Space Station Lockdown
Alarms blare aboard the orbiting station Polaris-9, and the computer has put your module in lockdown. To reach the escape shuttle, you need a five-digit override code. A poster on the wall lists the planets in order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The station computer chirps, 'Answer five questions to earn the code.'
Solve each puzzle to reveal one digit of the code. Type your answer and press Check. Stuck? Take a hint, or show the answer.
-
Puzzle 1Solved
The computer asks: 'On Earth I'm free and everywhere. Up here you have to pack me in tanks. I'm mostly nitrogen, you've never once seen me, and you're surrounded by me right now.' The number of letters in the answer is your first digit.
Hint: You breathe me in.AnswerAirAIR is invisible, all around you, about 78 percent nitrogen and stored in tanks on a space station. It has 3 letters, so the first digit is 3. (Oxygen alone isn't mostly nitrogen.) -
Puzzle 2Solved
A message from Mission Control: 'Each crew member breathes through one full oxygen tank every 2 hours, and nobody can share a tank. The ride home takes 3 hours. There are 4 crew members, and 3 tanks are already loaded on the shuttle.' How many more tanks need to be loaded? That number is your second digit.
Hint: One tank won't last any crew member the whole ride.Answer5A 3-hour ride needs 2 tanks per person (one tank only lasts 2 hours), so 4 crew need 8 tanks, and 8 minus the 3 loaded is 5, so the second digit is 5. -
Puzzle 3Solved
The screen flashes: 'Mix the star you orbit with a small rodent, then rearrange the letters to land on a planet.' Find that planet on the wall poster. Its position from the Sun (first, second, third and so on) is your third digit.
Hint: SUN plus RAT.AnswerSaturnSUN and RAT rearrange to SATURN, which is 6th on the poster, so the third digit is 6. -
Puzzle 4Solved
A row of four lights glows on the control panel: ON, OFF, OFF, ON. A sticker underneath says: 'The light on the far right is worth 1. Every other light is worth double the light to its right. Add up the lights that are ON.' What number do the lights show? That number is your fourth digit.
Hint: Work out each light's value from right to left first.Answer9From right to left the lights are worth 1, 2, 4 and 8. The ON lights are worth 8 and 1, which add up to 9, so the fourth digit is 9. -
Puzzle 5Solved
The final screen shows a number pattern: 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 16, ? What number comes next? The last digit (the ones digit) of that number is your final digit.
Hint: Look at how much each number grows by.Answer22The gaps grow by one each time (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), so the next gap is 6 and 16 plus 6 is 22. Its ones digit is 2, so the final digit is 2.
The lock clicks open!
You punch in 3-5-6-9-2, and the hatch to the escape shuttle hisses open. Minutes later you're gliding home toward the blue Earth.