If you are still looking around for holiday gifts, Popular Mechanics provided a nice gift guide for 2023. This includes the board game Space-opoly (above), the red Mars dust globe (below), and the Play Tent Galaxy Dome (also below).
Some other sources for helpful gift lists include:
Don’t worry. You still have time.
Are you looking for that perfect book for a space enthusiast? You may want to take a look at some of the books authored by NASA astronauts in the last few years. Be it inspiration or adventure you are seeking, you can find it with these authors. Below are three books to consider as gift ideas.
—Moonshot by NASA astronaut Mike Massimino:
Mike Massimino achieved his dream of exploring space. Now he distills stories and insights from NASA into an actionable guide to accomplish your biggest goals. Mike reveals how to make possible the seemingly impossible—on Earth. Written with characteristic wit and a big heart, Mike identifies ten hard-earned lessons of spaceflight and his other life experiences, including:
We all have our own personal “moon shots” we’d like to take in life, but as mission control will tell you, doing one big thing really means getting a thousand little things right along the way. Moonshot is the book that will show you how to do just that, and help set you on the right path to achieve your own personal and professional dreams.
—Back to Earth by NASA astronaut Nicole Stott:
Stott imparts essential lessons in problem-solving, survival, and crisis response that each of us can practice to make change. She knows we can overcome differences to address global issues, because she saw this every day on the International Space Station. Stott shares stories from her spaceflight and insights from scientists, activists, and changemakers working to solve our greatest environmental challenges. She learns about the complexities of Earth’s biodiversity from NASA engineers working to enable life in space and from scientists protecting life on Earth for future generations. Ultimately, Stott reveals how we each have the power to respect our planetary home and one another by living our lives like crewmates, not passengers, on an inspiring shared mission.
—The Apollo Murders by astronaut Chris Hadfield:
NASA is about to launch Apollo 18. While the mission has been billed as a scientific one, flight controller Kazimieras “Kaz” Zemeckis knows there is a darker objective. Intelligence has discovered a secret Soviet space station spying on America, and Apollo 18 may be the only chance to stop it.
But even as Kaz races to keep the NASA crew one step ahead of their Russian rivals, a deadly accident reveals that not everyone involved is quite who they were thought to be. With political stakes stretched to the breaking point, the White House and the Kremlin can only watch as their astronauts collide on the lunar surface, far beyond the reach of law or rescue.
If you are looking for another gift idea for the holidays, maybe you should consider one of the many popular astronomy books. Here are the 10 most popular from Goodreads:
It’s great to see that Carl Sagan is still educating the public so many years after his death. As with the Voyager spacecraft, his words and contributions are traveling far and wide.
If you are looking for a fun gift that will encourage kids to learn more about the universe around them, then you cannot go wrong with a nightlight that illustrates the beauty of the nighttime objects above us. For instance, the Moon lamp shown above (there are many others like it on Amazon and elsewhere) allows an up-close view of this amazing orb. As with the Earth globes of old, seeing a world in three-dimensions and being able to touch it assists with understanding. Besides, in the case of the Moon, a youngster looking out the bedroom window will only see one side of the Moon, whereas the lamp provides the entire surface.
You can find similar lamps and nightlights showing Mars, Jupiter, and even the Milky Way (see below).
Or why not simply project the constellations onto the bedroom ceiling so kids can learn about the night sky even when it is cloudy outside? There is nothing like a personal planetarium.
Mind you, these gifts are not only for children, but it’s a good place to start. I may yet get one of those Moon lamps for my desk. Why should the kids have all the fun?
While we await the Artemis III crew landing on the Moon and related lunar base, you might want to create your own mission with the Lego Lunar Research Base (shown above), which has “NASA-inspired” details. The playset has almost 800 Lego pieces, so you can build it yourself (to NASA specs, of course).
The playset comes with a “… lunar lander, VIPER rover and a domed accommodation module with laboratories, garage and air lock, plus 6 astronaut minifigures. I’m assuming the rocket that gets the astronaut minifigures to the Moon is sold separately.
And below is the Lego International Space Station is you are looking for something more traditional (and less expensive).
It’s great to see that Lego is allowing kids to build their own space missions at home.
Some of you may have played with Star Wars and Star Trek sets as kids, but at least these latest Lego set have a ring of credibility. Star Wars helped you destroy the galaxy, whereas Star Trek seemed more interest in exploration and at least had the veneer of Artemis CXXV.
I checked on whether Chinese and Russian kids with have their own space playsets and found the Russian Roscosmos Soyuz MS spacecraft (still a concept) and China’s Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center (made by a Lego copycat), both shown below.
The Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center playset comes with a Long March 2F rocket and an authentic warning sign stating, “Those stealing secrets will be caught, once they’re caught they will be killed [decapitated].”
Maybe even reality is not always the best model for play.
Extra: You can find more Lego space models at the NASA gift shop.
Our Awesome Universe 