Orbital Living

Astronauts eat food, sleep, maintain their hygiene, and do science experiments, but they do these activities a little differently (sometimes a lot differently) than we do on Earth. Let’s design space-worthy solutions to the challenges of living on a space station and then learn about how space organizations like NASA have tackled some of these problems.

Curricular Connections

• 3-5-ETS1-1: Engineering Design: Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
• 3-5-ETS1-2: Engineering Design: Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.

Required Materials

• Student Worksheets with Instructions
• Resource Sheets with Reflection Questions (contains links to be used digitally; alternatively, you can open the links ahead of time and provide the resources separately)
• Writing materials
• Optional extension: craft materials such as construction paper, tape, pipe cleaners, cardboard, or other available items to be used for “prototyping” their designs

Note: The activities presented in the above worksheets can be structured as rotating stations, individual activities, or altogether as a packet. Encourage students to share the solutions they develop with the class, or even to peer review one another’s solutions and practice giving constructive feedback. Finally, explore the links on the resource sheet in small groups or all together as a class, to learn about how astronauts currently experience daily life.

From the Text

Station 1 (Food): I float down to the dormitory for my morning ritual. I eat a prepackaged breakfast (scrambled eggs with pork sausage) and a bag of hot coffee. 13.129

Station 2 (Sleep): “I’m going to sleep now. I’ll come back in twenty-nine thousand seconds.” 12.114

Station 3 (Hygiene): I found the sponge-bath zone a few days ago—just a sink with sponges that comes out of the wall. 06.178

Station 4 (Science): I like science. I know it. I got a thrill from all the little experiments I’ve been doing. And I’m in space. 02.116

Extension Activity

• Once students have drawn, labelled, and shared their designs, consider providing craft materials for constructing three-dimensional “prototypes” of their solutions.