Could you survive on the moon? NASA’s simple exercise that tests your survival skills

The NASA Moon Survival Test was developed by a professor at the University of Texas to test, among other things, team-building skills you might do when starting a new job.

When given the challenge, imagine that you are part of the starship crew ready to take off to the moon.

But problems arise when technical difficulties force you to crash-land more than a hundred miles from the original spot.

Unfortunately, this havoc has resulted in your starship’s supplies breaking – now it’s up to your team to decide which of the following items will allow you to reach the moon as intended, on foot.

The items range from everyday household items to more rogue ones.

You should rank the items on a scale of 1-15, with one being assigned to objects of the highest importance and 15 being the lowest.

The answers below may surprise you…

Who exactly is behind the fun exercise?

The task, commonly used by employers, was developed from social psychological research that aimed to make team building exercises more fun.

Jay Hall, is the mastermind behind it all.

in 1970 – the social psychology teacher studied the confusion, frustration and loss of time that, according to HR, are often at the root of group work in the office.

This test aims to reduce these problems.

It also claims to encourage group decision-making and quantify a team’s effectiveness.

Arranged in order of usefulness, the correct list starts below:

Reasoning

NASA says it would be pretty much worthless to carry a box of matches – there’s no oxygen on the moon to sustain combustion.

However, they ranked food concentrate as a solid 4 – describing it as an efficient means of meeting energy needs.

If you guessed nylon rope, it didn’t do very well – but not bad either, with a 6, as it would be useful in climbing cliffs and tying wounded together.

Parachute side is only an 8 – but it does give you protection from the sun’s rays.

And if you rated a portable heating unit highly, NASA didn’t – it gave it a measly 13 because it isn’t necessary unless on the “dark side.”

Two .45 caliber pistols also didn’t fare too well in the eyes of the space giant, who called this a possible means of self-propulsion.

Similarly, they classified the one case of dehydrated pet milk as a larger duplication of food concentrate – therefore meaningless.

Unsurprisingly, oxygen is at the very top. It is the most pressing survival necessity and weight is not a factor as gravity is one-sixth that of Earth – each tank would only weigh about 17 lbs. on the moon, says NASA.

And if your star chart gave a 3, you were right! It would be your stranded team’s main navigational aid – star patterns appear essentially identical on the Moon as they do on Earth.

Next is the elevator raft – they rate this as a 9 at best, like a CO2 bottle in the military, a raft can be used for propulsion.

If you thought you were smart by placing a magnetic compass high, you weren’t – the magnetic field on the moon isn’t polarized, so it’s worthless for navigation.

20 liters of water is also very good to have on hand – needed for replacement of massive fluid loss on the ‘light side’.

Less useful are signal flares – these are used as distress signals when the mothership is sighted.

A first aid kit, was only on a 7 – needles connected to vials containing vitamins, drugs, etc. fit into a special opening in the NASA spacesuit.

And finally, a solar-powered FM receiver-transmitter got a modest 5. This is because it is used for communication with the mothership, but FM requires line-of-sight transmission and can only be used over short distances.

How good have you had it? Would you survive on a NASA spaceship? Check out our answers and compare them in the comments below!