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Mission pack

Solar System Mission Pack

Thirty-six pages to print: worlds, a lab, a quiz, answers, and a certificate. For a child, with a grown-up. A 36-page solar system mission you can read on screen and print.

All free printables

Our Space Mission · Page 01 of 36

Cover

  • Solar System Mission Pack
  • For a child, with a grown-up nearby.
  • Our Space Mission made these pages. We do not work for NASA, SpaceX, ESA, CSA, or JAXA.

Your task. Write your first name only if a grown-up says the paper stays at home.

Our Space Mission · Page 02 of 36

How a grown-up uses this

  • One mission a day is enough. Read the page, do the task, then stop.
  • Ages about 6 to 12. Younger children need the words read aloud.
  • Print for one home or one class. Do not sell these pages or upload them as your own.

Your task. Pick a quiet time. Put a pencil on the table.

Our Space Mission · Page 03 of 36

Your mission checklist

  • There are four jobs in this book.
  • Learn a world.
  • Do a small test.
  • Answer a question.
  • Stamp the certificate at the end.

Your task. Tick this box when you are ready: I will finish one page before I skip ahead.

Our Space Mission · Page 04 of 36

The Sun is a star

  • The Sun is a star, not a planet.
  • It is a huge ball of hot gas. Its light is what makes day on Earth.
  • Never look straight at the Sun. It can hurt your eyes, even through sunglasses.

Your task. Draw a star in the middle of the page. Label it Sun.

Our Space Mission · Page 05 of 36

What a planet is

  • A planet is a large world that travels around a star.
  • In our neighborhood the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.
  • Earth’s Moon is a moon. Pluto is a dwarf planet. They are not extra planets.

Your task. Circle the word that is a star: Earth, Sun, Moon.

Our Space Mission · Page 06 of 36

Mercury

  • Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun.
  • It is a small, rocky, airless world.
  • Days and nights there are very hot and very cold.

Your task. Write one word you would pack for a hot day, and one for a cold night.

Our Space Mission · Page 07 of 36

Venus

  • Venus is the next planet out.
  • Thick clouds hide the ground.
  • Those clouds trap heat, so the surface is hotter than an oven.

Your task. Why would a picnic there be a bad idea? Write one sentence.

Our Space Mission · Page 08 of 36

Earth

  • Earth is our home planet.
  • It has liquid water, air we can breathe, and life.
  • The space station loops around Earth. It is not on the way to the Moon.

Your task. Name one thing outside your window that needs Earth’s air.

Our Space Mission · Page 09 of 36

Earth’s Moon

  • The Moon is Earth’s moon, not a planet.
  • People landed there from 1969 to 1972. No one has walked there again since.
  • A trip around the Moon is not the same as a landing.

Your task. Draw a boot print and write: landing is not the same as flying past.

Our Space Mission · Page 10 of 36

Mars

  • Mars is a rocky planet, colder and smaller than Earth.
  • It has a thin atmosphere and dusty red ground.
  • Robots work there. People do not live there.

Your task. Write two things a robot can do on Mars that a person still cannot.

Our Space Mission · Page 11 of 36

The asteroid belt

  • Between Mars and Jupiter there are many rocky leftovers.
  • They are not a solid wall a rocket would crash into.
  • Most of that space is empty.

Your task. Draw three small rocks with lots of empty space between them.

Our Space Mission · Page 12 of 36

Jupiter

  • Jupiter is the largest planet.
  • It is made mostly of gas, with no ground to stand on.
  • It has many moons. The number of known moons can change, so this book does not lock in a count.

Your task. Write gas giant next to Jupiter.

Our Space Mission · Page 13 of 36

Jupiter’s famous moons

  • Io is volcanic. Europa has an icy shell.
  • Scientists think an ocean may lie under Europa’s ice. That is not the same as knowing there is life.
  • Ganymede is huge. Callisto is a quieter ice world.

Your task. Pick one moon and write the one fact you want to remember.

Our Space Mission · Page 14 of 36

Saturn

  • Saturn is a gas giant with bright rings.
  • The rings are made of countless pieces of ice and rock.
  • They are wide, and they are thin.

Your task. Draw a circle and a thin ring around it. Label the ring ice.

Our Space Mission · Page 15 of 36

Titan and Enceladus

  • Titan is a moon of Saturn with a thick atmosphere.
  • Enceladus sprays icy material from cracks.
  • Both are places scientists study. Neither is a second Earth.

Your task. Write moon, not planet, under each name.

Our Space Mission · Page 16 of 36

Uranus

  • Uranus is an ice giant, far from the Sun.
  • It is very cold.
  • It spins tipped on its side compared with most planets.

Your task. Tilt your pencil and draw a tipped planet.

Our Space Mission · Page 17 of 36

Neptune

  • Neptune is the farthest known planet from the Sun.
  • It is another ice giant, dark and windy.
  • A year there is much longer than a year on Earth.

Your task. Which planet is farther from the Sun, Earth or Neptune?

Our Space Mission · Page 18 of 36

Pluto

  • Pluto is a dwarf planet.
  • It travels around the Sun, but it is not counted as one of the eight planets.
  • Its large moon is Charon.

Your task. Finish the sentence: Pluto is a ______ planet.

Our Space Mission · Page 19 of 36

Put them in order

  • From the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
  • The Moon stays with Earth.
  • Pluto comes after Neptune, and it is still a dwarf planet.

