projectguide

Space Colonies: Cities of the Future
Mars Mission Team Project Guidelines Your Mission
The year is 2020 and you and your crack team of young scientists and technicians are one of several groups that have been chosen to help design the first permanent human colony on Mars. As of now, the only people on Mars are a group of international military scientists who stay for 6 months and go home. They do not have the capability of living there permanently. Due to the quickly deteriorating conditions on earth with regard to environmental pollution and warfare between competing groups that is about to change.

That is where you come in. It is essential that you begin your preparations immediately. Artists conception of a basecamp on another planet You have been selected to plan this community for the first 50 residents because of your dedication to making society fair for all and conserving natural resources. Throughout the history of settling new frontiers, this has not always been the case. The lessons we have learned from our global earth experience have demonstrated to us that we must ensure that all future developments use resources wisely and share them equally among all settlers right from the beginning. That is the task that you and the other student groups are being assigned and all the resources of the classroom and the Internet are at your disposal. Your final plans are to be unveiled at a joint meeting of all the participants in two weeks. Please follow the guidelines below and good luck.

Your Group Organization
The members in your group will have titles and jobs or do or items to plan for. If there are more people than jobs, you may pair up or if there are not enough people, you may have to do two related jobs. However ALL of you have to work together to plan the community and may add other ideas to the list of suggestions. Each group will have a medical / life scientist to plan for the needs of humans, animals, and plants; a social scientist to plan for social and economic functions; an earth / agricultural scientist to study geological and soil factors; an ecologist to make sure that resources are held in balance and conserved; a political scientist to organize the government; and an engineer / architect who will design the "blueprints" or model for the colony. The social scientist will also record the notes of group meetings and the architect will preside over them as a sort of chief design officer.

Your first task is to read the job descriptions and decide which of you is going to do each job. Model of an orbiting space lab. If you have trouble deciding, have all the people interested in a particular job state the reasons why they think they would be good at it and then vote by secret ballot to see who is chosen. If no one wants to do a particular job, take turns nominating others you think would be good and tell why you think so. Then vote on those nominations. Democratic principles of fairness, equality, and respect for differing opinions are to be followed at all times. Conflicts must be settled by discussion and compromise so that you can achieve your goals on time. YOU MUST TURN IN A LIST OF WHICH PERSON IS DOING EACH JOB BY THE END OF THE SECOND DAY OF THE PROJECT.

Your Resources and Class Presentation Assignments
As soon as you have your job, begin researching your particular assignments (see below) and be sure to list your sources for the final bibliography whether they are Internet URL sites or books, pamphlets, or videos you name. You may use science textbooks, magazines, CD roms, videos, slides, TV programs, personal interviews, and Internet sources to gather information about the problems you must solve in your job. If you are online you may access a clickable list of space sites. You must however decide on your priorities and determine who will use the computer first and for how long. It is possible that some of you will be looking for information about the same sorts of topics from similar sources and you can work together and share the computer. You will have to coordinate your plans and solve any conflicts between the different scientists on the panel and finalize your ideas into one coordinated plan. The architect / engineer will then be in charge of drawing the "blueprint" of our space colony. All members should either be helping to draw, or writing reports or making other visual aids for your group presentation. You may make drawings, models, charts, graphs, or pictures to enhance your presentation and make your colony come alive for the rest of the class.

The team will turn in one blueprint or model of the colony that will accommodate 50 settlers and the architect will explain the features that he or she is responsible for planning in it. Earthrise - the sun rising over the earth's horizon as seen from orbit. Then each of the other team members will give an oral report detailing what he or she designed and use whatever visual aids that are needed to show it. Each one should be prepared to turn in a written summary of what they said including sources of information listed. The presentations will be graded using the Rubric for an Oral Presentation and the Rubric for a Model or Design. The teacher will grade the oral presentations and each group will also evaluate the other group's presentation (by secret ballot). The teacher will grade the model or design, but may ask for help from the groups. Each student on the team and the teacher will privately evaluate his or her own team's behavior and work habits using the Rubric for Group Dynamics. Some sort of final comparison essay or chart will be required from each individual after all groups are finished with their reports.

