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Product Name: Mars Planet

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This Legacy Cycle was designed by members of the MIT Mars Society to teach students about the scientific method and some of the issues behind plant growth at a Martian base. The cycle, as seen on the next page, steps learners through the entire process, from challenge to execution, and utilizes a capstone project of growing plants under experimental conditions to motivate discussion of the issues. The module was originally taught using Mars analog soil from the NASA Ames Research Center in California. This volcanic soil is gathered in Hawaii for research use because of its similarities to actual surface regolith on the Red Planet. However, it may be more difficult to obtain for regular classroom use. (Don’t let that stop you from trying! The Ames education office can be reached on the web at http://www.arc.nasa.gov/edu.html :) Even without the special soil, however, this experiment still provides a valuable look at the whole process of inquiry. In fact, by carrying out some analysis on soil that is readily available, students could answer many of the questions facing NASA investigators about how to properly determine resources to match the situation at hand. Additionally, depending on available computing resources and time constraints, some classes may find it simpler to provide information to the students rather than having them do their own web searches. I’ve included a “Research and Revise II” supplement to help with that. Ad Astra, Erika Brown MIT Mars Society & NSF VaNTH ERC Student Outreach elb@mit.edu The Challenge: You're getting ready to head to Mars and will be growing all sorts of plants in your inflatable greenhouse once you get there. What will you take with you? Generate Ideas: What do you think are the important characteristics of plants you would want to grow? What plants have these characteristics? What do you need to take to grow them? Multiple Perspectives: There are many different priorities to consider. Edible plants provide a healthy nutritional supplement. Plants that produce high volumes of oxygen and other greenhouse gases are helpful for life support and eventual terraforming. And otherplants are very helpful in the production of things on the Martian surface, such as bamboo for furniture or cotton for cloth. Research & Revise: Utilize handouts and web resources to research previous Mars analog gardening experiments, plant characteristics, and resources needed for growing. Discuss issues that drive choices of what to take. Utilize the scientific method to develop a hypothesis and experimental design for evaluating the chosen plants. Test Your Mettle: Set up growth experiment; test and evaluate relevant parameters. Did the experiment succeed? How do you know? Did you choose well? Go Public: Create a summary of your scientific method, including your hypothesis and the logic behind it, how you tested it, what you found, and what you would do differently next time. The Challenge Every astronaut preparing for a mission has to learn a number of useful skills to help keep things going smoothly. Your crew is heading to Mars, and one of the most important areas to specialize in is gardening. You have a six-month journey ahead of you, but when you land, it’ll be time to fill up your inflatable greenhouse with all sorts of plants! Out of the millions of plants, what do you want to grow? And what are you going to take with you to turn this idea into a reality on the Red Planet? And thinking longer term, what about colonizing Mars? You need to decide what plants you would use and what resources would you need.

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A team of 14 Olin Partners has accepted the challenge of designing a Mars Deployable Greenhouse for NASA's MarsPort 2002 competition. On December 14, the team was announced as one of six seminfinalist teams in the competition. They submitted... more