(peaceful piano instrumental)
(music box chiming)
- It's story time.
Hi, I'm Ann from the
National Air and Space Museum
and I'm here to bring
some of our museum stories
to you, at home.
At the National Air and Space Museum,
we're very excited about
plans to send people to Mars.
We've never sent humans to Mars,
but we have sent landers,
like the Viking 1,
which landed and stayed in one place,
and also rovers that can
move around on the planet
to help us learn more about Mars.
The first rover was little Sojourner,
and then we sent others.
The Curiosity Rover is much
bigger and more complex.
When scientists and engineers
were building these landers and rovers,
they built models that were
just like the real ones
that they could take out to the desert
and test to see how well they
might do in a place on earth
that's kind of like Mars.
We have these testers in the
museum for people to see.
Now, there are plans
to send humans to Mars,
and one day, people like you
could get on a rocket and go there.
Here's a story about that.
Once upon a time,
there were three friends
who liked adventures.
They were Millie, Ruth, and Lou.
One day, at one of their tea parties,
Millie told the friends about the trip
that she and her family took
to the Air and Space Museum.
"There were rockets,
"and Moe and I climbed into a spaceship.
"And we learned all about astronauts
"and the new mission
to Mars," said Millie.
"I'd like to go to space," exclaimed Ruth.
"We could be the first kids on Mars."
"We need astronauts suits," said Millie.
"And a rocket," said Lou.
"And snacks," said Ruth.
"I'll bring the cookies."
That settled it.
The friends were going to Mars.
Each friend worked on a
different part of the plan.
Millie started designing
the astronaut suits.
"We won't be able to
breathe the air on Mars,
"and it's super cold.
"We're going to need helmets
and gloves," she said.
Lou focused on building the rocket.
"The rocket will need to be
big so we all fit inside,
"and fast and powerful
because Mars is so far away."
She found a tall box and
started making it into a rocket.
Ruth pulled together snacks
and games for the trip,
and also started to think
about where they would live
after they landed on Mars.
"I think a big dome would be good.
"I saw a video about making a dome
"using rolled up newspapers."
Millie's brother, Moe, balanced
on the fence and watched.
"Can you use scooters on Mars?" he asked.
The friends looked at each other.
They knew that they would need to test out
whether they could ride their scooters
with the astronaut suits on.
The next day, they came
together to test the scooters
while wearing their suits.
They all wore their
helmets, gloves, and boots.
Millie had made an oxygen tank backpack
out of plastic bottles, some
string, and an old hose.
They put on the backpacks and took off.
It was a little awkward at first
getting used to all of the gear,
but they got the hang of it.
They scooted around a bit
and then got back to work
making their Mars mission materials.
Then Moe came up,
dragging a big, blue tarp.
"Can you use this?" he asked.
"Perfect," said Ruth.
"That can cover the dome."
Lou said, "The rocket is almost ready.
"I put on some powerful
engines on the bottom
"that I made out of cardboard tubes
"and I added tissue paper fire."
"One last thing," said Millie.
"We learned at the
museum that every mission
"has a special badge with
the names of the crew on it.
"Let's make our mission to Mars badge."
The three friends worked
together to make badges,
and then they taped them to their shirts.
"Now we are ready," said Millie.
The next day was the launch.
Moe waved goodbye as the
friends climbed into the rocket
that Lou had built and
started the countdown.
10, nine, eight, seven, six, five,
four, three, two, one,
blast off to Mars!
They ate cookies and played
a clapping game on the trip.
Boom chicka rocka, chicka
rocka, chicka boom,
boom, take a rocket, take
a rocket to the moon!
Boom chicka rocka, chicka
rocka, chicka bars,
boom, take a rocket, take
a rocket off to Mars!
"We've landed!" said Lou.
They put on their astronaut suits
and stepped out of the rocket onto Mars.
"Wow," said Millie.
"It's dusty on Mars, and all
of the rocks are orangy red."
They climbed on their scooters
and headed toward the
dome that Ruth had made.
"Good idea to put the dome
"at the base of the big mountain, Ruth.
"Once we get some rest,
"we should climb to the top
"and see even more of Mars," said Lou.
They climbed inside.
The sun was shining through the blue tarp,
making a spacey light.
Ruth gave each friend a flashlight
and they shined them on
the sides of the dome.
Millie whispered, "I'm so glad
that I have such good friends
"to share adventures with."
"Me too," whispered Lou and Ruth,
and they gave each other a high five.
The end.
It's craft time!
There are lots of great crafts
that are suggested by our story today,
like making a geodesic dome
out of rolled up newspaper,
or making an oxygen tank
out of a plastic bottle,
or making a rocket ship
out of a big cardboard box.
But today, I'm going to show you
how we can make a astronaut
helmet out of a paper bag.
So all you need for this craft
is a paper bag, like this one,
scissors, and your crayons.
Very easy.
So what we're gonna first do
is you're going to draw this
square on the paper bag,
and then I just rounded off
the top and the bottom of the square
to make it a little bit more
like an astronaut helmet.
Then we're going to cut that square out.
And in order to cut out the
middle, but not the rest of it,
you can make a little pinch
and then you can cut, just like that,
and that gets a little
start for your hole.
And then you can go ahead
and cut the rest of it out.
I already did it on the other side.
You can see.
And then, I decorated
the helmet
so that it has all sorts of things
that an astronaut helmet might have on it.
Like, maybe lights,
cameras, and some dials
that can help you to control
your temperature in your suit.
And you can make your suit
whatever colors you like,
and decorate it even all
around on the sides as well.
Make it just like you'd like it.
This one's a little bit long,
so I'm gonna just cut
off the bottom part of it
so it'll fit a little better.
You can also fold it up if
you don't wanna cut that part.
It'll sit a little bit better.
Let's see how it looks.
I'm gonna try it on now.
(chuckles)
Astronaut Ann reporting for
duty to the mission to Mars.
Well, thanks for joining
us for craft time today.
Please share your crafts with us at
#airandspaceathome or tag us on Facebook.
We'd love to see what you come
up with and what you make.
Thanks for joining us, bye bye!
(gentle guitar instrumental)
