Mars Exploration Rovers

Rovers are one of the major tools of modern-day exploration. Over the last twenty years, these robotic explorers have grown in size and capability, providing important information about our close planets and moons in the solar system, specifically Mars and the moon, their geological present, and their past. Rovers have given scientists access to wide areas of Mars by their ability to move around and investigate different locations with diverse terrain. Since the 1960s, humans have started to discover more about Mars, how planets grow and evolve, and whether it has ever hosted any life form. Space explorations provide many important connections to young learners, yet how does one can make a sense of what these missions have to offer? These three classes present a variety of approaches for bringing the topic of Mars to young learners. They will be encouraged to conduct research using recent images and data from Mars and explore the planet themselves. In these units, participants learn about Mars, and its related missions, and engage in scientific exploration.

Week One: What is Mars and the Reasons for Mars Exploration
          Session One - Learners gain an understanding of Mars and its neighboring planet, Mars's diverse landforms many of which are similar to ones found on Earth, the spacecraft that have visited Mars, returned images and data, robotic missions to explore Mars, Mars landing locations, and what learned from Mars.

Week Two: Different Mars Rovers
          Session Two - Different countries have dispatched multiple rovers to Mars. US, Russian, and Chinese rovers and their success will be discussed in this meeting.
I) Active rovers: US Curiosity and Perseverance
II) Rovers that no longer active: Soviet Mars 3; US Sojourner rover (Mars Pathfinder); US Spirit, Mars Exploration Rover (MER); Opportunity (MER-B). 
III) Failed: US Mars 2, Prop-M rover. 
IV) En-route: China Tianwen-1
V) Planned: The European-Russian ExoMars rover
VII) Proposed: The JAXA Melos rover and NASA Mars Geyser Hopper
VII) Undeveloped: Astrobiology Field Laboratory, Mars Astrobiology Explorer-Cacher (MAX-C), Mars Surveyor, and Mars Tumbleweed Rover.

Week Three: Mars Rovers Instruments and Exploration Tools
          Session Three: How the instruments such as supercam, cameras, spectrometer, radiation detectors, environmental sensors, Atmospheric Sensors work on the rovers. In addition, instruments that are included in perseverance rover will be discussed such as Mastcam-Z, Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA), Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE), Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Experiment (RIMFAX).

Week Four: What Is Next and Mars Human Colonies.
          Session Four - How different agencies will explore Mars in the future? The ultimate goal is to send humans to explore the Red Planet. But first, different space agencies plan to send more robots. The Perseverance rover carried a small helicopter and landed on Feb. 18, 2021. A small helicopter named Ingenuity is disconnected from the rover recently and flown by itself on Mars (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46rmdx6oo0A). Upon this success, the scientists could build other helicopters like it to help explore Mars or other planets.