

Hubble Space Telescope: 340 miles (550 km) International Space Station: 250 miles (400 km)

Ask students how far they would have to travel from the surface of Earth to reach space.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech | + Expand image (A light year is the distance light travels in a year and is equal to six trillion miles.) Yet the edge of space – or the point where we consider spacecraft and astronauts to have entered space, known as the Von Karman Line – is only 62 miles (100 kilometers) above sea level. Planets are many millions or even billions of miles away, and stars are so far away that their distances are measured in light years. We often think of space as being very far away. In this case, it may help to take a screengrab of the map and access it on the device's photo gallery, so that students don't accidentally change the interactive map view. Students using tablet computers can open a map on the device, lay it flat, and stack coins on the screen.Students can print a map at home, or place a sheet of paper on a computer screen and gently trace the outline of a map and the scale bar.These will be used as a distance reference. Prior to the lesson, identify several landmarks, cities, or other known features that are about 62 miles from your school.Local maps, such as city maps, may have scale bars that are too short (i.e., show too few miles per length of the scale bar) making it impractical to stack coins high enough to display the scale distance to space accurately.
IMAGE BLUE SPHERES IN SPACE NASA DOWNLOAD
You can also download and print this Los Angeles area map. Be sure to select the printing options that include scale bars. Maps can be printed from online mapping services. Students will need printed maps with a scale bar displayed.Ruler with millimeter markings Management Various coins, metal washers, or other thin stackable items State or county maps with scale distance bars (can be printed or displayed from online maps) OR download Los Angeles area map (PDF) They will then stack coins the appropriate height to mark the edge of space. They will use a map scale to determine the relative distance to space from the surface of a map. In this activity, students will gain a better understanding of where space begins. See tips for remote instruction in the Management section.
