Camp Internet's Global Gardening Studies are open to all Camp Expedition Teams. RAIN's Youth Technology Corps members are Expedition Team Leaders for Communities taking part.

In The Garden	Briefings	Calendar	Activities

Interplanetary Christmas

Every December, Santa Claus puts on his famous red suit and begins the serious work of delivering presents all over the world.

It's a job he's done in the same way for a long, long time, but times may be changing as we enter the new millennium.

As people and space probes travel to other worlds, the possibility of Christmas on other planets must be considered.

Trying to figure out how to deliver presents to the entire solar system is turning Santa's hair white.

Curious NASA scientists contacted Santa Claus at his secret North Pole workshop to interview him on this difficult subject.

He allowed us to visit but we had to make the dangerous journey on our own. Santa took a break from his busy Christmas duties to tell us how he plans to keep delivering gifts when humans begin to live on other planets.

"The Moon won't be too hard," Santa told us.

"I bet that the lunar colonies will keep Earth time, so I'll just add them to my route. The reindeer will grunt about having to wear spacesuits but we'll get used to it." "Mars is going to be a bit harder.

It takes Mars 687 days to go around the Sun.

That's about two of our Earth years. So every other year I'll have two Christmas runs to make, the Earth-Moon run and the Mars run.

We will really have to 'haul Rudolph' as the reindeer say.

It's lucky that a Martian day is 37 minutes longer than an Earth day, so we will still be able to do our usual overnight delivery. Other planets are not as easy. Oh...excuse me." Santa had to stop to talk to a team of elves about working late to finish some toys. "I do worry about the elves," Santa continued.

"They need a slow period to fix the factory and invent new toys for the next year. I will need more helpers if we are going to deliver to the Moon and Mars, too." We asked Father Christmas if he had made plans for the other planets. "Well, I have thought about those other planets," Santa replied, "Take Venus, for example.

That is a tricky planet. It has a tough environment - high temperatures and a thick, choking carbon dioxide atmosphere. Plus, the clouds are made of sulfuric acid.

Talk about air pollution - that will do a job on the reindeer's noses. The calendar is also a problem. Venus circles the sun every 224 days, so Christmas will come about every eight Earth months.

That's a little more often than we're used to here on Earth, but it will be easy to deliver all the presents in one night; our days are 24 hours long but one day on Venus is 5,832 hours! I'll have all the time in the world - their world - to deliver the presents! Ho, ho, ho!

It also spins the wrong way, I hope that doesn't make the reindeer sick!" "Now, the closest planet to the Sun is Mercury," he went on, wagging his finger. Santa really knows a lot about the solar system. "You would think that Mercury would be the hottest planet but it's not! Venus is warmer because of the greenhouse effect in its atmosphere.

That's not to say Mercury isn't hot.

It is awful! During the day, it gets up to 500 degrees centigrade.

We will need some special suits for my reindeer! The best part about Mercury is that the year is just 88 Earth days long.

Kids will love it! Imagine! Christmas every 88 days. It's a bit too often if you ask me, but that's gravity for you."

Santa paused and then pondered, "Jupiter will be the big challenge. If we actually build colonies on that planet, I'll have less than 10 hours to deliver everything.

The giant planet is 11 times wider than Earth, but it rotates more than twice as fast -- once every 9 hours and 55 minutes! There is no solid surface, so people would have to live in cities floating in the clouds.

The atmosphere is bad; hydrogen, helium, methane, and ammonia. Jupiter's air is not as bad as that on Venus but we will need more special suits.

The reindeer hate wearing anything besides bells.

For me, the good news is that Christmas will only happen every 12 years on Jupiter. It is so far away that I think I'll turn Europa, the third largest moon, into a branch office. Europa is entirely covered with ice, just like the North Pole here on Earth, so the elves would feel right at home."

Santa stopped talking to sign some orders for sleigh parts.

Mrs. Claus quietly entered and gave us hot cocoa and cookies. "All this rocket scientist talk takes some energy!" she joked.

"Thank you, my dear," the kindly Santa chuckled as he shoved a chocolate chip cookie into his mouth, "Best cookies in the galaxy.

She is in charge of the fuel department." "You know, it's a shame that Saturn is so far away," he went on. "It's a lovely planet. I'd love to ride those rings with my reindeer.

But you know, it's a long ways away! It's 9.5 times farther from the Sun than the Earth.

I think it will be some time before we get colonies out there. Uranus and Neptune have the same problem.

Pretty planets, nice gas giants, but very far away. Uranus, the closer one, is 19 times the distance of Earth from the sun. Do you realize it will take almost 7 hours for me to radio a message back home from Uranus? That's a big problem.

I always send a message to Mrs. Claus just before I head back to the North Pole so she won't worry. Why, I'll be home before the message arrives!" "Well, sir, does that mean you can travel faster than the speed of light?" our NASA scientist excitedly asked.

Mrs. Claus put her finger to her lips as she looked at Santa sternly.

He smiled warmly, shook his head and sighed, and started talking about Pluto.

"Pluto, now Pluto really interests me. It takes 247 Earth years to go around the Sun just one time.

hink of it, only one Christmas every 247 years! Plenty of time to get ready for the next Christmas!

There would also be plenty of time to deliver the presents, a day on Pluto lasts six Earth days and 18 hours. That would be easy. Plus it's the tiniest planet, there wouldn't be many presents to deliver.

A job on Pluto would really be much easier for me. Just think, if I moved to Pluto, all the people everywhere could keep my calendar. Christmas once every 247 years!"

He leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head. He started to chuckle.

"Do you think kids would vote for Christmas once every 247 years?" He reached for another cookie but it was snatched from his hands by Mrs. Claus. "Now you stop your teasing.

You love that trip every Christmas Eve and you know it. You just tell the children not to worry, Christmas will keep coming once every Earth year even in the new millennium." She bundled some cookies into a bag.

"Here, take these for the trip back.

Don't pay too much attention to my jolly elf, he is a big kidder."

We had many more questions but we knew that we should go. We went to the front door and said our good-byes.

The stars and planets shone brightly in the clear dark sky. As we turned to our dog sleds to begin our journey home, we heard Santa's voice boom from inside, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"