Sam from Deep Space High has found six brand new planets, and he needs your help to find out whether any of them could support life!
Signs of Life is a set of free space games you can print at home. Every card is a different planet. Start on the surface, roll a dice and drill your way down to the core, grabbing the ingredients life needs as you go. All you need is a pen and a dice.
Download the Signs of Life planet games (PDF)
How to play
- Start anywhere on the surface of the planet and head down towards the core.
- Roll a dice. Move that many squares in a straight line: down, up or sideways. Never diagonally, and always the full roll.
- Grab everything you cross on the way, not just the square you land on. Circle it!
- Magma and rifts block you. You can’t cross them or land on them.
- If there’s nowhere to go, roll again.
- Reach the core to finish, then count how many rolls it took.
Charging straight down is the quickest way to the core, but you’ll get there with almost nothing. Every planet has a par printed at the bottom, so see how much you can collect and still beat it.
What does life need?
Scientists think life needs eight things: water, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur, the right location, plenty of time and a little bit of luck. Each planet in the pack has seven of them hidden on it. Can you work out which one is missing?
Printing tips
Each planet is a page of its own, with the rules on the last page. The cards are A6, a quarter of an A4 sheet, so print them full size for big planets, or choose four pages per sheet for pocket-sized ones. They look great in colour, but black and white works too.
Want to find out more about planets, stars and the search for life in space? Listen to Deep Space High: A Kids Guide to Space, our podcast all about space, wherever you get your podcasts.
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