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Project Mercury

NASA research mathematician Katherine Johnson is famous for calculating trajectories of the Mercury Space Capsule. In this project, students learn about Project Mercury and simulate the initial velocity and force needed to put the Mercury Space Capsule in a circular orbit around Earth

Medium

1 Hour

High School

Project Description


Background


Project Mercury was the NASA program that put the first American astronauts in space, running from 1958 through 1963. The primary goals for the project were to:


  1. Put a human in orbit around Earth
  2. See how the human body responded to being in space
  3. Bring the astronaut and their ship back to earth safely


Mathematician Katherine Johnson is famous for calculating trajectories of the Mercury Space Capsule.


Your task is to modify the provided code to make the Mercury spacecraft orbit Earth by changing the values of the initial velocity in the x direction and y direction.

Project Demo

Explore this program before assigning it!

Project Overview

Here is an outline of the project activities: