Mars Madness Continues…
This past year has been quite an adventure with South Carolina 4-H’s Journey to Mars and National 4-H’s Mars Base Camp. This summer, we watched the Mars Perseverance Rover take off from the same launchpad that sent Apollo 11 to the moon. The rover was aptly named by students in Virginia that submitted their ideas into a NASA contest — One more example, among many, of the power of youth voice!
Journey to Mars explored the relative distances between the two planets and their orbits. Since Mars and Earth only get close to each other roughly every two years, timing is everything. The pandemic only increased the pressure and motivation to meet the anticipated launch window. Perseverance hurdled through space at an amazing speed of 24,600 miles per hour for over seven months to reach its destination. South Carolina 4-H spent that time training educators and sharing resources for Mars Base Camp and Journey to Mars programs. A watch party for the anticipated landing, called Mars Landing Couch Conversation, was scheduled for Thursday, February 18th at 2 PM EST in the South Carolina 4-H STEM Facebook Group.
Leading up to the event, at-home activities were shared from Journey to Mars and Scratch, as well as current happenings like an interview with a NASA mathematician to celebrate Black History Month and a one-day-only special by Krispy Kreme – Mars Doughnut, to promote engagement. Participants watched NASA’s live-stream video coverage, asked questions, and followed along with South Carolina 4-H during the watch party; there were 73 comments and 16 shares during the social media coverage. Even though NASA and its partners have had great success lately, the historical success rate of missions to Mars is 50%. Perseverance is the biggest, heaviest, and most complex instrument ever attempted to land on Mars. The landing site of the Jezero Crater is the most hazardous location ever attempted.
Needless to say, there were a lot of relieved people celebrating after the successful landing. The public is now starting to notice hidden messages related to Perseverance. For instance, the parachute used during the landing had a pattern of binary code with GPS coordinates for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and a quote from Teddy Roosevelt, “Dare Mighty Things”. Coincidentally, both Journey to Mars and the South Carolina 4-H newsletter featured binary coding activities. If you would like to explore binary coding, follow this link to a simple activity: https://clemson.box.com/s/wc2gk3o4jsbqisub4qkth2nc28i9283w
South Carolina 4-H looks forward to more space-related adventures in the future!!!
Submitted by: Dr. Ashley Burns, 4-H Assistant Director
