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Robotic Mission to Mars
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This challenge could be conducted in conjunction with a real space mission, the Canadian National Marsville Program (http:/mars2000.enoreo.on.ca/) or a visit to the Ontario Science Centre's Challenger Learning Centre for a simulated space mission. The idea is for students to design and build a movable structure that incorporates elements of some or all of the previous four challenges.This challenge is open-ended in that you and your students choose the activity, brainstorm possibilities, develop procedures, set criteria, design and build the structure and report success in whatever way you choose.
Students should carry out the design and construction using the procedures outlined in preceding challenges. For background on exploration missions using remote vehicles, they can use the Internet. Check out previous missions such as Apollo, Polar Lander and Pathfinder.
It is 2008 and your space mission team must put a rover on Mars that can collect samples before engineer-astronauts Julie Payette, P.Eng. and Dr. Robert Thirsk, P.Eng. blast off on their flight to the red planet.You have 10 days to upgrade your rover in preparation for launch. Good luck!
Students are asked to design and build a Mars rover capable of descending a ramp, negotiating rough terrain, deploying an antenna and grasping an object.
You and your students should decide the best size and number of groups to conduct the project.
Have the students decide on a means to propel the rover. You could suggest using some sort of mechanism requiring gears and a power source. A grappling device could be a lasso, a sampling device or a simple shovel.The degree of complexity should be determined by the group considering the limitations of time and resources.
As with the other challenges, students test and refine their designs and document the way the rovers achieve their stated objectives. They record their difficulties and describe how they were able to correct design problems.
Recognize student effort by displaying the constructed vehicles, sharing their results with other grades, holding a rover derby or other means.
