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Assignment 1 – Mars Rocks!

Your assignment is to research the answers to three of your own questions about the geology, climate, and possibility of life on Mars. 

Imagine you are an explorer getting ready to visit the red planet. What are some of the things you would like to discover about the planet? Base your three questions on the geological portrait of the planet you have acquired from this lesson. 

Think of one question for each of these three topics: geology (volcanoes, tectonics, cratering, water, ice caps), climate (weather, temperature, storms), and the possibility of life. Use the links in each of those sections of the lesson to help you research the answers to your questions. You must use at least three sources and cite them after your three essays.  Submit both your questions and answers in paragraph form via the Comm Link.

Mars Math 

You have been asked to evaluate two plans for a trip to Mars each with a crew of four astronauts. Your answers to the following questions will assist the Mars Mission Planning Team.  

1. We have to bring all the life-support supplies for each astronaut. Each astronaut needs 60 pounds of supplies per day.  How many kilograms of these supplies would we need to lift for Plan 1?For Plan 2?

2. What would the cost be for carrying the supplies?  It currently costs about $6.60 for each gram that must be lifted off of Earth.

3. By recycling, we could reduce the amount of food, water and oxygen to 18 percent of the amount that otherwise would be required.  With recycling, what would be the cost for lifting supplies for each plan?

Questions designed by Bernard Harris, Astronaut

Your assignment will be assessed using the following criteria. If
your work meets all of the criteria below it will be considered
exemplary. If one or two of the criteria are not met your work
will be considered satisfactory. If more than three criteria are
not met your work will be considered unsatisfactory and you will
be asked to resubmit. 
 

Unit 8
Assignments	Content	Grammar	Creativity/ Originality	Length
Research Essays	Submission includes three research-based essays that include all required elements. Question Answer Sources	Essays are grammatically correct and free from spelling errors.	Questions are interesting and the answers are complete, and are easy to understand.	Each essay contains at least 300 words (Total = 900 words).
Mars Math	Answers are correct.	Work is shown.

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