New Mars

Gabriel Rshaid, co-ordinator of the Mars Academy in Buenos Aires discusses the problems, opportunities and rewards in teaching space science to high school students.

As a teacher, I am more interested in how a project motivates students than in awards or recognition. And Mars does the job. Students file in after hours and during holidays–there is no need to think of teacher tricks to get them motivated.

Back in 1993 I was ready to give up teaching. I liked being a teacher, but I was frustrated at the lack of incentive, disinterest on part of the students, and low pay. Then one day, without really knowing what I was doing, I found myself applying to represent Argentina at International Space Camp. When the selection committee asked me about my interest in Astronomy I candidly replied that I had no more than a passing interest in space, and certainly none in Astronomy. Somehow they must have thought it funny, since a few months later I was in Huntsville, Alabama, trying to find out what space education was about.

Through some strange twist of fate it turned out to be the experience that literally changed my life. Soon after my return to Argentina, I was offered a dream job in an oil company, and much to my own surprise I refused it. Things had finally clicked for me as an educator: Through teaching space, I felt that I would be able to generate enthusiasm in the kids, work on challenging projects, and recover my own incentive in learning.

And I was not wrong. Three years later I had gone through a number of gratifying experiences: The construction of a Lunar Base, the design and assembly of a full featured a Space Shuttle simulator, participation in international simulations, and I even enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame and glory after winning the NASA Ames 1996 Space Settlement Design Contest with my students.

Space education had given me the opportunity to develop professionally and establish closer ties with my students.

My perspective is not that of a space scientist–I am an educator, and my job is more to plant than to harvest. Teachers have to capture the dreams that lie dormant in our students and wake them up to some future reality.

However, I again found myself at a crossroads. The inherently human desire for new challenges was nagging me once more. Sure enough, teaching space was immensely satisfying and running Space Shuttle missions on our simulator proved to be wonderfully exciting for the students. But there was something missing.

Although I was not aware of it at the time, my own reactions mirrored the feeling in the general public. Yes, the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station are fascinating projects, and scientific research in Earth orbit is indeed important in space exploration, but, to a certain degree, they were not enough to materialize a vision. My perspective is not that of a space scientist–I am an educator, and my job is more to plant than to harvest. Teachers have to capture the dreams that lie dormant in our students and wake them up to some future reality. The vision of space exploration is one such dream that can be awakened. But, powerful and compelling as it is, low Earth orbit research did not seem to be enough.

And so I stumbled upon manned exploration of Mars. From the point of view of education, human exploration of Mars offers a good number of advantages:

• It is out of this world: Exploring another planet is obviously more exciting than studying the Earth. The adventure of setting foot on Mars has always been appealing to humans. The “out of the world” scenario for the adventure is undoubtedly more appealing and can better capture the students’ imagination.
• Scientists are studying the problem now: Most of the challenges of human Mars exploration are being studied now. Several new technologies have yet to be perfected in order to make the trip to Mars a reality. It is always important in any educational process to leave a certain margin for creativity and imagination, and it is obviously easier in the case of something that has yet to happen. Students feel more on the cutting edge of things when they can research topics that are currently the focus of scientific study.
• It will happen in the near future: It is somewhat anticlimactic to teach space when what is going on now cannot be compared in greatness and challenge with what has been accomplished in the past. Mars opens up a whole new era of exploration and provides an attainable goal that can clearly surpass our deeds of the past. The fact that human exploration of Mars will probably occur during the prime age of the students, making them potential candidates for becoming “Martians,” is an added factor that helps in sparking their interest.
• The immensely challenging nature of the task: Despite common belief, students respond much better when confronted with a task of a certain complexity, that is not self contained and that provides them with limitless directions in which to grow.
• All subject areas are integrated: The design of a human mission involves studying diverse scientific topics, ranging from orbital mechanics and rocket propulsion to the life sciences and medicine. And this study is done in a naturally integrated way by problem solving, without the need to establish divisions between the sciences.
• The human aspect is paramount: The duration of Mars missions constitutes an unprecedented design factor. Crew compatibility, reactions to prolonged confinement and psychological preparation, and support of the crew become of foremost importance. Since space education activities are generally attractive for the more science oriented students, this emphasis on social and behavioral aspects gives teachers an opportunity to get other students also involved.

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How to get to Mars?

One afternoon almost two years ago I assembled my senior class and told them about this great idea I had of creating a project in which students all over the world would work together in designing a mission to Mars and then flying a simulation of the mission using the Internet. They eyed me suspiciously (by this time they were accustomed to my schemes–very few things could surprise them) but agreed to give it a try.

Now, after two generations of “Martian students” and many long hours of work beyond school and during holidays, we have not yet arrived in Mars, but we are certainly closer than when we started. Our groups of students, in collaboration with other schools from all over the world, have analyzed each of the design problems involved in a piloted mission to the Red Planet. They have formulated mission goals, researched and selected a landing site, designed the trajectory and calculated times and dates for the mission, chosen a propulsion system, and streamlined a mission architecture. In all of these areas the student teams have been assisted by NASA experts and other scientists who have generously participated in Web chats answering questions on the specific design problems and giving advice on possible solutions. Design decisions are made after email and web chat consultations amongst students who then vote for one of the options via Web forms.

At this point, our participants are working on the design of a bioregenerative life support system, deciding on the cabin instruments and Mission Control consoles, and defining a program of experiments to be performed during the surface stay.

As soon as the design is completed, the real (simulated) fun will begin, in the form of a Web-based mission simulation. This simulated journey will allow virtual astronauts to take control of the Mars spacecraft by monitoring systems, flipping the appropriate switches following the mission script both in the cabin and in Mission Control, and communicating with their colleagues in space and on the ground in case of eventual problems via a mission log. The general public will also be able to follow the progress of this simulation and give advice to the young astronauts.

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Onward to Mars!

We are still a long way from Mars, but our Mars Academy has taken us quite far. Our project has been included as a Mars reference link in various Web pages, including NASA and University sites, and we are constantly gratified with favorable comments from our participants. Last March, we traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston to present the Mars Academy during the education session at the Lunar and Planetary Conference. Our students were able to explain their project to scientists and NASA experts from the conference who were very favorably impressed.

As a teacher, I am more interested in how a project motivates students than in awards or recognition. And Mars does the job. Students file in after hours and during holidays - there is no need to think of teacher tricks to get them motivated.

Those of us who teach space are trying to communicate a vision that is implicit in space exploration. This vision, difficult to condense into just a few words, has to do with the adventure and the drama, the challenge and the excitement of high tech endeavors. Mars exploration has all of those elements, and provides us with ample opportunities to prove ourselves for many years to come.

Gabriel Rshaid is the head of the Science Department for Lincoln School in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is Coordinator of the Mars Academy and the Virtual Shuttle.

Filed under: Articles on August 6th, 2001