TerraformingMars

** Introduction ** Terraforming means making other planets more like Earth, so that human beings can live there. Mars is presently under consideration for terraforming. This topic examines some of the economic, social, and ethical issues surrounding the technological challenge of turning the ‘Red Planet’ into another blue-green planet like Earth. Students will consider on what basis humans attribute value to things – both living and non-living. Terraforming offers possibilities for thinking about the environment from a rather different angle. Students will examine differing points of view and be helped to form reasoned personal opinions. They will have an opportunity to reflect upon the spiritual implications of these questions. Scientists are debating terraforming as they plan interplanetary expeditions. NASA plans to land the first human on Mars by 2010. In the meantime it is researching the future possibilities of Mars as a ‘new frontier’, a new home for life forms at present able to exist only on Earth.
 * Background information: What is the terraforming debate? **

Mars at present is cold, (around –60 Celsius), almost airless and probably lifeless. Terraforming Mars would mean artificial melting of the polar ice-caps and the permafrost to produce liquid water and gaseous carbon dioxide, thereby increasing the surface temperature; and artificial production of gases to raise temperature and pressure and ultimately to provide protection from UV radiation for any newly introduced life forms.

There are already a number of ideas for how this massive undertaking could be begun including positioning solar mirrors in space and detonating nuclear devices underground. This would be a huge engineering and technological challenge, to which some scientists, technicians and engineers are understandably drawn.

General Outcome (Science 20 Unit D)
 - Students will analyze ecosystems and ecological succession in the local area and describe the relationships and interactions among subsystems and components.

Specific Outcomes
 Students will: 20–D1.2k describe the key stages of primary succession in a specific ecosystem and the nature of its climax community 20–D1.5k describe the effects of introducing a new species into, or largely removing an established species from, an environment 20–D1.1sts describe how society provides direction for scientific and technological development (SEC4) [ICT F2–4.4] 20–D1.1s formulate questions about observed relationships and plan investigations of questions, ideas, problems and issues By the end of the topic, we hope that most students will: · know and be able to explain the meaning of the term ‘terraforming’ · understand that there are ethical issues at the heart of the terraforming debate, and explain in detail differing viewpoints · state their own opinions about terraforming, justifying them in reasoned way

Key questions
 
 * What is terraforming? Can it be done? Should it be done?

Learning objectives
 1. To appreciate the uniqueness and beauty of Mars through a study of images 2. To become familiar with the term ‘terraforming’ and to understand the intentions of the Mars Exploration Program 3. To identify key beliefs behind differing points of view 4. To formulate reasoned opinions and viewpoints, linked to personal beliefs 5. To reflect upon human motivation in the area of terraforming

Using the Internet and/or other resources, determine answers to the following questions:
 * Student Directions**
 * 1.** What are some of the major obstacles to the terraforming of Mars?
 * 2.** What would be some of the particular challenges these first species would have to overcome in terms of abiotic conditions on Mars?
 * 3.** Are there some ethical, societal, or scientific concerns with the idea of terraforming? If so, what are they?

After completing your research, perform a risk-benefit analysis to determine if terraforming Mars is worth the investment of time, money, and other resources. Use the results of your risk-benefit analysis to decide if terraforming Mars is a project you would support.

Asessment
 The student will prepare a 5 minute presentation describing their position on terraforming mars. Included in their presentation should be a visual representation of their risk-benefit analysis (Poster, Picture, Powerpoint, etc) for reference. The student will hand in their risk-benefit analysis, along with the three answers to the questions posed above.<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 120%;">
 * **Presentation Rubric** ||

4** || **Good 3** || **Okay 2** || **Not Quite There Yet 1** || **Points** || Knowledge** || Student demonstrates full knowledge (more than required) with explanations and elaboration. || Student is at ease with content, but fails to elaborate. || Student is uncomfortable with information and is able to answer only rudimentary questions. || Student does not have grasp of information; student cannot answer questions about subject. ||  || 8** || **Good 6** || **Okay 4** || **Not Quite There Yet 2** ||  ||
 * <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;"> |||||||||| <span style="display: block; text-align: center; font-family: Times New Roman,Times,serif;">**Levels (Criteria)** ||
 * <span style="color: rgb(182, 84, 84);">**Presentation** || **Awesome
 * **Organization** || Student presents information in logical, interesting sequence which audience can follow. || Student presents information in logical sequence which audience can follow. || Audience has difficulty following presentation because student jumps around. || Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information. ||  ||
 * **Content
 * **Visuals** || Student used visuals to reinforce screen text and presentation. || Visuals related to text and presentation. || Student occasionally used visuals that rarely supported text and presentation. || Student used no visuals. ||  ||
 * <span style="font-size: 130%; color: rgb(169, 76, 76);">**Questions** || **Awesome
 * **Content** || Research thouroughly answers the question, shows obvious effort, very descriptive, and correctly referenced. || Research is complete, referenced, and shows research was preformed. || Student incorrectly answers questions, shows little effort and descriptive quality in their answer. Incomplete or incorrect references. || Questions and research not completed. ||  ||

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">** Web ** Links
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">NASA website [] (contains copyright-free images and information about the Mars Exploration Programme and its four science goals).
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">NASA website [] (contains copyright-free images and gives details of the technologies that enable Mars exploration).
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Hubble website [] (contains copyright-free image of ‘the best view of Mars ever obtained from Earth’ and related links).
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Mars Society [|www.marssociety.org]. (contains futuristic pictures of an imagined terraformed Mars).

<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Resources & teaching materials
<span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">** Books ** <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// The Planet Mars; a history of observation and discovery // by William Sheehan (Arizona University Press or whole text available on web). This book tells you – in detail - everything you could want to know about Mars.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// Voyage to Venus // by CS Lewis. An intriguing fictional account of people from earth encountering a civilisation on Venus with all the conflicts of ideology you might expect. Contains a range of theological issues along the way. //Voyage to Venus// is one of a trilogy of science-fiction books by Lewis, the others being //Out of the Silent Planet// (i.e. Mars) and //That Hideous Strength//.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// Life’s Philosophy: reason and feeling in a deeper world // by Arne Naess. Naess coined the term ‘deep ecology’ with reference to the debate about the connectedness of human rights and the rights of other entities in nature/the universe
 * Video **
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Students may be familiar with //Total Recall// (18), a science fiction film set on an airless inhabited Mars.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, // from the book by Douglas Adams, contains a section on custom-built luxury planets being made on the planet Magrathea. Could raise interesting discussion on consumerism. (Or see Chapter 15 of the book for the legend of Magrathea.)
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// Mission //// to Mars // (PG): ‘…the year is 2020 and the first manned mission to Mars lands safely …’ This film is full of suspense as well as realistic images of the surface of the red planet.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">// The search for Spock // (Star Trek) has a short section about 5-10 minutes into the film which illustrates well what terraforming hopes to achieve.
 * <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Christian Aid’s //RE Curriculum for Global Citizenship// (KS3 pack) has a useful video, one section (running time 4 minutes) showing both the beauty of creation and also what humankind has done to it. Turn off the sound/narration and accompany the images with classical music for additional impact.