You would be surprised the number of perfectly good probes are floating aimlessly through space. Why not sell those beauties and make a buck for NASA? Beats having a bake sale or begging Congress for the cash.

You should write an advertisement for the space probe you chose from the list and make it sound like you are selling a used car. REALLY dress up the clunker if you know what I mean. Your finished project should look like an advertisement from a newspaper or one of those used car magazines you find at the grocery store.

Your project should include the following points:

• How old is this little baby? (When was it made and used?)
• What features does it have under the hood? (Physical description of the probe.)
• How many miles on the odometer? (About how far did it go? Did it come back home? Did it stay on or in orbit around the planet/moon it visited? It is still going somewhere?)
• What was the original cost so you can make a reasonable offer?
• Where was this little beauty made? (Soviet, American, European, etc.)
• What was this little gem originally built to do? (Mission parameters, where it went, what it studied...)
• A picture of your probe should be included on the advertisement.

Check out these sites to find information that may be helpful with this project:

• Encyclopedia Astronautica - this is an extensive list of space probes, missions and the like.
• Google.com - just because they RULE the internet!
• Jet Propulsion Laboratory - NASA's site for anything and everything NASA related. Use the search engine!
• NASA Image Exchange - this browse page allows quick access to many of NASA's best photos without the use of a search engine. Each category specified is a link to a pre-selected set of images that "best" exemplify the selected category.
• Planetary Science Spacecraft - site contains dozens of manned and unmanned, historical, current and ongoing missions and their respective homepages. Very impressive.
• Spaceflight Now - breaking news, launch schedules, mission reports and so much more!
• Space Online - multi-media news about space.
• Universe Today - space news from around the internet.