Trivia Time: 20 Questions on Outer Space

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 related to space, the stars and the solar system! Oh, and a few aliens for good measure…

#1 Singapore might be the Little Red Dot, but 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?
(If you can answer correctly after the first clue, you get 10 points, but you lose a point for each additional clue you require to identify the person.)

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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