Year 7 Science · Unit 4 · Lesson 18

Extension: Space Exploration, Past, Present and Future

Extension · Foundation Worksheet

Name

Date

Class

Learning Goals

Place key space events on a past, present and future timeline.
Work out the time between space milestones and explain what it shows.
Describe how Australia helped the world watch the Apollo 11 Moon landing.

Extension · optional

The history of space exploration goes further than Year 7 asks for and is here for interest, not assessment. One part does count: this unit asks you to investigate how a recent advance in science increased what we know about the Universe, and a present-day mission is a fair choice for that.

Warm Up

Match each event or place to its description

Write the letter of the correct description next to each name. Each letter is used once.

Name	Letter	Description
Sputnik 1		A. Set up by the government in 2018 and based in Adelaide
Yuri Gagarin		B. The first artificial satellite to orbit Earth, about the size of a beach ball
Apollo 11		C. A radio telescope in country New South Wales that relayed much of the live Moon-walk television
Perseverance		D. The first person to travel into space, aboard Vostok 1
Parkes (Murriyang)		E. A wheeled robot on Mars searching for signs that tiny life once existed
Australian Space Agency		F. The mission that landed the first humans on the Moon

1. Write one benefit of space exploration and one concern that people raise about it.

Recall 2 marks

Your Turn

Sort it: past, present or future?

Write each event in the correct box. The boxes do not hold the same number of items.

Apply3 marks

rockets land back on Earth and are flown again Sputnik 1 sends out its steady beep Artemis astronauts stay on the Moon for longer astronauts from many countries live on the International Space Station Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the Moon the first humans arrive on Mars Perseverance tests rocks on Mars Yuri Gagarin orbits the Earth space telescopes above the atmosphere photograph distant galaxies

Past

Present

Future

Go Deeper

Read the data: a timeline for the wall

Scenario: making a class timeline

A class is making a space timeline for their classroom wall. They start with the four milestones in Table 1.

Table 1. Four space milestones

Year	Milestone
1957	Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite
1961	Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space
1969	Apollo 11, the first humans on the Moon
2018	the Australian Space Agency is set up

Source: dates from the lesson.

2. How many years passed (a) between Sputnik 1 and Apollo 11, and (b) between the first human in space and the first humans on the Moon?

Apply 2 marks

(a) years (b) years

3. The lesson calls the change from 1957 to 1969 “one of the fastest leaps in the whole history of science.” Use Table 1 and your answers to Question 2 to explain why.

Analyse 2 marks

Show What You Know

Evidence cards: Australia and Apollo 11

Evidence	What the record shows
Reception	Three dishes—Goldstone in California, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes in Australia—collected the lunar television signal concurrently.
Feed choice	Goldstone had video-equipment problems. As the Moon rose higher above Australia, controllers chose Honeysuckle Creek first, then Parkes supplied much of the clearer television broadcast.
Australian sites	Honeysuckle Creek was near Canberra. Parkes in NSW is known today by its Wiradjuri name Murriyang.
Today	Tidbinbilla near Canberra exchanges data with distant NASA missions.

Sources: NASA network history; CSIRO on Murriyang.

4. Write a short museum narration that uses the evidence cards to connect Australia’s 1969 broadcast role with one present-day contribution to space work.

Analyse 5 marks

Answer Key (for teachers)

Match each event or place to its description

Sputnik 1 → B; Yuri Gagarin → D; Apollo 11 → F; Perseverance → E; Parkes → C; Australian Space Agency → A.

Question 1

Benefit (1): new technology that helps on Earth, new knowledge, or satellites for weather, TV, internet and GPS. Concern (1): high cost, or space junk that can hit working spacecraft. [2 marks]

Sort it: past, present or future?

Past (3): Sputnik 1’s beep; Armstrong and Aldrin on the Moon; Gagarin orbits the Earth. Present (4): reusable rockets; International Space Station; Perseverance; space telescopes. Future (2): Artemis astronauts stay longer on the Moon; first humans on Mars. All nine = 3; seven or eight = 2; four to six = 1. [3 marks]

Read the data: Question 2

(a) 1969 − 1957 = 12 years (1). (b) 1969 − 1961 = 8 years (1). [2 marks]

Question 3

In 1957 people could only put a beeping ball into orbit, yet only 12 years later humans walked on another world (1); and just 8 years after the first human in space (1). [2 marks]

Question 4

Marking guide: 1 that Goldstone, Honeysuckle Creek and Parkes received the Moon-walk pictures simultaneously; 1 that Goldstone had video-equipment problems; 1 that controllers switched to Honeysuckle Creek as the Moon rose higher in Australian skies; 1 that they then switched to Parkes, whose pictures supplied much of the broadcast; 1 today: Tidbinbilla still talks to spacecraft far out in the Solar System, or the Australian Space Agency (2018, Adelaide). [5 marks]

Model answer: Goldstone in California, Honeysuckle Creek near Canberra and Parkes (Murriyang) all received the Moon-walk pictures at the same time. Because Goldstone had video problems and the Moon was rising higher in Australian skies, controllers switched first to Honeysuckle Creek and then to Parkes for the clearer television shown around the world. Today the Tidbinbilla station near Canberra still talks to distant spacecraft for NASA.

Common error: saying Australia launched Apollo 11; Australian dishes received and relayed its signals.