Virtual Space Camp
July 1999
Mars can be reached by students
through their imagination, by modeling,
and through the Red
Rover Goes to Mars Project
Building LEGO scale projects,
and planning for a Mars Rover and Colony was carried out by
the mission team at
Virtual Space Camp.
July 19-23, 1999
Marshall University
Math Department Smith Hall 516
Linda Hamilton, instructor
Program through Marshall University
Continuing Education
Various Rovers were built and set up on two
floors of Smith Hall and software was set up with two groups of students
at home and a Marshall University Marshall Academy class. The software
and hardware was set up by students of the Virtual Space Camp mission team.
Now we have an all too good feeling for what complications NASA has to
solve to get a mission together.
The first day was planning and building day.
Two TV stations came. The second day the Rover was driven in a remote
Mars site upstairs. Students from Homer Hickam's high school
visited and drove the Rover. Wednesday the mission crew went to Dr.
Norton's Scanning
Electron Microscope to get a feel for how a small Nano experiment on
mars could bring in much information. During the week occasional
videos of toys in space and other Space films were watched as students
built. Wednesday the Mars base took shape with pneumatics for door
and air control, cranes and conveyer for water recovery and structure building.
Thursday was software day for programming the components of the Mars Base.
Communication was established among five places for driving Rovers at our
two sites. Friday was the day for recording what had been accomplished
and presenting our work to parents and other interested visitors.
At Virtual
Space Camp, team
members and others
made Rovers
and drove them from Far
sites and the Mars
Base.
LEGO Links of Linda Hamilton
Red Rover Goes to Mars is a project of NASA and the Planetary
Society
http://www.planetary.org/
Linda Hamilton
July 1999
updated 31 Au 99
