Space Lander Design Challenge

Space Lander Design Challenge

By Olimpia Stein

Take quantitative notes as you watch

To get an understanding of our challenge, watch the NASA video “7 MInutes of Terror”

Multiple Choice

What was the main challenge of landing the rover Curiosity on Mars?

• Slowing it down from 13,000 miles an hour to zero.

• Slowing it down from 15,000 miles an hour to zero.

• Building the parachute

• Finding a landing place without mountains

Fill in the Blanks

How long did it take the rover to go from entering Mars’ atmosphere to landing?

Fill in the Blanks

How long does it take a radio transmission to travel from Mars to Earth?

Multiple Choice

How many pounds of pressure were being applied to the rover as it was slowing down?

• About 18,000 pounds

• About 18,000 kilograms

• About 18,000 tons

• About 18 pounds

Fill in the Blanks

How many degrees of heat did the heat shield have to withstand?

Fill in the Blanks

What was the margin of error?

Congratulations, you have all been promoted to "NASA" engineers.

Your challenge is to design and test an aircraft called a lander, to successfully land a probe on target, as slowly and softly as possible.

After testing, you can optimize your lander by experimenting with different materials and shapes for your aircraft designs.

Each team will then retest their designs to see if the changes they made resulted in improved performance.

Productive Failure

Space Lander Design Challenge

​•The engineering design process involves productive failure: test, fail, redesign. Iterate again and again until you have the best possible solution.

•It is important to document iterations to keep track of each redesign. Use the engineering notebook to sketch ideas, document iterations and any measurement and/or calculations.

•It’s also important to showcase the fact that there can be multiple solutions to the same problem. There’s no one “right” solution.