Year 5/6 KNOWLEDGE ORGANISER - MISSION TO MARS FOCUS ON EARTH AND SPACE

SPACE EXPLORATION HISTORY

1 Approx 384—

322BCE

Aristotle developed first theory of the structure of our universe — he thought all planets orbited round the Earth and the Earth was a sphere — known as GEOCENTRIC theory .

2 85—185 CE

Ptolemy developed Geocentric theory further saying that planets and the sun travelled in a circular path around Earth

3 1230—1240CE

Al Katibi was the first scholar who was recorded as believing the sun was at the centre of the universe

4 1530CE Copernicus was the first to develop the idea that planets orbited the Sun but that the sun was only the centre of our solar system—HELIOCENTRIC theory

5 1615CE Galileo used one of the first telescopes to confirm Copernicus’s theory

6 1617CE Joseph Kepler creted the first model of the solar system confirming the Heliocentric Model

7 1687CE Sir Isaac Newton uses his discoveries about gravity to explain how the planets orbit the sun and how the moon orbits the Earth.

8 1957CE SPUTNIK 1 mission—The first man-made satellite orbits the Earth, Launched by the Soviet Union

9 1957CE SPUTNIK 2 mission—First animal in space—Laika ( a dog) Launched by Soviet Union

10 1961CE VOSTOK 1 mission—First human spaceflight—Yuri Garagin on board—launched by Soviet Union

11 1961CE FREEDOM 7 mission—First pilot controlled space flight by Alan Shepard—launched by USA

12 1963 CE VOSTOK 6 mission—First woman in Space Valentina Tereshkova—launched by Soviet Union

13 1969CE APOLLO 11 mission— First landing on the moon— Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin as Crew—launched by USA

14 1971 CE MARINER 9 mission— First mission to orbit Mars

15 1975 CE MARS LANDER AND ROVERS program launched ( unmanned)

16 1977 CE VOYAGER mission launched to study outer Solar System—it left our Solar System in 2012 ( Unmanned)

17 1989 CE GALILEO MISSION—launched to explore Jupiter and its moons

18 1991 CE Helen Sharman is the first British Cosmonaut to go into space and visit the Russian Space Station.

19 1997 CE CASSINI MISSION—launched to explore Saturn and its moons

20 2015 CE Tim Peake delivers a Christmas Message from the International Space station

Why do we have Day and Night?

The Planets

Name Moons

Length of

orbit ( Earth

Days)

1 Mercury 0 88

2 Venus 0 225

3 Earth 1 365.25

4 Mars 2 687

5 Jupiter 79 4380

6 Saturn 62 10585

7 Uranus 27 30660

8 Neptune 14 60225

KEY VOCABULARY

1 Asteroid Irregularly shaped rock that orbits the sun. 9 NASA National Aeronautics and Space Admin-istration—US agency

2 Astronomy The branch of science that deals with space and the physical universe as a whole.

10 orbit A curved path of a planet, satellite or spacecraft around abject such as the sun

due to the attraction of gravity

3 Comet A mass of ice and dust with a long, lumi-nous tail of gas.

11 Planet An astronomical object that orbits a star and does not create its own light.

4 Galaxy A colossal group of stars and planets that extends over billions of light years, held

together by gravity—eg Milky Way

12 Satellite An object either natural ( eg Moon) or man-made, that orbits around a planet

5 Gravity The force that attracts an object towards a larger object

13 Solar System

A star with objects ( such as planets) revolving around it.

6 Light-year The distance light travels in a year ( approx. 9.46 trillion km)

14 Star A burning mass of gas that makes heat and light energy eg the sun

7 meteor A mass of rock that burns after entering the Earth’s atmosphere

15 Universe All of space and everything in it ( includ-ing stars, planets and galaxies)

8 Meteorite When a rock has cooled after crashing on Earth

16 Vacuum A space with no air, gas

1 Year 687 days ( Earth days)

2 Day 1 Earth day and 45 minutes

3 Temperature -125°C to 20°C

4 Key features 2 moons and no magnetic field and seasons

5 Atmosphere 95% Carbon Dioxide 5% Argon and Nitrogen

The Earth rotates on its axis every 24 hours; it

is day on the side of Earth facing the sun and

night on the side facing away from the sun

About Mars

Why do we have seasons?

Earth rotates on an axis that is slightly tilted. During the winter in the Northern Hemisphere ( where England is), the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun's rays. As the Earth travels around the Sun, the tilt of Earth changes. By June, the North Pole is tilted towards the Sun and the days become very long. Earth takes a year to orbit the Sun and it is the tilt which creates the seasons.