I did a guest post for the IRA blog (International Reading Association) a few months back called "The Timeless Draw of Dinosaurs and Space" with some ruminations about CHRONAL ENGINE and LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN. One thing I talked about was the fact that children (and young readers) can make scientific contributions and queries in these fields on their own, for example discovering fossils and asteroids.
Along these lines, a few days ago, I came across this great story on the CNN web site about "The 10-year-old who helped Apollo." It's about Greg Force, a 10 year old boy whose father worked at the tracking station in Guam at the time. It seems that, at the last minute, as the capsule was returning to earth, a bearing in the station's antenna failed. Because it would've taken too long to replace the bearing, Greg was enlisted to lubricate it, which only he could do -- the access opening was only two inches wide...Anyway, check out the whole story at the link.
And for a gorgeous picture book account of the moonshot, check out Brian Floca's book:
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