Your task. Cover the list and write the eight planets in order. Then check.

Our Space Mission · Page 20 of 36

A walk that shows size

  • If Earth were a peppercorn, Jupiter would be about the size of an apple.
  • The empty space between them would be many steps.
  • A picture that shows both size and distance on one page has to cheat. This page does not pretend otherwise.

Your task. Take ten steps across a room. That gap is the idea. The real gap is much bigger.

Our Space Mission · Page 21 of 36

Day and night

  • Earth spins.
  • The side facing the Sun has day.
  • The side facing away has night. The Sun did not turn off.

Your task. Use a lamp and a ball. Which half of the ball is bright?

Our Space Mission · Page 22 of 36

A year

  • A year is one trip around the Sun.
  • Earth’s trip takes about 365 days.
  • Planets farther out take longer.

Your task. Whose year is longer, Earth’s or Neptune’s?

Our Space Mission · Page 23 of 36

Seasons, in one idea

  • Earth is tilted.
  • For part of the year your half of Earth leans toward the Sun. Days are longer and warmer.
  • The tilt, not a closer orbit, is the main reason for seasons.

Your task. Lean a pencil toward a lamp, then away. Which lean gets more light on the top?

Our Space Mission · Page 24 of 36

Gravity

  • Gravity is the pull that keeps you on the ground and keeps a moon with its planet.
  • Heavier worlds pull harder.
  • Jumping would feel different on the Moon, but you would still come down.

Your task. Drop a soft ball of paper. Name the pull that brought it down.

Our Space Mission · Page 25 of 36

Orbits

  • An orbit is a repeating path around something else.
  • A planet orbits a star. A moon orbits a planet.
  • Falling around, and falling down, are related. The sideways speed is what makes the loop.

Your task. Draw Earth, then a loop around it, and label the loop orbit.

Our Space Mission · Page 26 of 36

Moon phases

  • The Moon does not make its own light.
  • We see the part the Sun is lighting.
  • The shape changes through the month as the Moon travels around Earth.

Your task. Draw a full circle and a thin crescent. Both are the same Moon.

Our Space Mission · Page 27 of 36

Craters

  • A crater is a bowl left by a hit.
  • The Moon keeps craters because it has almost no air and no weather to erase them.
  • A bigger or faster hit leaves a wider bowl. This is a model, not a real crash.

Your task. In a pan of flour, with a grown-up, drop a marble once from low and once from higher. Which bowl is wider?

Our Space Mission · Page 28 of 36

Rockets and thrust

  • A rocket engine pushes hot gas downward.
  • That push sends the rocket upward.
  • The science word for the push is thrust. Most of a rocket is fuel.

Your task. Blow up a balloon, pinch it, and let go outdoors. Which way did the air go, and which way did the balloon go?

Our Space Mission · Page 29 of 36

Payload

  • Think of a launch as a delivery.
  • The rocket is the truck. The payload is what it carries: people, food, or a satellite.
  • Payload is the science word for that package.

Your task. Name one payload that is a person, and one that is a machine.

Our Space Mission · Page 30 of 36

Astronaut day

  • On the space station, astronauts work, exercise, and fix things.
  • They float because they are falling around Earth, not because there is no gravity.
  • Food, air, and water have to be planned. A delivery ship brings supplies.

Your task. List three things you would need if you could not open a window.

Our Space Mission · Page 31 of 36

Spot the mistake

  • Read these and mark the wrong ones.
  • The Sun is a planet.
  • People live on Mars today.
  • Earth’s Moon is a moon.
  • Looking at the Sun is safe.

Your task. Write true or false next to each line. Check the answer page after.

Our Space Mission · Page 32 of 36

Word bank

  • orbit
  • thrust
  • payload
  • planet
  • moon
  • star
  • gravity
  • crater

Your task. Use four of the words in sentences of your own. Do not copy this book.

Our Space Mission · Page 33 of 36

Quiz

  • 1. Is the Sun a star or a planet?
  • 2. Name the planet we live on.
  • 3. What is the push of a rocket called?
  • 4. Is Pluto one of the eight planets?
  • 5. Should you look straight at the Sun?

Your task. Answer in pencil. Then turn to the answer page.

Our Space Mission · Page 34 of 36

Answers

  • The Sun is a star.
  • We live on Earth.
  • The push is called thrust.
  • Pluto is a dwarf planet, not one of the eight.
  • No. Never look straight at the Sun.
  • On the mistake page, the first, second, and fourth lines are wrong. The Moon line is right.

Your task. Tick the ones you had right. Fix the others in your own words.

Our Space Mission · Page 35 of 36

Certificate

  • Solar System Mission
  • This explorer finished the pack: ________________
  • Date: ________________
  • A grown-up signs here: ________________
  • This certificate is from Our Space Mission. It is not from a space agency.

Your task. Color a gold star only after the quiz is checked.

Our Space Mission · Page 36 of 36

License and sources

  • A grown-up may print this pack for one household or one class.
  • Do not resell it, post the pages as your product, or remove this note.
  • Facts about planets are common knowledge. Our sentences and tasks are original.
  • Mission dates change. This pack avoids a countdown on purpose. Check the agency’s own page before you repeat a launch date.
  • Last checked: October 1, 2026.

Your task. Grown-ups: these pages are free. Do not resell them.

Our Space Mission is an independent educational website. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA, SpaceX, ESA, CSA, JAXA, or any other space agency or company. We link to their pages so you can watch and read there.