Your Scientific Job Descriptions Mars Pathfinder mission on the surface of the red planet.

After you have decided which person on your team is doing each job, you may cut one copy of these job descriptions / task cards apart along the lines so each person can have a copy of their questions while working. One copy of all the tasks should be kept by the architect / engineer and another one by the social scientist / economist because they are responsible for everyone knowing his or her job. Remember that you may help each other, but that each person must do his or her own part in the team's oral presentation and turn in a summary of their findings. Some of your tasks are related to or overlap with those of the scientists because science and society are both interdependent and you must work together. You may recognize other problems in addition to the questions listed below and solve them as a team.

Social Scientist / Economist (group recorder)

Record notes at all meetings of science team and keep track of who is doing the jobs and note their progress.
Work with others on the team to determine the occupations and gender makeup of the first 50 colonists and work out a division of labor and job training program so that all necessary jobs get done.
Help plan number, sizes, and types of housing units and decide which groups in society will live in each type.
Devise an economic and / or financial system to distribute wealth and essential goods fairly to all member of the community.
Plan recreational activities and facilities.
Plan an educational system with a curriculum, materials, and facilities to teach the children of the future.
May design clothing styles, if desired.

Earth Scientist / Agricultural Consultant

Select the site of the community based on maps (or aerial photos) of Mars using good scientific reasons so that the site has the resources needed for your settlers' needs.
Help plan the community's main energy source and how it will be harnessed or made.
Determine what mineral and other natural resources will be needed, how much is needed, and what is probably available at the site.
Help plan the various land use areas and the relative sizes of each.
Help determine how the short term weather and long term climate will be controlled within the community.
Help draw up a conservation plan to recycle and / or reuse mineral resources and to mine them safely if necessary.

Life Scientist / Medical Consultant

Plan a healthy diet and choose the initial food supply and the quantities to be taken along initially.
Determine all the types and varieties of food sources needed to be grown for the future for the settlers of all ages.
Plan the health and medical care system and facilities for the colony including treatment and prevention of diseases.
Develop a plan to keep the population from exceeding the size limits of the colony, its food supply, and its resources.
Plan a physical fitness and wellness program to keep the settlers as healthy as possible in a low gravity environment.
Plan for the reproduction, health, and food needs of ALL the animals that will be in the community.

Ecologist / Environmental Consultant

Devise continuing or renewable sources of adequate water for all the needs of the community including drinking water, sanitation, agricultural and industrial, if needed.
Devise continuing or renewable sources of adequate pure air for all the needs of the community inhabitants.
Design methods or systems of removing, neutralizing, and / or recycling wastes including garbage, human and animal wastes, agricultural by-products, and industrial chemicals and heat.
Choose optimal temperature and humidity for various areas and how it will be monitored.
Help plan for environmentally safe methods of agriculture and manufacturing with an ecological balance between plants and other living and non-living aspects of the community.
Research and approve environmentally safe fabrics, food containers, building materials and cleaning agents and recommend these to the other scientists and explain where they will come from.

Political Scientist / Government Consultant

Decide who will be the leaders of the settlement and how they will be chosen.
Write up a constitution telling the rights and responsibilities of all people so that the community is protected and preserved.
Make up a list of important basic rules or laws
Devise a plan of government and tell how the rules or laws will be changed when needed.
Set up a security force or safety committee to enforce the laws.
Tell what the punishments will be for people who do not take care of the ecology or who break the laws of the society.

Architect / Engineer (presides over planning meetings)

Act as the moderator for all the other team members, call group meetings, settle disputes, and coordinate efforts of all to ensure that the jobs all are done.
Determine the overall size of the community to include space for all the scientists' ideas, the total population, and room for future growth.
Determine the main transportation system for people and good and how it will be powered.
Determine the communication system for the community and how it will be powered even in an emergency.
Help coordinate and approve all designs and materials for community buildings, housing, furniture, appliances, etc., so that they are space and energy efficient and fit with the over all plan of the colony.
Oversee the making of the master "blueprint" or model with space for all scientists' ideas on it. Make sure that it is neat, with labels and symbols that are easy to understand. The other scientists should help you make this!