the date is May sixteenth 1992 or is
that 2012 the location is NASA Lewis
Research Center in Cleveland Ohio or is
it this dichotomy was not a problem for
about 200 students teachers and
volunteers participating in the
Northeast Ohio premiere of Mars ville
the cosmic village if I could wave my
hand right now what I'd like for all of
you to do in the next few minutes is to
pretend and what I would like for you to
pretend in the next few minutes is that
suddenly we have been transported into
the next century and not only have we
been transported into the next century
but we are located on the surface of
Mars and on the surface perhaps you're
located near that taal volcano olympus
mons which is nearly 19 miles tall or
perhaps you're near one of the old
craters that is on the surface or maybe
you're located near Valles Marineris
that's the large Canyon that stretches
across Mars and is over 2,000 miles in
length and in some places is over 4
miles deep and you're on the surface
today to create that first Martian
settlement which is Mars ville Mars
Ville is a student activity that is
sponsored by the Challenger Center for
space science education and the
educational information and Resource
Center the space agency forum for the
International Space year has called this
program a recommended educational
activity for the International Space
share in 1992 Mars ville link-ups are
springing up throughout the country in
accordance with NASA's commitment to
help get young people interested in math
science and technology the Mars vil in
the hangar at NASA Lewis research center
was sponsored by the office of
educational programs
this was the first Marvel link up at any
NASA field center it's really then most
befitting that you be at the NASA Lewis
research center and it's my pleasure on
behalf of Larry Ross the center director
and all of the staff here to welcome you
here today the students involved in this
Mars ville link-up came from 16
different schools in a three County area
around Cleveland the students are in the
fifth to eighth grade I have fifth
graders and the excitement was
tremendous the kids were very
enthusiastic they work through a lot of
problems problem-solving scenarios and
we had fun after school two to three to
five days a week on the last week on May
sixteenth 10 teams of students would
build habitats on the Martian surface
each team consisted of groups of
students from three different schools
the students met face-to-face for the
first time at NASA Lewis research center
prior to this link up the only contact
these students had was by telephone and
fax machines each team was assigned a
life-support system that they were
responsible for bringing to the colony
once they completed that they worked on
team uniforms sensing the identity of
their team and recognizing that
artistically in creating a uniform they
packed their own lunches according to
very strict Marvel regulations and then
they had to talk to teams from other
schools they were grouped by three and
four teams at peace and decide how they
were going to build these inflatable
habitats when they got here today they
never met in person before they were
here today the student teams each hand
to design a support system for a
specific area life support
communications food production and
delivery environmental control or waste
management the modules were designed and
built before arrival at Mars ville while
construction
was going on each team sent
representatives to be evaluated in two
areas uniforms and meal selections they
were asked questions about their
uniforms by members of the office of
educational programs staff the meals
were evaluated on content if they
contain the four food groups and by
weight after all these meals would have
to travel about a hundred forty 1
million miles before being consumed also
looked at was recyclability and
usability of food wrappers and
containers after the ten habitat pods
were completed the students toured the
Mars Ville complex as they stopped in
the different pods the home team
explained their ideas and systems asked
questions and gave their views before
the visitors moved on bonus cards were
exchanged on the basis of responses
personal recognition and for a job well
done after lunch the students then
converted the individual pods of Mars
Ville into a community Mars Ville the
cosmic village they did this by
constructing interconnect tunnels
between adjoining pods when this was
completed all of the pods were connected
and the students revisited each of the
pods by starting at one end and using
the tunnels to move from pod to pod
until the emerge from the last one at
the conclusion of the day's activities
the pods were deflated and the
participants were asked to evaluate
today's events the students were also
presented with certificates of
participation here are some comments
from participants those kind of fun
thing
how to do it how to make the tunnels and
tells the tunny tunnel maker and boom
over did a lot of help with me today and
we did a lot of things together yeah
we weren't we never fought together we
never had never done especially I really
thought we were going to fight because
we have never seen these people and I
thought you're like
that's going at your face there are
really nice people I think that smiles
on their face says it all and I think
the group collaboration efforts were
wonderful I they just they did a great
job and so proud of them you know today
we're pretending that we're in the
future we're pretending that we're
building this bridge to know in the
future it is not impossible to dream
that maybe in 20 years to 30 years from
now that some of you seated on this
floor may be driving through this gate
working at the NASA Lewis Research
Center to help build those bridges