Imagine you are a member of the moon space crew originally scheduled to rendezvous with a mother ship on the lighted surface of the moon. Due to mechanical difficulties, however, your ship was forced to land at a spot some 200 miles (320 km) from the rendezvous point. During reentry and landing, much of the equipment aboard was damaged, and because survival depends on reaching the mother ship, the most critical items available must be chosen for the 200-mile (320 km) trip. Please see the list of the 15 items left intact and undamaged after landing. Your task is to rank the items in terms of their importance for your crew to reach the rendezvous point. Place the number 1 by the most important, 2 by the next most important, and so on, with 15 being the least important.

Undamaged items                                                                   My Raking’s 

Box of matches

Food concentrates

50 feet of nylon

Parachute silk

Portable heating unit

Two 45- caliber pistols

One case dehydrated milk

Two 100 lb. tank oxygen

Stellar map (of moon’s constellations)

Life raft

Magnetic compas

5 gallons of water

Signal flares

First aid kit containing injection needles

Solar powered FM receiver-transmitter