Mission Control Carter Observatory
During the two weeks of the expedition, Carter Observatory Wellington acted as "New Zealand Mission Control".
Carter’s stunning library was transformed into a high-tech mission control for the duration of the crew’s stay in Utah. A suite of laptops along with Mars themed exhibits set the scene and allowed students, teachers and the public to interact with KiwiMars Crew, find out about the mission, and learn more from expert astronomers.
Carter also provided dedicated staff members to look after Mission Control and interact with visitors. This included short presentations about the project and the mission progress at least twice a day, incorporating the latest updates from the base.
All planetarium shows during this time included Mars content and updates from the crew, inspiring visitors to go out and look for the planet for themselves in the night-time sky. Carter also provided a venue for meetings in the build-up to the mission and for a public event once the crew return from Utah.
Education Log-MDRS
The following log is written to give a record of what type of questions were being asked by the students, teachers & visitors at Carter Observatory who interacted with the crew in SIM. The method of communication was via “Chatroll” an online tool of instant messaging.
This instant messaging took place almost every day (see logs) from 1600 hrs to 2300 hrs MDRS time (10 AM to 5 PM NZST).
Questions from students | Answers offered by the crew and Mission Control (today) |
|---|---|
How much fuel would it take to get to Mars? | You would need quite a bit of fuel. One possible estimate is that you would need 63 times as much fuel as payload to get there. If you had to go there with petrol in a normal car it would cost roughly 5 million dollars |
Is it different looking at the stars on Mars than on Earth? | Looking at the stars would be awesome where ever you look at them. However you can compare the stars at Mars as how they look at Earth. There are the same constellations but they are positioned at different angles/places |
How realistic is for humans to get to Mars? | Yes quite realistic. We have the technology to get there but lack of money is the big problem. U.S President Barack Obama made a speech in 2010 at the Kennedy Space Centre predicting that a manned mission would orbit Mars by the mid 2030’s with a landing to follow shortly afterwards |
Is the sunset on Mars the same as on Earth? | The sunset on Mars would have a blueish hue to it because of the pink particles in the Martian atmosphere. (this is the opposite to that on Earth) |
What causes the red colour of the Martian rocks? | The rocks are red due to the presence of Iron in the rocks (Iron oxide or rust) |
If there is rust/iron oxide in the rocks could there be a problem with the equipment/machinery getting rusty as well? | Yes there could be a problem with the equipment so we would need to find materials that wouldn’t rust like titanium (although this is not a common building material and its expensive to get large quantities of it) |
Mars is thought to be very dry. How have you found it living there? | Yes living here in Utah/Mars is very dry. The air humidity is around on average 12%. The landscape is also very dry and barren just like the pictures taken of the surface of Mars |