Week 3

Mars Day

Today, we took part in several different events to celebrate Mars Day.

After completing a maths challenge, we watched a live lesson entitled “To the Moon and Mars”. This was very interesting! We were introduced to the space programme Artemis and met the UK astronauts who have been chosen to take part. The group includes the first para-astronaut to travel to space. We were then shown a range of different rockets. Saturn 5 is a heavy launch rocket that has been used in the past to go to space. An SLS has been built for the new Artemis mission, which is bigger than the old Saturn 5. The tallest and most powerful rocket is a star ship type, although this is still in the design and test phase. We watched in awe as a rocket blasted off into space.

The intention of the Artemis mission is to allow astronauts to land on the Moon to prepare for humans eventually travelling to Mars. A Lunar Gateway has been built, which will be the docking station for those spacecraft going to the Moon. The landing position on the Moon will be at the South Pole near Shackleton Corner. This area has been chosen because it is always in the Sun, which is a ready source of solar energy, and there is ice available to melt for water and to provide hydrogen and oxygen.

Finally, we learnt that a British company is involved in the design and provision of satellites to be placed around the Moon. These will enable communication with the Lunar Gateway, Earth and around the Moon itself.

After watching videos about the Mars explorers, our next activity was to make a prototype extending arm. We were provided with the instructions, cardboard and split pins. Working in our Kagan groups, we investigated how the cardboard pieces had to be of the optimum size in order for our task to be successful.

We also learnt a little about the binary coding language that is used by computer scientists to send instructions to the explorers that have landed on Mars. In our books, we have written our names in binary code.

Thinking about how to survive on Mars, we investigated what types of food would be best to grow on the planet. We needed to consider the size of the plants chosen, whether they required specialist growing conditions, and the value that the plant added. For example, lettuces are a good choice because they grow quickly in minimal space.

Our final activity was to design and build a Martian village for our astronauts to live and work in. Again, we worked in our Kagan groups to build 3D shapes using shape nets. Each group presented to the rest of the class to share their ideas.