TEMPLATE DESIGN © R ED I CE: Drilling Ice and taking the next step to inhabiting Mars - BY G. KENNEDY, A. MEWETT, B. MUSOLINO, W. VINTON AND J. WATKINS About ‘RedIce’ Our group, ‘RedIce’, is a team that has been researching and producing an idea of a model of a small rover which, we believe, could have the potential to take samples of ice. We have created the rover model and given it the capabilities of collecting ice samples because one of the first things scientists need to know about Mars is whether the frozen water on Mars has good pH levels and is suitable for the human environment. Mars is known as the ‘red’ planet and our team is making a model which can be used to collect ice samples, thus the group name, ‘RedIce’. Construction Of The Rover Interior Of The R/C TRAXXAS Buggy Problems Our Group Encountered The Southern Ice Cap of Mars Websites The ‘rover’ is the interior of an old, remote-controlled, TRAXXAS buggy. Attached to the rover we have a ‘mechanical’ arm and a ‘hollow drill piece’ which we made with the ‘LEGO Mind Storms’ school pack. We created the hollow drill piece by using a file to shape teeth into a thin, recycled, metal tube. That hollow drill piece was then attached to a motor which we had programmed to spin. Then, after many lessons of experimenting different ideas and creations, we finally produced the mechanical arm. This arm enables us to move the hollow drill piece up and down to help it drill into the ice and collect a sample. RedIce’s Logo Mars Fact File DIAMETER OF MARS: 6,794 kms MARTIAN DAY: 24 hours 37 minutes and 22 seconds MARTIAN YEAR: 669 Earth days TEMPERATURE: Average temperature: 55˚C Minimum temperature: - 33˚C at the poles in winter. Maximum temperature: 27 ˚C in summer on equator ATMOSPHERE OF MARS: 95.32% carbon dioxide (CO2), 2.7% nitrogen, 1.6% argon, 0.13% oxygen. GRAVITY: Mars has 38% gravity of Earth LIQUID: There is no liquid surface water on Mars, only frozen. During the process of constructing our rover, our group, RedIce, encountered many problems. These problems included: The construction of the mechanical arm (which took weeks to perfect) The construction of the hollow drill piece (making the teeth sharp and even) The programming of the motors for the mechanical arm and hollow drill piece The testing and repairing of the remote-controlled buggy (Which, at first, did not work because of the recent years that it had not been used in) As well as some communicational issues between the group members. A LEGO Mind Storms Remote You can visit RedIce’s WikiSpace at The Materials and Equipment The materials and equipment that our group, RedIce, used consisted of: A recycled, thin, hollow sprinkler pipe A ‘LEGO Mind Storms’ school pack 8 AA heavy duty energizer batteries (for the remote controller) Clay (to stick the hollow drill piece to the motor) And a dremel and chisel (to craft teeth into the hollow drill piece) A Mountain In The Eastern Hellas Region Of Mars Large amounts of water ice have been detected in this mountain, which supports the fact that the flow of glaciers on Mars was quite recent. This suggests that snow and ice gathered on the slope face and flowed plains and is now protected from sublimation by a layer of rock debris and dust. Drill Testing As you can see from the information above, we tested the depth of which our drill could reach in the time of one minute to five minutes, recording the data every minute. Our official test of the drill piece was successful not only because it could penetrate the ice, but at the end of the testing, small bubbles of water were found on the inside of the hollow drill piece. Time (minutes)Depth (mm)