Spaceship Reluctant:  Lost On Mars!

 

You are a crew member of the Spaceship Reluctant.  Your mission has been to search for life forms in space and to return safely to Earth.  This mission has been jeopardized because of problems with cooling systems in your spaceship.  You have now been forced to land on Mars, 175 miles from the nearest Earth settlement, which is located on the slopes of the Olympus Mons volcano.  Because of a difficult landing, your crew has been forced to evacuate quickly.  Moments after the evacuation, an explosion destroyed most of the contents of your spaceship.  All that remains are the 15 items listed below.

 

Your crew’s survival depends on reaching the Earth settlement.  As the leader of the survivors, you must choose the most important items from the surviving gear, those which will have the most value in reaching the Earth settlement.  If you have to leave something behind, which items should you choose?

 

To help you with your decisions, you will need to use the computer to gather information about the environment of Mars.  Using information gathered from the Internet, create an Excel spreadsheet which lists the answers to the following questions (include the complete URLs from which you obtain your answers):

 

  1. What is the gravity on Mars?
  2. What is the average temperature on Mars?
  3. What is the composition of the atmosphere on Mars?
  4. How many moons does Mars have?
  5. What is the length of a day on Mars?

 

In addition, rank the items below in order of importance (1 being the most important, 15 being the least important):

 

A cigarette lighter

Concentrated foods

60 feet of nylon rope

Signal flares

A magnetic compass

Six 50-pound tanks of oxygen

A case of canned milk

Parachute silk

A solar-powered heating unit

A large knife

A topographic map of Mars

Solar-powered FM two-way radio

First-aid kit

5 gallons of water

Solar shields

 

When you rank your items in order of importance, include some ideas about why each item would be useful.  Then, create a line graph in Excel which reflects the rankings you have given each of the survival items.  Insert your tables, line graph and answers to the short-answer questions above, along with the URLs, into a Word document, and print. 

 

Don’t forget to include your team name!  Good Luck on your mission!