Astronomy

• What do you think is the most-asked

question I hear, whenever students begin

this class?

Are there…

Your Goal:

Engineer a meaningful mission to another

planetary body, to find evidence of past or

present life.

How?

Astrobiobound!

Let’s Get Started

• How do engineers solve problems?

• How are waves used to transfer energy

and information?

• How do organisms live, grow, respond to

their environment and reproduce?

• How and why do organisms interact with

their environment and what are the effects

of their interactions?

• What are we looking for in space?

• What is the big question we are trying to

answer by exploring other planets or

moons in our solar system and through

identifying other planets in other solar

systems outside our own?

A needle in countless haystacks…

• TED ed: The Search for Life Elsewhere

Key Vocabulary Terms

Pre-Ideas Worksheet

• Packet pages 16 & 17

• All lifeforms are:

– Made of cells

– Obtain and use energy

– Grow and develop

– Reproduce

– Respond & adapt to the environment

Activity 1

• Identify a goal requiring a technological design– NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) Goals

#2: Determine any past or present habitable environments, prebiotic chemistry, and signs of life elsewhere in our Solar System. Determine the history of any environments having liquid water, chemical ingredients, and energy sources that might have sustained living systems. Explore crustal materials and planetary atmospheres for any evidence of past and/or present life.

#7: Determine how to recognize signatures of life on other worlds and on early Earth. Identify biosignatures that can reveal and characterize past or present life in ancient samples from Earth, extraterrestrial samples measured in situ or returned to Earth, and remotely measured planetary atmospheres and surfaces. Identify biosignatures of distant technologies.

Types of Extremeophiles• Acidophiles – love

acid – pH < 3

• Ex: Rio Tinto, Spain

http://www.steane.com/p

hotos/images/41/p00034

2.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles• Alkaliphiles – love

alkaline (base)

environments – pH > 9

• Ex: Mono Lake, CA

http://media-

cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/p

hoto-s/02/3d/06/e8/mono-

lake-dec-2011.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles• Endoliths – dissolve

rocks to live (aka

lichen)

• Ex: Trans-Antarctic

Mountains

https://extremeecosystems.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/lichen.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles• Halophiles – love salt

• Ex: Bonneville Salt

Flats, Utah

http://epod.usra.edu/.a/6a0105371bb32c970b015393c1cce4970b-pi

Types of Extremeophiles

• Psychrophiles – love

cold

• Ex: Perito Moreno

Glacier, Patagonia,

Argentina

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/

01242/perito-moreno-pata_1242617c.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles

• Thermophiles

(Hyperthermophiles)

– love heat

• Ex: Grand Prismatic

Spring, Yellowstone

National Park,

Wyoming

http://static.thousandwonders.net/Grand.Pr

ismatic.Spring.original.1306.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles

• Radioresistant – able

to survive UV or

nuclear radiation

http://livefreelivenatural.com/wp-

content/uploads/2013/10/nuke_explosion.j

pg

http://thesuntoday.wpengine.netdna-

cdn.com/wp-content/gallery/best-of-

soho/TRICOLOR.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles

• Xerophiles –

love arid

conditions

• Ex: Atacama

Desert, Chile

http://images.nationalgeog

raphic.com/wpf/media-

live/photos/000/638/cache

/valley-of-the-moon-

atacama-desert-

chile_63802_990x742.jpg

Types of Extremeophiles• Acidophiles – love

acid

• Alkaliphiles – love pH

above 9

• Endoliths – dissolve

rocks to live

• Halophiles – love salt

• Psychrophiles – love

cold

• Thermophiles

(Hyperthermophiles)

– love heat

• Radioresistant – able

to survive UV or

nuclear radiation

• Xerophiles – love arid

conditions

You’re going to group up today…

• Complete pg 25

– You can only land a rover on Mars, or do an

orbiter mission or fly by. The rover can be

stationary or mobile

– You can only do fly-by missions for Europa,

Enceladus and Titan

Group 1:

Group 2:

Group 3:

Group 4:

Group 5: Group 6:

Go to page 25-26

• You must: Identify your mission goals and

track the engineering of your spacecraft

• Gold Cards: Potential Mission Target Cards

Spacecraft Design

• Design a technological solution

• Do NOT use the red or black cards yet!

• START with yellow cards

• Be sure to TRACK your data on your Spacecraft Design Log – page 27

Order of Cards

1. Yellow

2. Green

3. Bright Pink

4. Tan

5. Orange

6. Sky Blue

7. Purple

8. Dark Blue

Keep in Mind• BUDGET is $300M

• Stay within your POWER constraints

• Stay within your MASS limit

and

• You need the biggest SCIENCE RETURN

to WIN!

Winning group = grade of 100

-5 points for each subsequent group

Now…

• Choose a RED special event card

• Final tally of your budget, power, mass and

science return gets typed into the spreadsheet

posted on Google Classroom.

• Classroom.google.com

• Then: Complete the pages in your packet.

• Final grade for project, separate assignment

grades for each page in the packet.

Put it through the Budgetary Test

• Complete packet pages 28 – 33

Your Grades• Project Grade = Group Grade for Log

Sheet

– 100% for group closest to budget with

greatest science return ratio

• Individual Grades = pages in packet

– 28 “Mission Metrics”

– 29 “Engineering Constraints and

Accommodation List”

– 30-31 “Engineering Design Cycle”

– 32-33 “Post-Ideas”

Quiz on

_________Topic:

Astrobiobound

Project