It’s time to challenge friends or family with Expat Living’s Weekly Quiz. You can get together with a small group, have a glass of wine and try these out – or stick to Zoom, of course. This week, it’s 20 trivia questions on space!
#1 Which planet has a Great Red Spot?
#2 NASA stands for National Aeronautics and Space what?
#3 Which film’s catchphrase told us that “In space, no one can hear you scream”?
#4 Halley’s Comet last came past Earth in 1986. When will it be seen again: 2022, 2061 or 3008?
#5 When Neil Armstrong said “That’s one small step for man”, he made a tiny mistake and left out one word. What did he mean to say?
#6 Which theory states that the Universe was created after an explosion?
#7 Astronaut Chris Hadfield made a name for himself by recording a cover version of “Space Oddity” while on the International Space Station. Who wrote the original?
#8 Which planet is named after the Roman goddess of love?
#9 Laika was the first dog to orbit Earth, back in 1957. Plenty of animal species have been into space since then, but which one hasn’t: rabbit, praying mantis, bullfrog or tortoise?
#10 Stephen Hawking’s famous book about the universe is called A Brief History of … what?
#11 If you weigh 100kg here on Earth, you would weigh 38kg on Mars: true or false?
#12 If you could fly a regular Jumbo Jet directly to the sun, how long would it take to get there: 21 days, 19 years or 3,900 years?
#13 Find the space-related terms in these anagrams: remote, unable, radio set, bistro.
#14 The Kennedy Space Center is located in the American state of Florida, on which Cape, starting with “C”?
#15 Which of these constellations (and Zodiac signs) is not associated with an animal? Taurus, Pisces, Gemini, Leo.
#16 A non-approved food item carried on to American spaceflight Gemini 3 in 1965 ended up the subject of a congressional hearing, with a rebuke for the astronauts from NASA. Was it a corned beef sandwich, a chocolate bar or a tub of ice cream?
#17 Match the alien with the movie: Thanos, Greedo, Yogurt; Space Balls, The Avengers, Star Wars.
#18 An urban legend says that Americans spent millions of dollars in the 1960s trying to develop a pen that could write in space. According to the same legend, what did Russians give their astronauts to solve the problem?
#19 The classified location in Nevada where research into extra terrestrials is allegedly carried out is known as Area what?
#20 In October 2019, two NASA astronauts undertook a spacewalk to replace a failed battery unit. It was the 221st spacewalk by space station crew members, but what was historic about the astronauts on this occasion?
BONUS
Who am I?
I was born in 1930. (10)
My mother’s maiden name was “moon”. (9)
I was christened Edwin, with the middle name Eugene. (8)
I flew 66 combat missions as a jet fighter in the Korean War. (7)
Today, I’m a very strong advocate for developing a human colony on Mars. (6)
In 2002, I famously punched a fake-moon-landing conspiracy theorist in the jaw. (5)
I’ve been to the moon (which is why I was angry at the conspiracy theorist!). (4)
In fact, I was the second person to set foot on the moon, in 1969. (3)
My nickname is the same as a character in the Toy Story films. (2)
I am Buzz who? (1)
All the answers (no cheating!)
#1 Jupiter (the Great Red Spot is shrinking, by the way; it used to be big enough to fit three Earths inside it, but now you could only fit one)
#2 Administration
#3 Alien
#4 2061
#5 “That’s one small step for a man”
#6 The Big Bang Theory
#7 David Bowie
#8 Venus
#9 Praying mantis
#10 Time
#11 True
#12 Nineteen years
#13 Meteor, nebula, asteroid, orbits
#14 Cape Canaveral
#15 Gemini
#16 Corned beef sandwich
#17 Thanos, The Avengers; Greedo, Star Wars; Yogurt, Space Balls
#18 Pencils
#19 51
#20 They were both women (it was the first-ever all-woman spacewalk)
Bonus: Buzz Aldrin
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