mISSion imaginaTIon

Design Challenge four

Shields up!

More than 500,000 pieces of debris larger than 1 centimeter — NASA calls it “space junk” — are orbiting the Earth.

Now think about this: What if you had to spend two years inside a spacecraft?

Shields up! is the fourth and final mISSion imaginaTIon Design Challenge. It engages students in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) modeling that NASA’s Orbital Debris Program uses to track debris.

By predicting strikes, NASA can maneuver the space station to avoid an impact or have astronauts move into the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for protection — and escape to return to Earth if necessary.

The tracking and avoidance process works well for protecting satellites, the space station and astronauts from man-made space junk in low-Earth orbit.

A Mars mission, however, could encounter other kinds of debris — meteoroids, space dust, and fragments of comets or asteroids that have collided with other objects.

How would you design a Mars spacecraft that could protect itself and the astronauts inside?

Downloads

Before you start

Make sure you have the Adult Sponsor/Educator Guide and the Design Notebook.

Warm Up Activity

Suit up

To get ready for the Design Challenge, try this engineering
activity — Mass and Speed: Protecting Space Suits
from Orbital Debris — a 50-minute lesson for middle grades.

Fun Facts

Look out!

How big are the objects that could strike the space station? Most are just flecks of paint or bits of metal that have come off spacecraft. Some, though, could be an entire non-operational satellite.

• 

  This video depicts the distribution and movement of man-made space debris — some of it as large as rocket upper stages and defunct satellites — orbiting Earth.

• 

  NASA uses radar and telescopes to monitor space debris inside a 16,000 cubic kilometer “bubble” surrounding the space station. It logs as many as 25 potential impacts per month.

• 

  A collision cascade — also known as the Kessler syndrome — occurs when two objects collide, setting off a cloud of debris that starts a chain reaction of collisions.

• 

  China destroyed a satellite with a missile in 2007; in 2009, two satellites collided at a combined speed of 26,170 mph. The two events nearly doubled the amount of orbital debris.

Other Design Challenges

Design Challenge One

What's for dinner?

Design a plan for feeding astronauts on a journey to Mars and back.

View Challenge »

Design Challenge Two

Keep it clean

Think twice before you wish on that shooting star — it might actually be waste from the space station.

View Challenge »

Design Challenge Three

Cabin Fever

Design the living and working spaces for a vehicle that will .take a crew on a mission to .Mars and back

View Challenge »