The
Mars Millennium Project
The
Mars Millennium Project
The countdown to a new century has provided a unique opportunity to become a part of charting a course for the future. The Mars Millennium Project: A National Arts, Sciences, and Technology Education Initiative is an official White House Millennium Council youth initiative that challenges teams across the nation to design a community yet to be imagined on Mars.
The students of Room 9 are engaged in an ongoing, interdisciplinary learning project, investigating the best of the past and present, and applying what they learn to plans for the future. The challenge: design a new community for the year 2030---one that is scientifically sound and offers a high quality of life ... and one in which they would be proud to live.
The class is divided into three 'Project Teams'. Each group is responsible for completing major challenges, and for becoming a working, functioning, highly supportive TEAM.
There are five steps to every challenge:
REFLECT,
IMAGINE, DISCOVER, CREATE,
SHARE
Quick tours of Major Mission Projects (Press a button)
OR ... continue down the page for specific projects involved throughout the year.
Project 1: Reflect on your own community. What do you value, and could you bring it with you?
Project 2: Decide who will get to go to Mars to help build this first Martian community. Each team must come up with a list of exactly 100 people. Teams will ponder what counts 'for and against' those who want to be a part of this mission. Does age, sex, education, physical condition, etc. matter? Do whole families go?
Project 3: Write a series of four short reports on various conditions in space with a focus on how to survive this hostile environment.
Project
4:
Design a flag that
represents your project team, and name your team. Team names decided
upon:
Explorers
of the UnknownAstro
AdventurersMars
Blasters
Project 5: Design a lapel badge for your mission. One should wear this whenever working on Mars Millennium projects.
Project
6:
Celebration of a
Thanksgiving as "Space Pioneers" using Rehydratable, Thermostablized,
Intermediate Moisture, & Natural Form foods. Thank you Dr. &
Mrs. Davis for organizing this special, out of this world,
treat!
MAJOR
MISSION PROJECT # 1 *** Create a Space Suite
Project
7:
Make your own sash
--- learning to hand-sew seams. The sash is worn to display patches
earned through completion of major projects.
Second
Major Mission Challenge: Food Engineering
Click here to tour this project
Third Major Mission Challenge: Civil Engineering
Design a community for 100 people. The challenge is to engineer a complex where the "pioneers" thrive, and are self-sufficient, with very little continuing support from Earth.
Make a three dimensional model using paper mache' and any other material to help convey a realistic "feel" to your community.
Sadly, I neglected to take pictures of the resulting projects. Teams
created underground facilities in addition to surface structures.
Each were unique in design, but all seemed to have green houses,
power plants, recreation/community areas, and launching/landing pads
in common.
All three teams were successful. Projects were beautifully done, creative, and showed a sense of community.... reflecting 'values' (so important) written by students at the beginning of the year (see project # 1).