|
Searching for Life on Mars |
||||||||
|
|||||||||
 |
Mathematics Skill or Topic Area:
Geometry and Angle Relationships
Next Gen Science Standards ESS1: Earth’s Place in the Universe; ETS2: Links Among Engineering, Technology, Science, and Society
Common Core ELA for Science: RST.6-8.2. Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.RST.6-8.8. Distinguish among facts, reasoned judgment based on research findings, and speculation in a text. RST.6-8.9. Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulations, video, or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
Common Core Math Standard: CC.8.G.5: Use informal arguments to establish facts about the angle sum and exterior angle of triangles, about the angles created when parallel lines are cut by a transversal, and the angle-angle criterion for similarity of triangles. CC.8.G.7: Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions.
Video Engagement: Curiosity Goes to Mars Find out why Curiosity is the best name for the largest rover ever sent to another planet. Learn about the challenges of landing on a planet with an atmosphere and the geology and chemistry questions scientists hope to answer with instruments on the Mars Science Laboratory (6 minutes). View Program
|
Engage your students with a press release:
At 10:31 p.m. PDT, April 27, (1:31 a.m. EDT, April 28), NASA's Mars Science Laboratory, carrying the one-ton Curiosity rover, will be within
100 days from its appointment with the Martian surface. At that moment, the mission has about 119 million miles
(191 million kilometers) to go and is closing at a speed of 13,000 mph (21,000 kilometers per hour).
"Every day is one day closer to the most challenging part of this mission," said Pete Theisinger, Mars Science
Laboratory project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "Landing an SUV-sized vehicle
next to the side of a mountain 85 million miles from home is always stimulating. Our engineering and science teams
continue their preparations for that big day and the surface operations to follow."
On Sunday, April 22, a week-long operational readiness test concluded at JPL. The test simulated aspects of
the mission's early surface operations. Mission planners and engineers sent some of the same commands they
will send to the real Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars to a test rover used at JPL.
"Our test rover has a central computer identical to Curiosity's currently on its way to Mars," said Eric
Aguilar, the mission's engineering test lead at JPL. "We ran all our commands through it and watched to make
sure it drove, took pictures and collected samples as expected by the mission planners. It was a great test and
gave us a lot of confidence moving forward."
The Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, launched Nov. 26, 2011, will deliver Curiosity to the surface of
Mars on the evening of Aug. 5, 2012, PDT (early on Aug. 6, Universal Time and EDT) to begin a two-year
prime mission. Curiosity's landing site is near the base of a mountain inside Gale Crater, near the Martian
equator. Researchers plan to use Curiosity to study layers in the mountain that hold evidence about wet environments of early Mars.
Press release date line - April 27, 2012 Press release
location: [
Click Here ] |
|
Explore math connections with SpaceMath@NASA
Problem I - Taking a Stroll Around a Martian Crater - Students determine the circumference of a martian crater and calculate the time it would take for the Opportunity Rover to travel one complete circuit around the crater. [ Open PDF ]
Problem II -
Exploring the Mars Rover Landing Site Near Bonneville Crater -
Students determine the scale of the photograph showing the Mars Rover landing area and calculate the sizes and lengths of various features in the image.
[ Open
PDF ]
Explain
your thinking: Write
your own problem - Using information
found in the Math Connection problems, the press release or the video
program, create your own math problem. Explain why you set the problem up this
way, and how you might find its answer.
Evaluate
your understanding: Challenge Problem -
- The $2.5 billion Curiosity Rover will spend 2 years roaming the floor of Crater Gale at a top speed of 300 meters per hour. This crater has many important
geological features that could include signs of fossil life that once existed here some 3 billion years ago. In this problem, students calculate the distances between interesting features, and determine the time the Rover
will travel between the features as part of its 2-year timeline of activity. Students use satellite photo of the Mars Curiosity Rover's landing area and use
coordinate geometry and the Pythagorean Theorem to
compute distances to important way stations along the Rover's planned travels as it explores the floor of Crater Gale.
[ Open
PDF ]
NASA / JPL
3-D Solar System
Extend your new knowledge - Visit Mars using EOSS and the approach of the MSL spacecraft during its last 30 minutes of flight. [ Open PDF ]