Take Off!!

CNN is running an article entitled, "From Doughnuts to Lift Off, Apollo 11 Launch was Blast." (Sometimes intriguing articles get silly titles. Jack King, Chief of Public Information at the Kennedy Center in 1969, stopped for donuts before heading to the launch and becoming known as "the voice of Appollo 11.") The article states, "Forty years after America's launch of Apollo 11, the U.S. space program is at a different crossroads, challenged in recent years to return to the moon and to recapture the ambition that launched the space race in 1961. Back then, a dazzled nation heard the big dreams of a youthful Ivy League-educated, senator-turned president."

1. What information do you think that you would need to know in order to intelligently decide if human-beings will ever reach Mars? Do you think that it makes sense for government to spend money towards this objective? Why or why not?

2. The Apollo 11 Mission represented something far larger than itself. Can you think of anything else that represents something far larger than itself? What does it even mean for something to represent something larger than itself?

3. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people were involved in the Apollo 11 Mission. What does it take to work together effectively? What is the hardest part of working collaborative work? What is the easiest part? Why?

4. Do you think that intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the world? Why or why not? If so, do you think that human beings will ever make contact with these beings? What would you do if one day you looked into the sky and actually saw a UFO hovering above the ground? Why would you do this? What would you think?