Thursday, 27 April, 2023
Spaceship lost on the Moon; Making marmalade for the King; FIFA video game wars; and a record-breaking paper plane.
LINKS
Today’s Quick Links:
“High probability” lander crashed on the moon”: https://japantoday.com/category/tech/Tokyo-company-loses-contact-with-moon-lander-in-likely-crash
Marmalade fit for a king: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/fit-for-a-king-meet-the-australian-marmalade-maker-with-a-right-royal-honour-20230425-p5d324.html
FIFA no more?: https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65244351
Paper plane designed by Boeing engineers wins world distance record: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/14/world/paper-airplane-boeing-engineers-world-record-scn/index.html
Dig Deeper:
Watch Japan’s iSpace attempt moon landing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Zp1OjP93U
Science project – Build and test paper planes: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/Aero_p046/aerodynamics-hydrodynamics/how-far-will-paper-planes-fly
THE LOWDOWN
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There’s an expression you might have heard your parents or teachers use – which goes something like this: if at first you don’t succeed, then try and try again.
It means that sometimes success only comes after a series of failures. And the lesson in it is that we should never be discouraged if we try something for the first time and it doesn’t work. Because simply by doing we’re achieving – and the lessons we learn from failures can be really important to something eventually succeeding.
It’s a lesson that scientists and astronomers from Japan were taking on board yesterday after their attempt at a Moon landing appeared to have failed.
The Japanese company ISpace yesterday announced that it had lost radio contact with the spaceship it had sent up to land on the Moon – and that unfortunately the mission had failed.
Looking on the bright side, they said that their spaceship had gotten to within 50 metres of landing on the Moon’s surface – which is really, really close – and that even though the last part of the mission had not succeeded, they had still managed to gather lots of really useful data and learned lots of important lessons which will hopefully make their next Moon mission a success.
It follows the explosion last week of a SpaceX rocket during another, separate Moon landing experiment. The so-called Starship exploded during a test flight while trying to leave Earth’s atmosphere – and while it wasn’t the desired outcome, the scientists involved all said failure was just part of the process.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops. And today we’ve landed in jolly old England – where an Australian man from Perth in WA has won a marmalade-making competition and now gets to present his conserve to the King.
What’s a conserve? It’s a fancy word for a jam or marmalade.
Rueben Kooperman has been making marmalade for 40 odd years – and loves using as ingredients the oranges his wife grows in their suburban Perth backyard. Reuben’s marmalade beat jars sent in from 40 other countries to be selected as the best in show – and worthy of being presented to King Charles III on the occasion of his upcoming coronation.
What’s a coronation? It’s an elaborate ceremony in which a crown is stuck on someone’s head and they are named King or Queen. And King Charles’ coronation is happening on Saturday week.
And look – while making marmalade for a King is undoubtedly an honour – surely the world authority on marmalade is and always will be Paddington Bear? Delicious.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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Alright FIFA video game lovers … there’s about to be a big shake-up in the game you love to play.
The gaming company that makes FIFA World Cup has this week unveiled its new branding as it prepares to break away from FIFA – the international football body.
For the past 30 years or so, EA Sports has licenced the use of the name FIFA to make and market its wildly successful video game.
But now EA Sports are breaking up the partnership and have decided to create a football video game under their own name. And the weekend just gone, they started advertising the new game called ‘EA Sports FC’.
It’s expected to roll out sometime in July.
In response, FIFA have vowed to create their own video games.
Let the football gaming wars begin …
BIGGEST FURTHEST LONGEST
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Hands up if you’ve ever made a paper plane? Wow! That’s a lot of hands.
Well, you have something in common with three aerospace engineers – they’re the people who design and develop all types of aircraft, from helicopters to spaceships, and, as it turns out, …paper planes!
Nathan, Dillon and Garrett now work for Boeing. If you’ve ever been on a jumbo, you’ve probably flown on one of their planes. But, back when they were in middle school, these guys started experimenting with origami, paper plane design, and throwing techniques and all that hard work paid off because they recently set the world record for the longest-ever paper plane flight. Their plane flew for 88 metres, just 12 metres sho rt of a whole rugby league field! Impressive!
And what’s their secret? Sticking at it! They spent over 500 hours experimenting with origami and aerodynamics. They tested different papers (A4 was the winner) and recorded their test flights in slow motion so that they could analyse them and make changes to their designs.
The engineers hope their record stands for a while, but they encourage YOU to get out there and have a go at breaking it. So don’t just sit there – get folding already!
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of the sports body that governs world football?
- Where was a Japanese company trying to land a spacecraft yesterday?
- What’s the fancy word to describe marmalades and jams?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s April 27, birthday for flute-playing pop star Lizzo and Aussie tennis star Nick Kyrgios ..
It’s also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Indi from Atwell, Isaac from Ashmont, Elisha from Tumut, Marc from Yass, Zara from Paraburdoo, Hannah B from Rozelle and Hala from Liverpool.
And because many of you celebrated a birthday over the Easter holidays – we’re going to press pause on Classroom Shoutouts and spend the next week or so catching up on belated birthday shout outs .. because everyone deserves a birthday shout out .. .. so settle in … it’s a happy belated birthday to …
Henry from Mosman, Serina from Forest Lake, Cameron from Junee, Edward from Malvern East, Adelyn from Sunnybank Hills, Clementine from Manly Vale, Nate from Carina Heights, Buster from Clairvaux, Lidia from Northam, Maxwell from Ormiston, Avyaan from Doncaster East, Sitara from Springfield, Yi-Xuan from Vermont South, Toby from Cannon Hill, Daniyal from Holsworthy, Hannah from Geelong, Kyah from Richmond, Ethan from Mount Riverview and Juah-Sophia listening in South Korea.
And a very special classroom shoutout to Mr Beecher and the 3/ 4 Honours Class at TSS who are on their way to becoming our newest Newshounds. Well done boys!
The S’Quiz Answers:
- FIFA
- The moon
- Conserve