"Nothing
else in the world . . . not all the armies . . . is so
powerful as an idea whose time has come. "
Victor Hugo
In this lesson
you will design a permanent sustainable human colony on
Mars. You will learn about life support systems that humans
will need to survive on the planet including recycling
systems. You will think about the kinds of things Martian
colonists would do on the planet and the things they would
need to survive. Humans have created new communities and
built new settlements in inhospitable and foreign lands
throughout history. How did they do it? What things did
they bring with them? How did they structure their colonies?
What facilities did they build? How did they organize
their governments?
You will also
learn about scientists' concerns about inhabiting a planet
that may harbor life and plans for terraforming Mars or
making it more like Earth so that it could one day be
habitable by humans (without life support systems).
You will use
a variety of 3-D and virtual models, interactive games
and tutorials, videos, audios, and images to explore the
red planet Mars. For your assignment you will design a
Mars colony of 100 people or more and submit a one-page
description of the settlement, along with a description
of how each component functions and how the components
are related.
In the Liftoff
section are sections to read and enjoy, and many images,
links, videos and interactive models and games to link
to on the internet. The Mission
section is the activity that you need to turn in via the
Comm
Link. Don't forget to do the Quick
Quiz after you have done the reading. The Extended
Mission is a collection of links on the topic that
you can use for further information, it is divided up
into Activities and Research. When
deciding on a final project the extensions are a good
way to begin.
Chapters in
this lesson include:
NOTE: Some of
the links in these lessons require these:
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Next... Human
Exploration (pg. 2 of 10) |