On Mission Day all eyes turn to the amazing KC2035 comet. This newly found comet is passing close enough to Earth to be seen with the naked eye. Early reports indicate that it might even hit the Moon!
Duration: 60 Minutes
The Lunar Base
Humankind continues to explore the universe. Recently, NASA and its international partners built a permanent base on the Moon. Eventually, NASA will launch manned missions to Mars from here. The main lunar base includes a living area and laboratory. Not far away, lunar astronauts and engineers are building a mine. The mine will produce ilmenite to extract oxygen and helium-3 to export back to Earth.
Working together, the teams have to determine if a comet will hit the Moon, when this might occur, where the impact will be, and how powerful the impact will be. Students will use math skills they learned during pre-mission lesson plans to calculate the area of a circle and various probabilities. All of this information will help Mission Control determine possible emergency plans. The mission requires three Emergency Response Teams, plus a Communications Team.
area of a circle, distance/ time/ rate, probabilities, risk management, graphing, graph interpretation, math in everyday life.
How large an area will be affected by the comet's impact on the Moon? What are the chances that an astronaut could be in danger? The Moon Mapping Team will work together to calculate the probabilities of danger for each base and answer these important questions.
When will the comet hit? What will be the size of the crater? Are the astronauts in danger from the ejecta? The Comet Tracking Team will examine the comet size and distance to the moon to determine the time of impact and the ejecta distance.
The Communications Team serves as the glue that holds the mission together. When students take on this role for their team, they will be responsible for relaying messages between their team and Mission Control. Choose two people to work as the Communications Team. The "comm officer" will use the microphone and the video link to communicate with Mission Control. The "data officer" will type all team messages into a chat window and calculations into a data window.
Where will astronauts be safe to conduct their research on the comet? What equipment and/or astronauts should we move and where? How long will this take? The Crisis Management Team will use probabilities to work together and manage the situation. They will make any necessary evacuation plans.
A computer lab can be used, it's just not ideal because labs are typically arranged in permanent rows and interrupts the flow of traffic.
Connection Procedures