Lunar Survival Quiz

Hello All:

Happy Monday! Let's start the week off by taking a short test on lunar survival. The test below is/was actually used by NASA in training their space cadets and future astronauts.

Lunar Survival Quiz
You are a member of a space crew that was to rendezvous with the mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. You experienced technical difficulties and your ship was forced to land about 200 miles from the point you were to be. During re-entry and landing, much of the equipment on your ship was damaged. Your survival depends on you reaching the mother ship. You will need to survey what is left that is useable and determine the most critical undamaged items that you will take for the 200-mile trip.
Your task is to look over the list below that contains the useable, undamaged items left on your ship, and rank them in order of their importance for your crew. Remember you need to rank each item in terms of its value in allowing you to reach the mother ship.
Place the number 1 by the most important item and keep going to number 15 which will be least important.
I have provided the list below, and once you complete it, scroll down (page 3 if you are looking at the text document) for the answers as to what NASA feels is most important. I also provided the explanation as to why these items are so important to an astronaut. I was surprised! Some of the items that seemed important were unnecessary, while other items that seemed ridiculous were actually useful.
Remember, you are on the light side of the moon which is always light. Also, you can assume there is a way of eating food and drinking without opening your space suit and imploding your head. Below is the list:

• Box of matches
• Food concentrate
• 50 feet of nylon rope
• Parachute silk
• Portable heating unit
• Two .45 caliber pistols
• One case of dehydrated milk
• Two 100-pound tanks of oxygen
• Stellar map (of moons surface)
• Life raft
• Magnetic compass
• 5 gallons of water
• Signal flares
• First aid kit containing injection needles
• Solar powered FM receiver/transmitter

Box of matches: Ranked 15 – No oxygen on the moon to burn sulfur.

Food concentrate: Ranked 4 – It will sustain energy.

50 feet of nylon rope: Ranked 6 – Used for scaling cliffs and pulling heavy objects.

Parachute silk: Ranked 8 – The light side of the moon is HOT! You will need it to rest in the shade out of the sun.

Portable heating unit: Ranked 13 – Staying warm is the least of your worries. You want to stay cool on the light side of the moon.

Two .45 caliber pistols: Ranked 11 – No, not to kill moon monsters. You weigh 1/6 your weight on the moon, and the caliber pistols can act as propulsion tools. That’s right, you fire in the opposite direction you want to go, and you will propel from the momentum.

One case of dehydrated milk: Ranked 12 – food is more sustaining than dehydrated milk.

Two 100-pound tanks of oxygen: Ranked 1 – you won’t last long without oxygen.

Stellar map (of moons surface): Ranked 3: Do you really know the surface of the moon enough to travel 200 miles to the destination?

Life raft: Ranked 9– The compressed air will act as another jet propulsion device to propel across the moon.

Magnetic compass: Ranked 14 – the magnetic poles on the moon shift on a daily basis so a compass is useless.

5 gallons of water: Ranked 2 – Water will keep you from dehydrating and dying.

Signal flares: Ranked 10 – these will actually burn on the moon! But you need to be fairly close to the destination so rescuers can come get you.

First aid kit containing injection needles: Ranked 7 – You can inject vitamins and medicine.

Solar powered FM receiver/transmitter: Ranked 5 – FM means the coverage is short range and needs to be line of site. If you can climb a mountain close by, you might be able to transmit to the mother ship.