It’s that time again!   My first day back is Monday, and the students join us the following Monday.  The project this year is Mission to Mars- Cultivating Our Future from Wyoming to Mars

For the last seven years, ARFCOM has been an essential part of the adventure my students experience with the building of permanent large installation projects here at our high school.   I know that this year will be no different, and our success will be attributable to the incredible help that so many of you provide.
My Art classes will again work with CAD students, Welding students, Woodworking students, and Robotic students to try to create our next display.  I’m hoping with our subject this year, we can get some agronomy students also involved.   For those new to our adventures, roughly 60-80 students from grades 9-12 will work the entire school year to build from scratch a permanent 3D display in an area roughly 13.5’x18.5’.  Some students might only spend an hour working on this, some three weeks,  and some might spend several hours every day the entire year.  This will roughly (some will remember last year’s prediction of $1200, and how off I was by the end, $2700) cost around $2000.   Yeah, let’s try to stay there this year.  The generosity in both funds, equipment, and advice last year made all the difference in being able to spend that much money on such a project.    We will again have to have a t-shirt sale to celebrate the adventure and raise the funds needed.  

Our new build area is the breakout room next to the Agriculture and Robotics rooms.    They came to me last spring, knowing we had few areas left to work in, and asked if we would do something in their area, oriented towards their disciplines.   I will admit, that building a tractor was not at the top of my list of “fun” ideas, but many students were excited about this idea, and once ARFCOM started throwing out ideas(Rover wheels on the tractor-Thanks @Frank_B ), my fun meter spiked substantially.  I’m hoping students will be inspired with the idea of linking cultivating fields in WY, to the eventual cultivating fields on Mars.  

So here is what I’m envisioning right now:
Our new home for this year.  The trophies and banners will all come down.-
13.5ft x 18.5 ft.  Same size as the locomotive area




-Martian and Wyoming landscapes blended across the room-Heart Mountain, fields, desert, to Martian landscape, envirodomes

Our school is on the left in front of the water tower.  








-Probably a 1/3rd scale???? John Deere EV tractor altered adding moving “Rover” wheels.  We need some diagrams for the tractor.



-3D environment with rocks, fields, envirodomes, possible live agronomy display






-Drones scanning fields-one of the Robotics old platforms will/could be used also.




-Rover movement-move across the wall?  




-14 foot tall? SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket/launch surrounding the support beam (bottom portion lit up with clear lights simulating launch?).



As with past years, I’m sure this will be altered a bit as the adventure proceeds, and ARFCOM adds to ideas.   Our team of students has changed of course, and we will be missing our lead Robotics student who went so far above and beyond what was expected last year.   Hopefully we find someone to fill his shoes.   I should have back several of my lead builders again.  I ran the idea by them a week ago, and they were excited to get started.  

Please share any ideas you might come up with!   Even if we don’t use it, the ideas can spur discussion, and lead to new thoughts.    The brainstorming ARFCOM provides is always one of the most interesting and important aspects of this process.

Here is last year’s thread:

https://www.ar15.com/forums/General/1-3rd-Scale-17ft-Marine-One-Helicopter-Project-ThreadUpdate-6-17pg54-magazine-article-/5-2133113/



Previous adventure....
https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/ALL-ABOARD-1-3rd-scale-Baldwin-4-4-0-Locomotive-Update-5-24pg29-The-End-is-here-Video-/5-2025503/

In on one

Or not...

Good luck OP!

Oh so IN again this year

In! and subscribed!

Most people (even Mars enthusiasts) tend to forget the realities of the being on the surface. And yes, growing plants will help people's morale and mental health, but there will be windows on the wall, rather than greenhouses.

It's also amusing to me that most of the rocks on Mars that have been "cleaned" by rovers are white or blue. Once we give it a good dusting, Mars may not be the "red planet" anymore.

My Wife did make the comment that we have a lot of T-shirts from a high school in Wyoming.

@guns762 please PM me the mailing address for my check!

C'mon guys & gals! Let's get this ball rolling!

Live agronomy display would be great.

Might want to check out the Pegasus Models 1/32 MLEV-5 Mars exploration vehicle for inspiration.  One of the high end builds I saw at Wonderfest incorporated actual animated computer screens in the cockpit, which really sold the illusion.  At 1/3rd scale you should have no trouble using cheap used smart phones or tablets as animated computer monitors.  





