Mission to Mars

This resource, from the Royal Observatory Greenwich, is an animated video, teacher guidance and pupil activities that explore some of the challenges that exist for getting astronauts to Mars, and what it would be like to live there for a while.

It highlights some of the opportunities that would come from living on Mars, including the ability to jump over twice as high as on Earth, and that astronauts could climb Olympus Mons which, at over 25km tall, is the tallest mountain in the solar system. 

There are 6 pupil activities which require them to use both numeracy and literacy skills:

• Packing for Mars - Pupils are asked to think about what they would need to take to Mars having discovered more about the conditions on the planet from the video
• Help the rover on Mars - Pupils guide a rover by solving mathematical problems
• Exploring Mars - Write a mission report - Pupils have to read a passage on a chosen area of Mars and then write a report on what they would do.
• Rover weekly driving report - Pupils must interpret bar chart data
• Checking on your team - Pupils interpret data in a pie chart
• Vallis Marineris - Pupils use their numeracy skills to detemine the depth of the deepest canyon in the Solar System