How

Far

Will

It

Go?

A Lesson in Graphing
Space Launch System 1 How Far Will it Go?

Mathematical Practices

• MP 2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively.

• MP 4: Model with mathematics.

• MP 5: Use appropriate tools strategically.

• MP 6: Attend to precision.

Measurement and Data

• K.MD.A.1: Describe measurable attributes 

of objects, such as length or weight. Describe 

several measurable attributes of a single object.

• K.MD.A.2: Directly compare two objects with 

a measurable attribute in common, to see which 

object has “more of”/”less of” the attribute, and 

describe the difference.

• 1.MD.A.2: Express the length of an object 

as a whole number of length units, by laying 

multiple copies of a shorter object (the length 

unit) end to end; understand that the length 

measurement of an object is the number of 

same-size length units that span it with no gaps 

or overlaps. Limit to contexts where the object 

being measured is spanned by a whole number 

of length units with no gaps or overlaps.

• 2.MD.A.1: Measure the length of an object by 

selecting and using appropriate tools such as 

rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring 

tapes.

• 2.MD.A.3: Estimate lengths using units of 

inches, feet, centimeters, and meters.

Next Generation Science Standards

K-PS2 – Motion and Stability: Forces and Interactions

Standards

K-PS2-1: Plan and conduct an investigation to 

compare the effects of different strengths or 

different directions of pushes and pulls on the 

motion of an object.

K-PS2-2: Analyze data to determine if a design 

solution works as intended to change the speed 

or direction of an object with a push or a pull.

Discplinary Core Idea

PS2.A: Forces and Motion

• Pushes and pulls can have different strengths 

and directions. 

• Pushing or pulling on an object can change 

the speed or direction of its motion and can 

start or stop it.

PS2.B: Types of Interactions

• When objects touch or collide, they push on 

one another and can change motion.

PS3.C: Relationship between Energy 

and Forces

• A bigger push or pull makes things speed up 

or slow down more quickly.

CROSSCUTTING CONCEPTS:

Cause and Effect

• Simple tests can be designed to gather 

evidence to support or refute student ideas 

about causes.

Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
Space Launch System 2 How Far Will it Go?

Working with U.S. companies and international partners, 

NASA is pushing the boundaries of human exploration 

forward to the Moon and on to Mars. NASA is working to 

establish a permanent human presence on the Moon within 

the next decade to uncover new scientific discoveries. 

NASA is also working with companies to address the 

challenges of living in space, such as using existing resources, 

disposing of trash, and more. Missions to the Moon are 

about 1,000 times farther from Earth than missions to the 

International Space Station (ISS) located in low-Earth orbit, 

requiring systems that can reliably operate far from home, 

support the needs of human life, and still be light enough to 

launch. These technologies will become increasingly more 

important for the 34 million mile trip to Mars.

Exploration of the Moon and Mars is intertwined. The Moon 

provides an opportunity to test new tools, instruments, and 

equipment that could be used on Mars to help us build selfsustaining outposts away from Earth. Living and working in 

lunar orbit for months at a time will also allow researchers 

to understand how the human body responds in a true deep 

space environment before committing to the years-long 

journey to Mars.

With the work underway, NASA will move deeper into the solar 

system to achieve ambitious exploration goals and to develop 

a permanent presence at the Moon and prepare humanity for 

future exploration to Mars.

The Space Launch System 

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is a powerful, advanced 

launch vehicle for a new era of human exploration beyond 

Earth’s orbit. With its unprecedented power and capabilities, 

SLS is the only rocket that can send Orion, astronauts, and 

large cargo to the Moon on a single mission. Offering more 

payload mass, volume capability, and energy to speed 

missions through space than any current launch vehicle, SLS 

is designed to be flexible and evolvable and will open new 

possibilities for payloads, including robotic scientific missions 

to places like Saturn and Jupiter. SLS will be NASA’s first 

exploration-class vehicle since the Saturn V took American 

astronauts to the Moon.

