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

Christmas Around The Solar System

Every December, Santa Claus puts on his red coat and pants and takes presents to children all over the world.

He has done it the same way every year for a long time.

Will this change in the future?

As people begin to travel to other planets, Santa may have to make some new plans.

Some scientists went up to the North Pole to talk to Santa.

We wanted to know what Santa was going to do if people lived on other planets.

Santa took time off of his busy job to tell us. "The Moon will not be too hard," Santa told us. "I think that the moon cities will keep Earth time, so I'll just add them onto my delivery plan. The reindeer will grunt about having to wear space suits but they will get used to it."

"Mars will be harder. Mars takes longer to go around the Sun, so

I will have to go there about every other year. On the Mars years, we will have to work hard. A day on Mars is a little longer, that will help some.

Other planets are even harder." "Venus is tricky. The temperature is high because it is closer to the sun. The air is bad and the clouds are made of acid.

This might hurt the reindeer's noses. It travels quickly around the Sun so that Christmas would come every 8 months. Venus also spins the wrong way and I am worried that might make the reindeer dizzy or sick." It was clear that Santa really knew a lot about the solar system.

"Now, the planet closest to the Sun is Mercury," he went on,"and it is really hot. On a clear day it gets up to about 500 degrees. That is not as hot as Venus but my reindeer will not like it.

The best part about Mercury is that the year is only 88 Earth days long. Kids will love it! Christmas will be every 88 days!

Santa thought some more. "Jupiter will be the hardest.

If we live there, the cities will have to float around the planet. The hard part is that a day is only about 10 hours long. That does not give me much time to take my presents to the kids. The good news is that

I will only have to do it every 12 Earth years because that is how long it takes Jupiter to get around the Sun." Santa stopped talking to give some orders to the elves. Mrs. Claus gave us some cookies. "All this rocket scientist talk must use a lot of energy," she said."Santa loves these."

Santa took a cookie and started talking again.

"It is too bad that Saturn is so far away. I would really like to ride on those rings! Uranus and Neptune have the same problem. Pretty planets but very far away."

"Now Pluto seems an interesting planet. It takes 247 Earth years to go around the Sun. That means Christmas would come just once every 247 years!

I would have lots of time to make the toys! Do you think kids would vote for Christmas once every 247 years?" He took another cookie but Mrs. Claus took it back. "Now you stop kidding the kids!" she said,"You love that trip on Christmas Eve!" She gave the scientists some cookies for the trip back home. We had more questions but we knew we had to go.

As we left, we heard Santa call, "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"