Blue Group Space Mission Project
This session we embarked on a Space Themed Project two weeks before Spring Break. Then we didn’t get to come back to school from Spring Break but the learning continued at home. I wanted to share the learners’ work here for everyone to see. Their perseverance through this strange time was beautiful to see. We ended up simplifying the project goal and we missed out on some fun experiences that we had planned to do (i.e. shooting off model rockets), but these kids are amazing and deserve to be able to share their work, so please look through and leave an encouraging word for these young space explorers. This group includes 1 Kindergartener, 2 First Graders, 2 Second Graders, and 4 3rd graders.
When I began planning this project I didn’t have a clear end goal in mind. We start a lot of projects that way. It is called an emergent curriculum. It allows the students to drive the project with their own goals and interests. As we started exploring, the students found information about how the possibility of ice on the moon could expand our possibilities for space travel. The ice could be turned into hydrogen (for fuel) and oxygen (for breathing). They also learned that when launching from the moon you don’t have to deal with gravity and atmosphere like on earth so it can be a much more efficient way to launch further into the solar system.
With that understanding we designed our project. It has three parts: (1) Plan a space mission and write up a proposal to seek “funding.” (2) Research and report on what is already known about your chosen mission destination. (3) Design a spacecraft that will be used with your mission.
Luca (K)
Facts about the Sun
- It makes up around 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass.
- At around 1,392,000 kilometres (865,000 miles) wide, the Sun’s diameter is about 110 times wider than Earth’s.
- You could fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun.
- Around 74% of the Sun’s mass is made up of hydrogen. Helium makes up around 24% while heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, iron and neon make up the remaining percentage.
- Light from the Sun reaches Earth in around 8 minutes.
- The Sun’s surface temperature is around 5,500 degrees Celsius (9,941 degrees Fahrenheit), so pack plenty of sunscreen if you plan on visiting (remembering that the average distance from the Sun to the Earth is around 150 million kilometers).
- The Sun’s core is around 13,600,000 degrees Celsius!
- The Sun generates huge amounts of energy by combining hydrogen nuclei into helium. This process is called nuclear fusion.
- Because of the Sun’s huge influence on Earth, many early cultures saw the Sun as a deity or god. For example, Ancient Egyptians had a sun god called Ra while in Aztec mythology there is a sun god named Tonatiuh.
- The Sun produces a solar wind which contains charged particles such as electrons and protons. They escape the Sun’s intense gravity because of their high kinetic energy and the high temperature of the Sun’s corona (a type of plasma atmosphere that extends into space).
- Planets with strong magnetic fields such as Earth manage to deflect most of these charged particles as they approach.
- A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon is between the Sun and the Earth.
- The most famous spacecraft sent to observe the Sun is the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, built by NASA and ESA, and launched in December, 1995. SOHO has been continuously observing the Sun since then, and sent back countless images. A more recent mission is NASA’s STEREO spacecraft. This was actually two spacecraft, launched in October 2006. These twin spacecraft were designed to watch the same activity on the Sun from two different vantage points, to give a 3-D perspective of the Sun’s activity, and allow astronomers to better predict space weather.
Josiah (1st)
The Hypertest Mission is to go to Mars to see if there is water on Mars. We will look under ground by drilling down with my spacecraft. It will be built on Earth by 2029 and will be launched from Earth to go to the moon in 2032. It will do some test drilling on the moon for 3 years before getting ready to launch to Mars. My space craft will launch from the moon in 2036.
There are 3 parts. The drill points up when in launch position and becomes the nose cone. It has landing gear that comes down to land with the nose cone or drill pointed down for drilling. Just the drill spins, not the whole space craft. This is a manned mission. There will be two people in this spaceship in the main body of the ship. When they are done drilling they turn on small rocket boosters to fly out of the hole. They have to flip back over before they can launch with the big rocket boosters. If there is a problem they also have an escape pod.
Liberty (1st)
NEPTUNE FACTS
- Named for: Roman God of the Sea
- Large gas planet
- It’s the 8th planet from the sun
- It has 14 moons and Triton is the most famous moon because it goes against the rotational orbit of all the other moons.
- Neptune is much larger than earth. 58 earths could fit inside it!
- It takes Neptune 165 YEARS to make one orbit around the sun! That is even longer than our lifetime!!
- A day on Neptune is 16 hours and 6 minutes long.
