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Space Exploration Merit Badge
Requirements
Source - Boy Scout Requirements 2006
- Tell the purpose of space exploration including
- historical reason,
- immediate goals in terms of specific knowledge,
- benefits related to Earth resources, technology, and new products.
- Tell about main steps in humanity's movement into space and tell the contributions of
these individuals: Jules Verne, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, Robert Goddard, Hermann Oberth, and
Werner von Braun.
- Build, launch, and recover a model rocket.* Make a second launch to accomplish
a specific objective. (Rocket must be built to meet the safety code of the National
Association of Rocketry.) Identify and explain the following rocket parts:
- Body tube
- Engine mount
- Fins
- Igniter
- Launch lug
- Nose cone
- Payload
- Recovery system
- Rocket engine
- Discuss and demonstrate each of the following:
- The law of action-reaction
- How rocket engines work
- How satellites stay in orbit
- How satellite pictures of the Earth and pictures of other planets are made and
transmitted
- Discuss what has been learned about the Moon and planets by manned and unmanned spacecraft
exploration and the possible benefits of new knowledge. Do TWO of the following:
- Construct a data table of recent information about the planets. For each planet, give
important facts, including distance from the sun, period of revolution, rotation, number
of moons, etc.
- Make a scrapbook of magazine photographs and news clippings about planetary research.
- Design a spacecraft that will be sent on a mission to another planet to take samples of
its surface and return them to Earth. Name the planet your spacecraft will visit; and,
in your design, show how your spacecraft will work and cope with the environment of that
planet.
- Describe the purpose and operation of the space shuttle. Discuss the following:
- Main components
- Typical mission profile
- Payloads
- Design and Earth-orbiting space station. Make drawings or a model of your station. Within
your design, consider and plan the following:
- Source of energy
- How it will be constructed
- Life-support systems
- Purpose and function.
- Discuss with your counselor two possible careers in space exploration.
* If local laws prohibit the launching of model rockets, do the following activity: Make
a model of a NASA rocket. Explain the functions of the parts. Give the history of the rocket.
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