ROADS on Mars Challenge - Mission Earth
ROADS on Mars Challenge
"The ROADS on Mars challenge gives teams of students grades 3–12 a chance to tackle a mission to Mars, following in the path of the next rover — Mars 2020. Just like the next rover, teams will face challenges including engineering and programming, analysis of biological signatures and geologic features, not to mention flying to Mars and successfully landing."
ROADS on Mars Student Challenge - Promo Video:
See below for the flier and brochure for the ROADS on Mars Challenge.
Update to Schedule!
Register your team by January 15, 2020!
ROADS on Mars training at Monroe Community College in Monroe, Michigan
Register your team by January 15, 2020 by going to: https://nwessp.org/mars/.
OPPORTUNITY DIVISION Grades 5-8
CURIOSITY DIVISION Grades 9-12
ROADS on Mars Working Schedule
The following table is just a summary of the deadlines and tasks.
YOU NEED TO READ THE MANUAL!
(Scroll to the bottom of this page to download the manual, or go to: https://nwessp.org/projects/).
The pages within the manual are listed for each task in the table below.
|
Date due NO later than |
Task |
Description |
|
February 14
March 7 |
Mission Patch-for national competition
For MI-OH hub |
Mission Patch 4.3 (pg. 21) Design a Mission Patch for your team. Submit to https://nwessp.org/projects/ if you want to participate in national competition.
Submit Mission Patch by posting on media and Facebook Page: Your team must submit patch before you receive any equipment. |
|
May 9 Bring to competition |
Mission Development Log(MDL) |
Mission Documentation 4.1 in Manual (pg. 16) Each team is required MDL for documentation. To be scored, your team needs to bring this MDL to competition. Judges will verify your documentation in the notebook and your postings to the media. Worth=40 % of points
|
|
April 3 |
Environment Effort |
a)Alluvial Fan Dynamics 4.1.2 in Manual (pg.16) Build a stream table and video the flow of the water. To be scored, teams must post a video of their erosion experiment on social media (Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) using the hashtags #ROADSonMars and #Mars2020. Make sure your post is public, then submit it to NESSP through the ROADS website: nwessp.org/mars and local Facebook page:
b)Crater Formation 4.1.3 (pg. 18) Capture the process of making a crater in slow motion (using, for example, a smart phone’s slow motion video feature). To be scored, teams must post a video of their crater experiment on social media (Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) using the hashtags #ROADSonMars and #Mars2020. Make sure your post is public, then submit it to NESSP through the ROADS website: nwessp.org/mars and local Facebook page:
|
|
April 10 |
Search for Life |
a)Methane ID for Life in your Neighborhood 4.2.1 (pg. 19) Teams will make a map of their community (a downloaded google map will suffice), mark areas of high methane detection, and log them into their MDL. To be scored, teams must post a video of their methane detection project on social media (Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) using the hashtags #ROADSonMars and #Mars2020. Make sure your post is public, then submit it to NESSP through the ROADS website: nwessp.org/mars and local Facebook page:
b)Macroinvertebrates (from local water) ID 4.2.2 (pg. 20) Documentation for this task in the team’s MDL may include a map of where samples were collected and how they match up with where the team previously detected methane, a discussion of which sites produced the most interesting or most boring samples, and so forth. In particular, teams should include documentation showing how their identified their lifeforms — photos showing team members exploring their samples on the microscope can be pasted into the MDL. To be scored, teams must post a video of their microscope project on social media (Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook) using the hashtags #ROADSonMars and #Mars2020. Make sure your post is public, then submit it to NESSP through the ROADS website: nwessp.org/mars and local Facebook page:
|
|
May 9 Day of Competition |
Drone/Lander |
a)Robotic Exploration 5.1 (pg. 22) Descriptions of the Mars Map and obstacles are on pages 2-31. Build a lander that will be attached to drone and land on Mars starts on page 32. 10 minutes to complete the challenge
b)Landing System MO 1 (pg. 32) Build a landing system that can be flown on a Force Blue Heron Drone.
c)Design a Communication Dish MO2 (pg. 32) Practice building a Communication Dish that can fit within the yellow circle on the Mars map. Day of competition, assemble the satellite dish in real time while you UAV is orbiting Mars. Once completed, your UAV can land in specified blue Landing Zones.
d)Flying to Mars-Day of Competition MO 3 (pg.33) Fly the UAV and model landing system to Mars. Complete at least one orbit around the planet.
e)Sample Collection and Caching MO7 (pg. 33) Rover starts in the center of blue landing zone circle and transverse the mat picking up as many samples in the green rectangles and dropping them off at caching sites, the green circles.
f)Probing the Surface MO8 (pg. 34) Rover drive to white square and place a LEGO piece simulating a probe into the soil sample located at a white square. Grades 9-12 will use a Vernier Soil Moisture Probe to determine whether the soil has a significant water content or not.
g)Methane Detection MO9 (pg. 34) After the rover has reached the first sample site, team member goes to the station and determines if the soil sample contains methane using the methane detector.
h)Macro-Invertebrates MO 10 (pg. 34) After the rover has reached the second sample site, team member goes to the station and determines if the sample is organic or not using a digital microscope.
i)Crater Exploration MO11 (pg. 34) required for Grades 9-12; optional for grades 5-8 Fly mini-drone carried by LEGO Mindstorm robot into the center of the crater. Use the min-drone camera to take a photo of the inside wall of the crater and return it to the LEGO robot.
|
|
May 9 |
Competition |
Attend ROADS on Mars Competition Monroe Community College
|