Space Exploration Merit Badge Pamphlet Space Exploration Merit Badge

Space Exploration


Requirements were REVISED effective January 1, 2020.

To see the changes which were made, Click here.

For the previous requirements, Click here.


  1. Tell the purpose of space exploration and include the following:
    1. Historical reasons,
    2. Immediate goals in terms of specific knowledge,
    3. Benefits related to Earth resources, technology, and new products.
    4. International relations and cooperation
  2. Design a collector's card, with a picture on the front and information on the back, about your favorite space pioneer. Share your card and discuss four other space pioneers with your counselor.
  3. 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. See the "Model Rocketry" chapter.) Identify and explain the following rocket parts:
    1. Body tube
    2. Engine mount
    3. Fins
    4. Igniter
    5. Launch lug
    6. Nose cone
    7. Payload
    8. Recovery system
    9. Rocket engine
  4. Discuss and demonstrate each of the following:
    1. The law of action-reaction.
    2. How rocket engines work
    3. How satellites stay in orbit
    4. How satellite pictures of Earth and pictures of other planets are made and transmitted.
  5. Do TWO of the following:
    1. Discuss with your counselor a robotic space exploration mission and a historic crewed mission. Tell about each mission's major discoveries, its importance, and what was learned from it about the planets, moons, or regions of space explored.
    2. Using magazine photographs, news clippings, and electronic articles (such as from the Internet), make a scrapbook about a current planetary mission.
    3. Design a robotic mission to another planet, moon, comet, or asteroid that will return samples of its surface to Earth. Name the planet, moon, comet, or asteroid your spacecraft will visit. Show how your design will cope with the conditions of the environments of the planet, moon, comet, or asteroid
  6. Describe the purpose and operation of ONE of the following:
    1. Space shuttle or any other crewed orbital vehicle, whether government owned (U.S. or foreign) or commercial
    2. International Space Station
  7. Design an inhabited base located within our solar system, such as Titan, asteroids, or other locations that humans might want to explore in person. Make drawings or a model of your base. In your design, consider and plan for the following:
    1. Source of energy
    2. How it will be constructed
    3. Life-support system
    4. Purpose and function
  8. Discuss with your counselor two possible careers in space exploration that interest you. Find out the qualifications, education, and preparation required and discuss the major responsibilities of those positions.

* 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.


BSA Advancement ID#: 107
Scoutbook ID#: 112
Requirements last updated in: 2020
Pamphlet Publication Number: 35983
Pamphlet Stock (SKU) Number: 654567
Pamphlet Revision Date: 2016

 
Worksheets for use in working on these requirements: Format
Word Format PDF Format
 

Blanks in this worksheets table appear when we do not have a worksheet for the badge that includes these requirements.


Page updated on: May 08, 2022



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