This next wave of human exploration will take explorers farther 

into the solar system — developing new technologies, inspiring 

future generations, and expanding our knowledge about our 

place in the universe.

NASA’s Moon to Mars

Teacher Notes

RS-25 Engine

Artemis I, the first integrated test flight of SLS and Orion, 

will use the SLS Block 1 configuration which stands 

322 feet (ft.), taller than the Statue of Liberty, and weighs 

5,750,000 pounds (lbs.). SLS will produce 8,800,000 (lbs.) of 

maximum thrust, more lift than any current launch vehicle 

and 15 percent more than the Saturn V rockets that launched 

astronauts on journeys to the moon.

Part of this thrust, approximately 2,000,000 lbs., will be 

generated by 4 RS-25 engines. Designed and built by Aerojet 

Rocketdyne of Sacramento, California, RS-25 engines helped 

power the space shuttle over three decades through 135 

missions, accumulating more than 3,000 starts and one million 

seconds of ground test and flight operation time. 

While each shuttle used three RS-25 engines, each SLS 

mission requires four. Powered by liquid oxygen and liquid 

hydrogen and employing high performance fuel and oxidizer 

turbopumps, the RS-25 has the power and efficiency to carry 

larger payloads without increasing launch vehicle size – ideal 

for missions more ambitious and challenging than any NASA 

has ever attempted in the past.

Block 1 Crew configuration cutaway

Space Launch System 4 How Far Will it Go?

The first eight minutes of every Artemis mission with NASA’s 

SLS rocket begins with core stage and solid rocket boosters 

producing 8.8 million pounds of thrust to launch the agency’s 

Orion spacecraft to the Moon. Before its first flight, NASA tests 

the rocket’s 212-foot tall core stage – the tallest rocket stage 

the agency has ever built – with a “Green Run” test on Earth 

before launch day to help ensure mission success and pave 

the way for future Artemis missions carrying crew to the Moon. 

These lunar missions will be a stepping stone to prepare for 

human exploration of Mars.

During the Green Run testing, engineers installed the core 

stage that will send Orion to the Moon in the B-2 Test 

Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center near Bay St. Louis, 

Mississippi, for a series of eight tests. These tests built like 

a crescendo over several months. The term “green” refers to 

the new hardware that must work together to power the stage, 

and “run” refers to operating all the components together 

simultaneously for the first time. Many aspects are carried out 

for the first time, such as fueling and pressurizing the stage, 

and the test series culminates with firing up all four RS-25 

engines to demonstrate that the engines, tanks, fuel lines, 

valves, pressurization system, and software can all perform 

together just as they will on launch day.

Green Run Test for SLS 

The SLS core stage includes state-of-the-art avionics, miles 

of cables and propulsion systems, and two huge liquid 

propellant tanks that collectively hold 733,000 gallons of liquid 

oxygen and liquid hydrogen to power the four RS-25 engines. 

Together, they will produce more than 2 million pounds of 

thrust to help send Artemis I beyond Earth’s orbit to the Moon.

The test program for the core stage at Stennis began with 

installing the stage in the test stand. Then, engineers turned 

the components on one by one through a series of initial 

tests and functional checks designed to identify any issues. 

Those tests and checks culminate in an eight-minute-long test 

fire, mimicking the full duration of the stage’s first flight with 

ignition, ascent, and engine shutdown. The results of this test 

provide important data to confirm how the system reacts as 

the fuel is depleted from the propellant tanks.

Historically, other NASA rockets built to carry astronauts 

have used main propulsion test articles to test the integrated 

engines and main propulsion system. The SLS program is 

performing the core stage testing with flight hardware. Once 

the validation of the core stage is complete, the entire stage 

is checked out, refurbished as needed, and then shipped to 

NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida for the Artemis I 

launch. The next time the core stage engines roar to life will be 

on launch pad 39B at Kennedy.

B-2 Test Stand

Core Stage

Space Launch System 6 How Far Will it Go?

Test whether the amount of air in a balloon changes the 

distance it will travel on a fishing line. 

• Collect data from multiple tests

• Create a graph to visualize the variation

Background

Long before the development of modern rockets, Sir Isaac 

Newton described the principles of rocket science in three 

laws of motion.

A simplified explanation of his third law of motion helps young 

students understand how rockets work. This law states that 

every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

When a rocket expels fuel or propellant out of its engine, the 

rocket moves in the opposite direction. The rocket pushes 

the propellant out, and the propellant then pushes the rocket. 

The propellant comes out of the engine; this is the action. The 

rocket lifts off the launch pad in the opposite direction; this is 

the reaction.

In this activity, the rocket is a balloon propelled by air. The 

greater the propellant (number of breaths), the greater the 

action and, thus, the greater the reaction. Students will 

experiment with different amounts of air and measure the 

distance the rocket travels.

Procedure

1. Show students a video of a rocket launch (NASA has a 

channel on YouTube; search for NASA rocket launch). Note 

where the engines are located and where the flames/fire exit 

the rocket.

2. Ask students if they know how a rocket works. Explain 

to them they will be conducting a science experiment to 

determine how the amount of air in a balloon changes the 

distance the rocket will travel. Students, just like the astronauts 

in space and scientists on Earth, will conduct an experiment 

to gather this information. Each time the students conduct 

the experiment, there will be a different amount of air in the 

balloon.

3. Thread the fishing line through the straw, then attach each 

end of the line to the back of two classroom chairs. Pull the 

chairs apart to stretch the line tightly.

4. Inflate a balloon using one breath and keep it tightly 

closed using a binder clip while carefully taping the 

balloon to the straw.

The Challenge

Side View

Top View
Space Launch System 7 How Far Will it Go?

5. Draw a vertical line on chart paper to create two columns. 

Label the two columns “Number of Breaths” and “Distance 

Traveled.”

6. Place a “1” on the chart under “Number of Breaths.”

7. Ask students to determine from where we should launch the 

balloon (far to one end of the fishing line). Mark (masking tape) 

the location of the front of the balloon on the floor to indicate 

the launch point.

8. Launch the balloon.

9. Once the balloon comes to a stop, mark the location of the 

front of the balloon on the floor.

10. Have a student measure, using nonstandard measurement 

or ruler/measuring tape/yardstick, how far the balloon traveled 

from its starting point.

11. Record this measurement on the chart under “Distance 

Traveled” next to the “1” recorded in the “Number of 

Breaths” column. Include the unit of measurement (e.g., 

cubes, inches, centimeters, etc.).

12. Ask the students what they think will happen if we use 

two breaths.

13. Perform the experiment using two breaths.

14. Perform the experiment using 4 breaths.

15. Ask students to estimate how far 10 breaths would take 

the balloon. Have them give reasons for their estimates.

16. Perform the experiment with 10 breaths to determine how 

close the estimates were.

17. Have students graph (pictograph, line graph, bar graph, 

etc.) the data collected.

Extensions:

 Encourage students to think of other forms of 

nonstandard measurement to determine the distance the 

balloon traveled. Use one or more of their suggestions and 

repeat the experiment.

 Have students consider how they might use the data from 

this activity to predict how far the rocket (balloon) would go if 

there were two engines. Three engines. Four engines. Have 

them graph this new data.

 Have students apply what they learned in this experiment. 

Ask students to consider whether the amount of fuel in a 

rocket determines how far it travels. Ask students to consider 

other factors such as size and weight that may affect the 

distance a rocket travels.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

George C. Marshall Space Flight Center

Huntsville, AL 35812

www.nasa.gov/marshall

www.nasa.gov

For more information:

http://www.nasa.gov/sls

EP-2020-10-43-MSFC