Virtual Sojourner
Student Activity #1: Driving Blind

Team Description
Science

Responsibility: develop an experiment for the rover and a method of recording data.

Specialty: asking researchable questions.

Limitations: materials and scientific expertise.

Procedure:

• Learn the responsibilities of the other teams.
  
• Choose a topic for study (see URL on planetology). Consider consulting the entire class for ideas and agreement on topics. (Input questions, view others?).
  
• Write a question related to the topic. Be specific!
  
• Determine the kind of data you need and how you will measure it. The instruments you will use and how you will get information from them must be determined at this point. You can choose to get the data directly from the instruments or have it "telemetered" to you during the mission (this requires a very sophisticated set-up).
  
• Submit a (short) status report to the Publications team during the project.
  
• Consult with the Engineering team to make sure the experiment will fit on the rover.
  
• Test the experiment in a lab situation.
  
• Mount the experiment onto the rover.
  
• Work with the Navigation team and Mission Operations during the mission to ensure deployment of your experiment.
  
• Work with the Lander team to retrieve your data.
• Analyze your data by putting it in a table, graphing, etc.
  
• Release a (short) report to all teams on your preliminary findings.
  
• Report your method and findings to the Publications team at the conclusion of the mission. Outline the procedure you used to choose the topic to study, how you chose which data to measure, whether you think the mission was successful, how you contributed to the mission, and how would change procedures in future missions.
  
• Prepare a poster of your report to discuss and present to your classmates.

Hints:

• Keep it simple--avoid broad investigations (like "is there life?").
  
• Think about what data you want before you decide which materials to use.
  
• Use the Lander team as your "technology"--they can read instruments, relay data, execute instructions, etc.