To the Moon and Beyond
Living and Working Safely on the Moon
Should We or Shouldn’t We?
(A class debate)
Essential Question: What are the challenges engineers and scientists need to solve
if NASA begins to prepare to send humans to live and work on the Moon for
extended periods of time?
Summary: NASA has sent rovers to Mars to study its surface. Can Mars become a
possible site for human habitation? In order to answer that question, scientists at
NASA began the Constellation program (currently taken off the mission schedule).
This program called for teams of astronauts to successfully return to the Moon,
construct a habitat, and conduct tests to investigate the problems associated with
living on another planet for an extended period of time. Rather than attempt this
undertaking on the far-reaching planet of Mars, NASA engineers and scientists
decided to begin the process closer to Earth by going back to the Moon. There are
numerous problems to consider such as resources (food, water, oxygen),
communication systems, space weather and radiation, temperature control, gravity,
meteorite activity, and moonquakes.
Student Involvement: The essential question will be the cornerstone for a scientific
debate about how we can be successful with humans living and working on the
moon safely. You will brainstorm, read articles and do research, discuss findings
with your team, conduct a debate, and identify the major challenges for sustaining
life on the lunar surface. Then, as a class, we will decide whether or not to return
humans to the Moon for extended periods of time and if it can be done successfully
with the challenges we face.
PLEASE NOTE: we do not have all of the answers to meet the challenges for
returning to the Moon. We do not know the extent of the lunar resources, or
all of the resources that may be available on the Moon. We do not know where
all of the best water resources are located, or how to manufacture fabrics that
will keep humans safe from solar radiation on the lunar surface. In fact, the
purpose of this activity is to provide an opportunity for you, as students, to
think like a scientist or an engineer as you read the articles, and try to figure
out which issues are the most important to the safety and well-being of
humans working and living on the Moon, and how difficult it will be to meet
the challenges.
To prepare for the debate on important challenges, your team will need to focus on:
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Whether or not they believe a challenge is important
What impact a challenge would have on lunar exploration by humans
And whether or not a specific challenge to return to the Moon can be
accomplished and how
1) Class Brainstorm: In your groups, read about the challenges we face
for colonizing the Moon. These issues include:
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Resources on the Moon: NASA is looking to find as many useable resources on
the Moon as they can find. The more resources in place on the Moon, the fewer
the resources that will have to be transported to the Moon. Additionally, humans
have certain requirements for sustaining life. Does the Moon have resources to
sustain life that they could use? If so, what are they, where are they located, and
how much is there?
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Solar radiation: The Earth has a magnetic field surrounding the entire globe, and
an atmosphere of protective gasses. The atmosphere helps filter out harmful solar
radiation and keeps the temperature from getting too hot or too cold. The
magnetic field forms a magnetosphere that acts like a shield from solar winds,
coronal mass ejections and other solar activity that could be harmful to life on
Earth. The Moon has no atmosphere or global magnetic field.
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Technologies: As amazing as it seems, especially after the Apollo program
successes, we do not have the technologies we need to meet challenges of a return
to the Moon. New discoveries about solar activity and the impact of space travel
on the human body made over the past 35 years have changed the way we view
space travel and safety. As you will see when you read the articles, even the
spacesuit used by the shuttle program astronauts does not protect our astronauts
from massive energy blasts from the Sun. This is but one of the technological
challenges we have for returning to the Moon by 2020.
2) Discuss these questions: (chose a team member to write down
some notes to share later with the class)
1. What would be needed to colonize the Moon?
2. Why would we want to go back there?
3. Is there anything there we want?
4. How does it help us in our space explorations?
5. What would we need to be able to do to build a colony on the
Moon?
3) Prepare for the debate:
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Obtain the three lunar articles for your group. Articles 1, 2, and 3 are given to
groups A and B. Articles 4, 5, and 6 are given to groups C and D Articles 7, 8,
and 9 are given to groups E and F
Read the articles carefully and take notes on the important challenges we
face for returning to the Moon with humans to live and work for extended
periods of time
After each member of the group has read all three articles and taken notes,
discuss the findings, share interpretations of the results, and identify the
results that make the most sense to your group
Decide the importance of each challenge and how we can meet the challenge
in order to colonize the Moon
Your teacher is going to combine three groups into teams. Groups A, C, and E
will form a team, and groups B, D, and F will form a team. The ACE team will
be the ‘agree’ challenge team, and the BDF team will be the ‘disagree’
challenge team. Whether or not you truly do agree or disagree with a
challenge’s importance has nothing to do with why your group is picked for a
team
Each team will have 15-20 minutes to share/discuss the group findings from
the articles with the team members. Since the A group have different articles
than the C or E groups, they would share with the C and E groups, and so on
The debate will be directed by the teacher and is a series of statements
that your team will either defend (if you are in the ‘agree’ team) or
argue against (if you are a ‘disagree’ team member). Only one person
from each team can answer a statement. Each person is allowed only
one minute to respond to the statement. Please take turns responding
to the statements to give as many students as possible a chance to
debate
Example: Your teacher states that water is not on issue for colonizing on the Moon.
The ‘agree’ team would argue that it is not an issue and why, while the ‘disagree’
team would argue that it is an issue and why. Whatever team you are on, you must
give reasons for the issue based on the team’s stand; whether it agrees or disagrees
with a statement.