Creator: National Geographic | visit site
Grade Range: 3 - 11
Celebrate 50 years of space exploration with this beautiful interactive map created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco. Clicking on a section of the map will increase its size. Follow the paths for launches to their destinations. This interactive includes the mission’s destination, when the mission started, and whether the mission was a success or failure. Find all international space missions from the past. Follow the flight paths of current missions such as New Horizons traveling to Pluto and the location of the Voyagers. A line on the bottom shows the relative distances in interstellar space. If the article is open be sure to click Hide Article to see this entire map. Inspect parts of the map by using the plus-minus box on the upper right corner of the image.
In the Classroom
Use this interactive map to demonstrate how many space missions man has attempted in an effort to explore our solar system. Share it with a projector to view paths up close. Students, or small groups, can choose a planet or mission and research more about how the mission came about, what it’s goal was, and what the results of the mission were. Consider putting together resources on Symbaloo, reviewed here, for each of the space missions for students to learn more. Science students can investigate what technology was like at the time of the missions and what we use in its place today. Challenge students to present their findings to the class using Zeetings, reviewed here.
At Home
If you have a young scientist interested in space (or even science fiction), use this interactive map when they start asking questions about planets or the universe and how we know what we know.
Tags
explorers, space, stars, moon, planets, nasa,