You could film students doing Mars colonist tasks on a simple full scale set and mount old smartphones/tablets inside of large to mid scale models to populate them with live action video.  This would be similar to a technique used in many pre-CGI movies of mounting a rear-projection screen inside a miniature, such as the distant shots of Kirk and Scotty in the spacepod in Star Trek The Motion Picture, see 3:42 and 6:09:

In!

Can we get a Matt Damon, martian grave somewhere in a mural?   Just for reasons?  

In!!

OP, I have news for you.

There is now an annual Space Conference in Austin, TX. Link

Any chance your students would be in the Cities in Space competition?

Subscribed, and in for a T shirt.

Huh, .....cool.  

You're the best Frank.  Let me get my feet under myself on this before we start sending checks.  

I'll try to IM you next week.

Morbid, but probably a good idea.  We will see.  

when the T-Shirts are designed, I'll be in for a couple!

That is pretty cool, but I'm guessing no on that.  Long ways to go.

I hope we get to see some Air force, Nasa ,Boeing ,  Tesla and blue Origin guys in here. Great as always guns!

You can buy clear PVC pipe, but I'm not sure how easy it is to source in your area.

In on 2!

Sorry, went out for lunch today.

In.

If you're going for realism, then skip the falcon heavy and go with Starship. Heavy will never make it to Mars since (among other reasons) it doesn't have the right kind of engines to harvest fuel on mars for a return trip, while the Raptor engines on Starship should be able to utilize in situ methane for its fuel.

Glad to see this years thread started!

I wish my kids had you as a teacher.

I've bought 1/2" and 3/4", but we are going to need something like 18" if possible.  That or we need to find a clear bucket, or something similar.

I spotted this in my garage.....  hmmmm, I'll bet we could cut several in half and use them for "green houses/habitats."  Maybe light them up inside?

At that size, all I've seen is about $500 per lineal foot (18" dia). A little spendy.

I understand what you are saying, but I need to cover the pole, and the Heavy will do that without much extra.  

Yeah, and we will probably need a couple feet.  I'll bet someone makes a bucket that might work.

Consider this a very excited OST!

Go retrofuturistic.  Forbidden Planet.  Flying saucers. Martians in manta flyers like in War of the Worlds.  And a great big double wheeled space station.

Put a V2 rocket on that pole.

since I was "@ed" and in the aerospace industry...in and let me read through this thread for ideas. Donations for certain.

I've never seen a transparent 5 gallon bucket, just translucent.

Large, straight sided, clear carboys are common, could get a couple and cut the ends off, easily hide the splice with structural arches.  Here's one 11" diameter, with maybe 12" of straight wall after cutting it up, $29: Amazon

Run a structural member down the crest of the tube to hide a splice, buy two carboys for every foot of tube and make a round structural element to wrap it around and you increase your diameter.  But by that point it probably makes more sense to buy thin plastic sheet and wrap it around structural elements, make the tube from scratch.

Plexiglass sheet can be heat molded into all sorts of self-supporting shapes.

@guns762
How many art students do you have this year?
I may be able to offer something up for you guys, but can’t do the 60-80 total from all the classes.

Love these threads.

I have a bunch of surplus electronic components from obsoleted products that I can send some of if you are interested. If not for their intended purpose, just for aesthetics or something.
semiconductors, leds, 8 character displays, connectors, naked power supplies, and a bunch of other stuff. PM me when you get into it if you are interested.

Homebrew drape forming plexiglass over a PVC pipe:

Guns, here is a link to a media cast transcript that explains some of the hurdles with growing food in space and Mars. The topic is further down when Dr.Gioia Massa and Ralph Fritsche enter the discussion. Would probably be a good read for you and your class with respect to your project.

https://www.nasa.gov/mediacast/episode-1-mars

Every once in a while I get to work with some of the experiments in the ISS APH.

We expect a large planet shattering Kaboom

Hmmmmm.....

I suppose we could form our own.  Kids will be so excited when I tell them we get to do it again. .

Thank you!  I'll have a look.

Well, I'll have about 120.  The 60 or so will probably be mostly all mine that will work on the project.

When we get to those kinds of details,  I'll hit you up.  Thank you!

In.

18" white PVC

I do not vouch for the seller I just found them as a cheaper alternative.

If I were in Wyoming I would buy a donation ticket to an open house night that featured your program just to
see those works

so good of you OP to be the teacher you are

Looking forward to the progress reports.

Txl