Establishing a Deaf Colony on Mars

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

Officials at NASA are hard at work planning for a mission to establish a Deaf Colony on Mars in the year 2025. So far NASA has sent the Mars Exploration Rover to take pictures of the surface of Mars. They have discovered many things about the atmosphere, climate and geology of Mars. However, NASA has not found a way to inhabit the planet. Top officials at NASA continue to work on this problem but they need your help of how to meet the Deaf people's needs to survive on Mars.

Task

TASK

You are on a mission to set up a Deaf Colony on Mars. You and your mission crew are responsible for researching, designing and creating a habitat on Mars which would be able to sustain human life. Working as a team, you and your crew must search the Internet for significant background information that will help you decide what will be needed in your Deaf Colony.

1. The name of your colony located with a dot on the class map of Mars.

2. A video log about the planet Mars and your colony. You need to include: basic facts and information about Mars, the location of your colony, and describe why people would want to visit it-what makes it special.

3. A model of your colony with labels for each area and system. Examples could include a garden, water recycling center, living quarters, etc. You also need a brief explanation of why each system is important for survival. Examples could include the air source, artificial gravity, temperature control, recycling of body and garbage waste, etc.

4. A realistic plan for how human needs (water, food, clothing, exercise, etc) will be met in the short term and the long term. You need to make a list that shows which items can be used again (renewable) or can't be used again (nonrenewable). Your plan should tell us how or why your items will meet all your human needs and for how long. Since the soonest space shuttle return is 6 months away, you will need to plan for at least that long.

5. A daily work log that tells about what each person on your team did. This should include how you helped each other, and any problems that you need to work on during your next class period. This should be in the form of a diary entry (not a list). It can also be used as a thinking place where you write down ideas about items needed, things to bring, etc.

Process

PROCESS

Your mission crew will be made of four members: the Agriculturalist, the Architect, the Environmentalist/Chemist . Throughout the first two weeks you will work as a group to research Mars so that you can build a model of a habitat on Mars. Your crew is responsible for organizing how you will go about researching, planning, and building the habitat. During the last two weeks, your crew will be working on building a habitat. Total of 4 weeks.

Here is a list of things to keep in mind as you plan your mission to Mars:

1. Decide who among your crew will take on which roles

2. Each crew member should decide what information they will research

3. Each crew member will be responsible for reporting their research in their summaries

4. Crew members must work together to use the research they found to start planning their habitat

5. Concept maps may be helpful for your crew to organize how they will make their habitat.

6. The crew will work together to actually build the habitat

7. A presentation of the 3-D model of the Martian habitat must be worked on by all group members

Agriculturalist: The Agriculturalist will be responsible for researching ways to grow or develop food on Mars. They must examine the nutritional needs of humans and how those needs are affected on Mars. Working with his/her group, the agriculturalist will come up with a menu of food for their Martian habitat. He or she must also work closely with the architect and chemist to develop a place in which food may be grown in the habitat. The agriculturalist will find the following website helpful but is not limited to information on the Web.

Space Food History http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/factsheets/food.html

What will you eat?
What organisms will you bring to Mars when you colonize?
How will those organisms be sustained, that is, what will you do in order to ensure that the species don’t go extinct?
How will you deal with the issues of overpopulation?
What types of plants will you bring?
THINK OF EVERYTHING BIOLOGY RELATED THAT YOU WILL NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU ARE LIVING ON MARS.

The Architect:

The main job of the Architect is to develop the structure of the habitat on Mars. He/she will work closely with their crew members to design the actual structure which people will live in on Mars. Shelter is an important part of your crew's mission so it is up to the architect to research what materials your crew will be able to use from the shuttle and from the resources available on the planet. The architect may find the following websites useful.

Shuttle Crew Equipment http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/shutref/crew/

Interactive Mars Habitat http://www.exploremarsnow.org/

How will your colony gain energy to power machinery, lights, etc.?
What will you use to construct your buildings?
What will your colony look like?
Where will you build your colony?
What will your colony be called?
How will you ship materials from Mars to Earth, and Earth to Mars?

THINK OF EVERYTHING PHYSICS / CONSTRUCTION RELATED THAT YOU WILL NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU ARE LIVING ON MARS.

The Environmentalist/Chemist:

The Environmentalist will be responsible for figuring out how humans will be able to breathe on Mars. They must research the atmosphere and climate of the planet to determine what the air quality is like on Mars. The Environmentalist works closely with the Agriculturalist and Chemist to come up with ways to bring breathable air into their Martian colony.

The Chemist is in charge of finding a water source for your Martian Colony. They must work closely with the Environmentalist and Agriculturalist to develop a system to make water available on the Martian colony. Water is necessary for life on Mars, so the Chemist must research where to get water or how to make water when your crew lands on Mars.

