The Road to Mars

Hanging out with Mrs. McDougal!

I’m sure you’ve watched a sci-fi film about Aliens or life on Mars; in fact, you may have even thought about how it would feel to live on Mars. This summer, I had the opportunity to participate in the “Interstellar Dreams: The Road to Mars” camp, founded by Mrs. Robin McDougal where I role-played the part of an Astrobiologist and Entrepreneur for Space Tourism, working alongside 11 other students who played the roles of Astronomers, Planetary Scientists, and Mechanical Engineers to plan a mission to Mars. We created a detailed plan and presentation that described how we would establish permanent residence and a high school on Mars.

My first role was as an Astrobiologist, where my team and I studied life in space and what humans would need to live on Mars. My partner, Nandini, and I focused on space dangers, while Varshitha delved deeper into the atmosphere. We studied the soil, which is dry, rusted, and toxic, and the atmosphere, which is full of ionizing radiation and carbon dioxide, with only 0.13% Oxygen. After completing our research, we collaborated with the Mechanical engineers to coat the walls of our habitat with a material that blocks radiation and to design housing that can expand and contract with temperature changes, rather than simply exploding.

Meet Mars

Now, let’s take a deeper dive into Mar’s Atmosphere. It contains harmful substances, and it lacks essential gases, including Oxygen. My team and I developed several ideas on how to utilize elements like carbon and nitrogen to enrich the soil and atmosphere in the greenhouses, thereby helping the plants grow faster and stronger. However, even after doing this, one significant challenge remains. Mar’s soil has no moisture, and Mar’s temperatures can go down to below -200 Fahrenheit, making farming outside impossible.

Mission Patch Designed by Kashmir Pandolfi

My second role was part of a space entertainment company. My partner and I called our business “Martian Basketball Association -- The MBA.” Our purpose was to make life on Mars fun and entertaining for Astronauts, while still generating revenue from sports fans on Earth. This would also help prevent residents' muscles from weakening, as long term residence on the International Space Station have shown that being in space causes the muscles to weaken, which can lead to significant problems upon returning to Earth. In fact, not only would this physically benefit the residents of Mar, but it would also enhance their mental stimulation and team building. We wrote detailed descriptions on how we’d record the game, then slowly release them to the public as if they were live. 

While my partner, Anvitha worked on the business aspects, I studied the mathematics and physics of playing Basketball in space. It was easy enough to come up with solutions for things like how the basketball hoop would stay still, thanks to some Velcro, and how we'd specially train the Astronauts to run without pushing up on the ground, so they don’t fly away; however, we struggled with how we’d prevent the Basketball from working like a balloon. Have you ever tried to play basketball with a balloon? If you had, your conclusion must have been that it was much too light, and that you either had to stop playing or adjust the game. Playing with a ball filled with air on Mars would feel the same as playing with a balloon on Earth, which is why we decided to fill our basketballs with sand.

The gravity on Mars is about 38% of Earth’s, which means a regular basketball that weighs about 1.4 pounds on Earth would only weigh around 0.5 pounds on Mars. To make it feel normal during a game, we calculated that it would need to weigh about 3.7 pounds on Earth so it would behave like a 1.4-pound ball on Mars. That meant adding just the right amount of sand—around 67 cubic inches—not enough to fill the whole ball, but enough to stop it from floating off with every pass.

Our Presentation

While all of this may seem exciting, the best part was working with a diverse group of students and being forced to socialise. As a very introverted person, I often avoid social interactions; however, being in this camp made me remember that not all interactions are bad. I found it especially enjoyable to move from group to group, asking different specialists about their contributions, and then incorporating that into the mission patch. We were able to use real statistics and math, even if it wasn’t a project meant to be executed. Either way, the teamwork skills I gained from this camp were even more valuable than what I learned about Mars. On the final day, seeing all our work come together and making our vision seem real was well worth the effort.

At this camp, I learned how to manage a large group without feeling overwhelmed, articulate my own opinions, and receive criticism more effectively. Despite my distaste for colonizing Mars, I found the camp process to be the most important part. I have one piece of advice for students attending camps over the summer: even if the topic doesn't interest you, the purpose is not to make you an astronomer or mechanic, but to give you an opportunity to develop skills that will be useful in life. Thank you to Leidos for making this camp possible and creating a space where students can grow, challenge themselves, and learn something new. And a special thank-you to Ms. McDougal and Ms. Terry for being there with us all week—and for patiently putting up with a dozen teenagers pretending to lead humanity to Mars.

Now, I’d like to end this blog post with a quote:

"The discussion is meaningless if everyone has the same opinion, no?" - Morax

Teenagers Leading Humanity’s Mission to Mars???