Are you fascinated by space exploration? Do you dream of joining the 12 people in history who've walked on the moon? Before you don your space suit, check out these interesting facts about humans in space!

1) Before you can even think about becoming an astronaut, you must log at least 1,000 hours of flying in a jet aircraft. This will prepare you, at least somewhat, to go from zero to 17,000 miles per hour in less than nine minutes on the Space Shuttle.

2) Once you've been launched into space, astronauts receive 3.8 pounds of food a day. Most of the food is precooked and processed so that it doesn't require refrigeration. Some fresh fruits and vegetables are on board, but they must be consumed within the first couple days. Astronauts can season their meals with ketchup, mustard, and taco sauce, among other condiments provided on the Space Shuttle.

3) The food consumed during Apollo 11 included bacon squares, sugar cookie cubes, beef stew, and fruit cake. The astronauts quenched their thirst with coffee, fruit juice, and orange drink.

4) On Earth, space suits weigh a whopping 280 pounds. It takes the better part of an hour to put on a space suit, and each astronaut wears special undergarments.

For more interesting space facts, check out NASA's website.

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Though Houston may be a sprawling metropolis, it provides ample opportunities for locals to get outdoors at parks like Discovery Green. This modern green space and community hub hosts beautiful gardens, playgrounds for the little ones, and an ever-changing array of inspirational outdoor art installations.

The park’s large pond is often used for canoeing around Houston’s beautiful cityscape, while in the winter, it doubles as an outdoor ice rink for visitors of all ages to enjoy. There are sprawling green spaces where people can play catch or enjoy a picnic, walking paths for those who want to get a bit of exercise, and even a dog park where you can take your furry friend. Discovery Green contains a few different restaurants on its grounds, and there are also areas where the park hosts live music performances, outdoor movies, and festivals during the summer months.

For a full list of happenings at Discovery Green, visit the park’s website!

Discovery Green
1500 McKinney
Houston, TX 77010
(713) 400-7336
www.discoverygreen.com
www.yelp.com/biz/discovery-green-houston

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Whether you’re teaching programming to students or learning a programming language yourself, it's always important to keep things fun. To prevent getting bogged down with codes and symbols, try these creative computer programming games instead of your next lesson.

The Puzzle Toad
Developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, The Puzzle Toad is packed full of word problems that require programming skills to solve. For example, a problem might include a fictional situation where you’re planning a large dinner party, and you need to rank 6,785 guests’ top 10 dinner choices. Theu can check your results (or get some help on a particularly diffic site also provides detailed solutions to every problem so that yoult question).

Project Euler
Project Euler’s goal is to provide continual learning for adults or students who desire more than what they learn in the classroom. While you don’t have to have a strong mathematics background to solve the problems, many of them build off of one another and teach you things as you go along. The problems are challenging mathematical and computer programming-based questions, and though math knowledge will certainly be used, the questions are focused more on computer science skills.

CC-BY-2.0/Flickr/Eric Norris