How will chemicals be recycled?
What chemical cycles will be present?
How will you drink water and breathe air?
Which of these items are renewable and nonrenewable?
Where or how will you get all these items?
THINK OF EVERYTHING CHEMISTRY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED THAT YOU WILL NEED TO CONSIDER WHEN YOU ARE LIVING ON MARS.

Environmentalist/Chemist will find the following websites helpful:

Breathing on the Space Station http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast13nov_1.htm

Interactive Mars Habitat http://www.exploremarsnow.org/

Helpful Websites to get you started:

Lichen: http://www.redcolony.com/art.php?id=0109020

Mars exploration, colonization and terraforming: http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/mars/mars_colonize_terraform.html

Why colonize mars?: http://www.nss.org/settlement/mars/zubrin-colonize.html

Six step plan for colonizing mars: http://www.popsci.com/military-aviation-space/article/2007-01/hijacking-red-planet

Company tasked with colonizing mars: http://www.space.com/news/050908_four_frontiers.html

How terraforming mars will work: http://www.howstuffworks.com/terraforming.htm

The first step in terraforming mars: http://www.geocities.com/marsterraforming/terraforming.html

Terraforming mars: http://quest.nasa.gov/mars/background/terra.html

Terraforming mars - general information: http://www.universetoday.com/2004/02/03/terraforming-mars/

Life on mars: http://www.scienceinschool.org/2008/issue8/terraforming/
Colonize the moon before mars?: http://www.thespacereview.com/article/221/1

ExploreMarsNow http://www.exploremarsnow.org/

Red Colony http://www.redcolony.com/art.php?id=0508050#null

Human water consumption http://www.csgnetwork.com/humanh2owater.html

NASA News http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast05jan_1/

Mars photos http://space.about.com/od/mars/ig/Mars-Pictures-Gallery/index.htm

NASA photo gallery http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/photo_gallery/photogallery-mars.html

Evaluation

	Beginning 1	Developing 2	Accomplished 3	Exemplary 4	Score
Student will create a model of the colony with labels for the purpose of each area.	The model has some buildings and labels, not likely to sustain population.	The model has several labeled buildings, could sustain population, and is fairly neat in appearance.	The model has a network of labeled areas, could sustain population, neat in appearance	The model has a network of labeled areas and systems, would sustain population, clean in appearance
Student will create a video explaining on how their settlement will be able to support life	Explains vague ideas on how life will be supported	Explains some examples on how life will be supported	Explains on how life will be supported by areas and systems	Explains how life will be supported by the areas and systems with lots of details
Student will create a chart that shows what items are needed for survival and in what quantities	Some items listed, not all categories filled in, unclear organization	A general list of items included, all categories filled in, but with errors, okay organization	A detailed list of items given, all categories filled in correctly, followable organization	A detailed list of items given, all categories filled in correctly, clearly organized
Student will write a daily log that details the work of each team member, problems experienced, and ideas and thoughts related to the colony creation	Work is described in no particular order, less than 1 page, 5+ g/s errors, missing days or information	Work is described by person and day, 2 pages or less, 4>g/s errors, gives some sense of what each member did	Work and ideas are detailed day by day, 2-3 pages, 3> g/s errors, reader has a general idea of what each member did	Work and ideas are detailed day by day, 4+ pages, 2> g/s errors, reader has a clear idea of each team member's work
Student will create a video that gives information about Mars and lists the features and comforts of the settlement to include its location on a map and why it is located there (reasoning)	Some statistics & data listed about Mars and settlement, unorganized, no mention on location reason	General statistics and data listed for Mars and settlement, organized ok, location shown, no reasoning	Statistics and info listed depict what Mars and settlement are like, fairly organized, location shown, brief reasoning	Statistics and info listed illustrate what Mars and settlement are like, clearly organized, location shown and reasoning explained
Students will name their settlement and locate it using a dot, listing the region in, and give the longitude and latitude coordinates on a map of Mars	The name, coordinates, region or point are not provided	The name and region is provided, but the coordinates or region name are not correct in comparison to point on map	The name and region is provided but one of the coordinates is not correct in comparison to point on map	The name is provided and the coordinates and region are correct in comparison to point on map

g/s= grammar and spelling errors

Conclusion

Conclusion

Congratulations! The NASA Review Board would like to thank you for all of the time and effort that you put into your proposals. They will examine them and make a decision about your proposal in the next couple of days. In the meantime, you will have some thinking to do. Based on what you learned while creating this proposal, are you ready to go and settle on Mars? What or who would you want to take with you? What about Earth life do you think you would miss the most? Write your responses to these questions in your science thinking journal (worth 25 points).