnesium and manganese. With the Moon's low gravity, and lack of atmosphere, it is easy to launch materials into space, where they can be used to build new space stations and spacecraft.Factories now being built on the Moon can also extract oxygen from the rocks and send this gas to the space stations. This provides a supply of air more easily than bringing it up from the Earth.As well as engineers and miners, the first colonists naturally include many scientists. Geologists will be studying the Moon in great detail to learn how both the Moon and the Solar System came into being. Astronomers are beginning to erect giant telescopes, taking advantage of both the Moon's clear dark skies and its low gravity.On the far side of the Moon, where there is no radio interference from the Earth, they are turning a crater into a gigantic radio telescope. With this sensitive radio "ear," they hope to pick up the first signals from alien civilizations on planets circling other stars.