Daily STREAM Activity: Moon Ice Extraction
Extract ice from the moon!
Activity best for children age 6 and up
It has been a lot of fun exploring the moon all month long. We have practiced skills real NASA scientists use like making observations, conducting experiments and we even told our own story about a future mission to the moon. Today, you are going to pretend to be an astronaut who has landed on the moon but have run into a problem: you need to refill your breathable air supply! A moonquake has cracked your oxygen tanks, automatic emergency systems have patched them, but they are almost empty. You will need water to produce more oxygen to breathe. Luckily, your outpost has a supply of frozen lunar material mined from deep, dark craters—and it contains frozen water, or ice! In this activity you will be extracting (removing) ice from lunar rocks. Be careful because the ice on the moon is a lot colder than the ice in your freezer, so don’t touch it with your hands!
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Materials you’ll need:
10-20 blocks to represent rocky lunar material (wooden or foam blocks, Duplo Legos, packing peanuts, etc.)
5 blocks to represent icy lunar material (different shape or color than the blocks above)
Container large enough to fit all the blocks (plastic bin, cardboard box, etc.)
Ice Extractor (kitchen tongs or other grabber tool)
Directions
STEP 1
Using your ice extractor tool, remove the ice from your container. You can only take one block out at a time, so if there is rocky material on top of the ice you must remove it first.
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STEP 2
When you have collected the 5 ice blocks take a deep breath. Your team will now be able to use special tools to create more air. Good job! continue reading to find out how astronauts use water to create oxygen while in space.
Fun Fact: Did you know that water can be used to make oxygen that we can breathe? Water molecules can be split into hydrogen and oxygen in a process called electrolysis.
Additional Resources
Reading Connections
Astronaut Handbook by Meghan McCarthy
If You Decide to Go to the Moon by Faith McNulty
This activity is a modified version of Challenge 3 from the Moon Adventure Game provided in the NISE Network’s Explore Science: Earth and Space Toolkit.
Share your ice extractions with us on Instagram by tagging @sdcdm320!
Questions about this activity? Email education@sdcdm.org