Mission to Mars Class Project

Special thanks to Matt Boucher Kuranui College

From Matt Boucher, Kuranui College: I hope that you are enjoying KiwiMars 2012, my class and I have really enjoyed following the mission. My class is now beginning to plan their own mission to Mars, and we hope to show you what we have come up with if you get a chance to visit us as some stage.  I have attached the assignment sheet that I have given my class.  If you like it, feel free to share it with others, modify it, or add it as an educational resource on the website.
 Mars Project.pdf (PDF)

Your Mission: 

Your crew has been selected to be the ?rst humans to establish a base on the surface of Mars. Your journey will take about 9 months, and you will be on Mars  18 months before returning home on another 9 month voyage. This is a total of 3 years that you will spend away from the Earth!

Before setting off on your journey, you will need to do some detailed planning:

• You must decide: what are the jobs of each crew member on Mars?
• You must design your habitat - remember, you will be in it for 3 years! Make sure you have thought of everything that you will need to survive, stay happy and healthy, and perform science experiments on Mars. Make sure it is still small enough to launch into space!
• You must design your rover - You may need to spend up to a week away from the habitat exploring the surface of Mars, design a rover that will allow you to survive and explore without access to all of the resources in your habitat.
• Extra Credit: You may design a spacesuit, space ship, unmanned rovers, or anything else you may need on your mission to Mars!

Presentation to NASA & ESA:

Before they spend billions of dollars to send your team to Mars, you will need to convince NASA and ESA that your plan will work.

• To do this you must present a poster of your mission patch and models of your habitat and rover (materials are your choice, but it must LOOK GOOD!).

• You will also need to create a powerpoint presentation which explains each crew member’s jobs, and explains all of the features that you have included in your habitat and rover.

NASA and ESA need to know that you have thought of everything in your design - make sure you haven’t forgotten to include anything!

BE CREATIVE, BE DETAILED, BE REALISTIC!

Emma Braegen, Engineer Crew 123 TasMars and Tupua Kiwi with Curiosity at MDRS 

January 2013