I Can Be a Rocket Scientist

By Anna Claybourne and Katie Kear

Do you have what it takes to be a rocket scientist? Yes, of course you do - and this action-packed book will prove it!

Doodle the designs for your own space launch; build a prototype rocket from a plastic bottle; and solve an awesome solar system wordsearch! While you're drawing, making and playing, you'll be learning all kinds of exciting facts and ideas about the world of S.T. E.M - science, technology, engineering, and maths.

This book supports the key stage 1 (KS1) and key stage 2 (KS2) curriculum and is great for home learning. An awesome book for both boys and girls, aged 7+.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
• Release date: Aug 27, 2020
• ISBN: 9781398800717

Anna Claybourne

Anna Claybourne has written over 150 children's books on all kinds of subjects, from sharks, black holes and splitting the atom to how to draw, Shakespeare's life, and Greek myths and legends. She knows a lot about conservation in the rain forests of Costa Rica as she once volunteered there for three months. She likes space, sewing and music, plays the trombone and loves going camping.

Book preview

Into Space!

Space means everything in the Universe, apart from Earth, where we live. That means 99.9999999999% of everything there is, is space! That’s countless light years of stars and galaxies, planets and moons, asteroids and comets, and clouds of space dust.

No wonder we humans have spent most of our history gazing up at the night sky and longing to go there. Now, thanks to rocket science, we can. We‘ve invented all kinds of space gear to send spacecraft, astronauts, and satellites into orbit and beyond.

Do you dream of being a rocket scientist or an astronaut? Solve the puzzles, and do the experiments to learn about all things space age.

How rockets work to blast us out of this world

The Solar System, our corner of space.

Sending space probes to explore worlds far, far away ...

What it’s like living in space (and how to go to the toilet!)

The best places to look for aliens, and what they might be like

You’ll find the answers to the puzzles linked below and on pages 60–61.

Project: How Far Away is Space?

Do you know how far away space is? It might be closer than you think. Earth is surrounded by a layer of gases called the atmosphere. As you travel away from Earth’s surface, the atmosphere gets thinner until it’s hardly there at all, and space begins.

Add up the depths of the layers to find out how far you’d have to go to get to space. Is it ...

a) 1,000 km (620 miles)?

b) 150 km (93 miles)?

c) 100 km (62 miles)?

If you went that far along the ground, where would you end up? Have a look at a map to find out.

The Kármán line —where space officially starts!

Thermosphere 513 km (319 miles)

Mesosphere 35 km (22 miles)

Stratosphere 30 km (19 miles)

Troposphere 20 km (12 miles)

ANSWER

Our Place in Space

Where in space are we? Our own little corner of it is called the Solar System (and actually is pretty big). It’s made up of our nearest star, the Sun, and the planets that orbit it. There are also moons orbiting the planets, as well as other objects such as asteroids and comets.

Our galaxy—the Solar System—is near the edge of a humungous cluster of stars, or galaxy, called the Milky Way.

The Asteroid belt is made up of rocky asteroids orbiting the Sun.

Moons orbit planets.

Planets orbit the Sun.

Comets are zooming balls of rock, dust, and ice. They orbit the Sun, too.

Project: Name That Planet!

The Solar System has eight main planets, along with some smaller dwarf planets. Can you match each planet to its