- Physical features:
- Vivid (bright) blue due to methane gas
- The windiest planet in the entire solar system. Winds were measured more than 1,200 mph.
- Once a storm was tracked on Neptune moving 700 mph!
TRITON FUN FACTS
- Triton is the largest of Neptune’s 14 moons.
- Part of Triton’s surface looks like the bumpy rind of a cantaloupe. The bumps are ice volcanoes. When they erupt, the gases instantly freeze into snow and fall back down onto the ice volcanoes.
- Triton is the coldest known object in all the solar system.
Noah (2nd)
My trip will last till we collect five mini asteroids and five jars of space dust. It will help to find new material and hopefully send a rover to a comet. It is unmanned, if it lands on a comet it will send a rover to collect samples. It’s as big as an apartment building in height and longness. It will have a docking bay and plenty of room for computers and all its electronic stuff. The material is carbon fiber. The mission name is SABIR ( Super Anti Braking International Retractor). It will launch it from Earth because when it collects samples it retracts back to Earth. My goal is to find new materials. It will deploy solar panels and moveable thrusters. I want the asteroids to be 5 feet tall and long. I will find all my samples except the asteroids around the earth.
Olivia (2nd) and Elise (3rd)
In 2024 we will go to comet 2P/Encke. It orbits the sun every 3.3 years and should be closer to the Earth at this time. First we will fly by the comet and take pictures. We will try to orbit it too so that we can take pictures at more than one angle. We are hoping to learn more about its outer surface. We will try to land on it and get important resources for use on earth or any other planet. We will collect rock, ice and gas samples. The samples will be delivered to the International Space Station for scientists to study.
Magnolia (3rd)
- What is the name of your mission? Mission Reptile.
- What is the purpose of your mission? To discover new planets and colonize them.
- How long will your mission last? As long as it can. Possibly 100 or so years because it is going to be a multi generational ship. A multi generational ship is when many generations of multiple families are born, live and die all onboard.
- What is the name of your ship? My ship is called The Turtle.
- Describe 5 unique elements of your ship. My ship is one of the biggest ships in the whole galaxy. There is very strong metal plating to cover the glass during attacks. There are many small turtles (small cargo ships that make a supply chain through space) that shoot out of the back end of the ship and they make a chain all the way back to earth and conveyor food, supplies, tools, toys or anything else needed all the way back to the Turtle. FUN FACT: the shape of my ship is the shape of a turtle!
- How is your ship a good fit for your mission? My ship is perfect for lots of people because it is very big. It is very very fast and has very very big storage holds. It will be able to sustain life for hundreds of years.
- Describe your ship’s relationship with Noah’s . Noah and my ship designs are similar. His ship is also a part of Mission Reptile, but he is in a different part of Mission Reptile. Mission Reptile covers a lot of subjects but our ships cover different subjects that are part of the same mission program.
- Where will your ship launch from? My ship will launch from the moon because the moon has no gravity, has a lot of space for my ship and there are not any people.
- Where is your first destination? Our first destination is Kepler 19. It might hold a hospitable environment for life forms and might be the perfect place for the first human colonies on a different planet.
- What do you know about that destination? I don’t know a whole lot about Kepler 19 but I do know that it may be an archipelago world with a lot of lifeforms and the perfect place to call our new home.
- After your first destination, where will your mission go? My mission will try and go to the next solar system and try and find a new super earth that we can try and colonize. Then we’ll go on from there to the next solar system and keep exploring from there.
- How much money will it take to fund your mission? The first amount is 6 million dollars and then I will need 10 billion dollars over a hundred or so years.
- How will your mission help? It will help people reach the farthest edges of space just in case of our birth planet being destroyed.
Anything else to add? It will have a hierarchy with a queen as the ruler. It will have shopping malls, streets, houses, shops: all the things we have on earth will be replicated on that ship and it will have cats, dogs, birds and many more animals.
David (3rd)
Declan (3rd)
NASA Proposal Hello NASA my name is Declan and I’m here to ask for help to go to Uranus. I believe that there is an energy source found in crystals on Uranus, that will provide safe, clean and long lasting energy here on earth. My spacecraft will be an unmanned drone that will have special shields to protect it from the extreme cold and methane gas. The spacecraft will launch from earth to Uranus and will take 10 years to reach Uranus and 10 years to come back to earth. I am asking for 1 billion dollars to complete this mission. Thank you for your time.
