AFRL's Mission to Mars program takes flight

  • Published
  • By Bud Cordova
  • Nucleus writer
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Thirty-seven schools and 1,048 fifth graders recently simulated life on Mars and built their own life support systems. 

The Air Force Research Laboratory La Luz Academy Mission to Mars program celebrated its 22nd year on April 22. Students from across New Mexico gathered at the Albuquerque Convention Center to participate in the culmination of their work on the Mars mission.

Schools from as far away as Gallup and Roswell participated.

"It's so fun and it's so big," said Dillon Wunderlich, a fifth-grader at Cielo Azul Elementary in Rio Rancho.

Each team of students is linked with two other teams from different schools to build a habitat on Mars. The groupings combine public, private and home school students.

"The goal is to get students excited about science, technology, engineering and math," said Mars Mission Commander and AFRL La Luz Academy Director Ronda Cole.

Part of the excitement is to introduce kids to possible career fields in STEM.

The teams are sent to one of three colonies for the Mars mission.

"This is very much about the cooperative experience," Colony One commander Kathy Hahn, a supervising adult, said.

Before they can get to "Mars," the teams have to link up and brief STEM professionals on their design of the life-support system for the habitat in the Mars colony.

To get ready for the mission, the students have had to telecomm with each other to ensure they all have the required information to build the habitat.

"There is a choice of eight systems of life support the students can choose from; they only build one," Hahn said. 

The students have 60 minutes to build their habitat out of pre-cut plastic sheets once they pass the briefing stage of the mission.

"It's 60 minutes to simulate how much the air supply they would have on Mars," Cole said.

The three teams are assigned to build one habitat. The homes are then linked together to form a colony. The teams from Cielo Azul and Magdalena Elementary built Habitat 49 in Colony Three.

"Building the habitat is the best part," said Nathan Thompson, a fifth-grader from Cielo Azul.

The team building Habitat 49 worked with their habitat leader, Jim Sauer, a teacher from Magdalena, to tape and inflate the building.

Students learning teamwork and life skills such as problem-solving is important to the volunteers at the Mission to Mars.

"Working with the other teams is my favorite part," said Kael Stephens, a student from Magdalena.

Volunteers for the Mars mission assist students with setting up the habitats if needed and weighing the lunches for the mission.

"The lunches have to be a certain weight and meet all of the basic nutrition requirements for the mission," Cole said.

The weight limit ensures nothing extra is sent on the mission. The use of space and fuel on the trip to Mars is limited.

For Colony Three co-commander Ted Ortiz, an AFRL volunteer mentor, seeing everything the teams had done and brought together is the best part of Mission to Mars.

"I love working with the students. This is a great outreach program for teaching STEM," Ortiz said.