Establishing if life ever existed on Mars is one of the outstanding scientific questions of our time. As ESA mentions “To address this important goal, the European Space Agency (ESA) has established the ExoMars programme to investigate the Martian environment and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020's.

Two missions are foreseen within the ExoMars programme: one consisting of the Trace Gas Orbiter plus an Entry, Descent and landing demonstrator Module (EDM), known as Schiaparelli, launched on 14 March 2016, and the other, featuring a rover, with a launch date of 2020. Both missions will be carried out in cooperation with Roscosmos.”
http://exploration.esa.int/mars/57464-exomars-2016-schiaparelli-descent-sequence/
http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46475-trace-gas-orbiter/
http://exploration.esa.int/mars/48088-mission-overview/

Activities for students

Getting warmed up

Particularly in the case of younger students, it could be a good idea to spark their imagination and creativity by inviting them to create their own stories about the Sun and the Moon. Storytelling will help them develop their narrative and communication skills. You can also use these stories to talk to your students about why ancient civilizations created their myths and how nowadays we know that these are only stories from the past. Have a look at this Space Scoop Storytelling activity from ‘Univers

Let’s see some facts and misconceptions...

As we have seen in the information presented above, the Sun is not ‘quite’. It is not like a switched-on lightbulb that simply emits light. There are numerous events and phenomena going on constantly. Solar activity follows an 11-year solar activity during which the Suns activity differs.  

The near side of the Moon is the side we can see from Earth. The far side is the one we cannot. The far side of the Moon is also referred to as the dark side of the Moon, which however is misleading as both sides of the Moon are seen by the Sun.

Let’s have a look at the two sides of the Moon: 

Many think that this is because the Earth acts as a shield for the near side of the Moon so the far side is the one that has suffered the heaviest bombardment. However, this is most probably not the case. The Earth is in fact a very small, practically a negligible shield of the near side of the Moon. 

Let’s see an explanation offered by David Morrison, Senior Scientist and Brad Bailey, Staff Scientist:

“The real reason there are more impact craters on the far side of the Moon is that the near side has a much thinner crust which has allowed volcanoes to erupt and fill in ancient large basins (or large impact craters). These large lava flows have covered craters that were formed early in the Moon’s history through the late heavy bombardment, which is when the largest percentage of impacts were occurring in the inner solar system. It is likely that each side of the Moon has received equal numbers of impacts, but the resurfacing by lava results in fewer craters visible on the near side than the far side, even though the both sides have received the same number of impacts. Further, the oldest areas in both near and far side are saturated, meaning that they have reached equilibrium (each new crater, on average, destroys one old one). In this case, the density of craters is no longer an accurate measure of the number of hits the surface has received.”

Source: https://sservi.nasa.gov/?question=3318

The Late Heavy Bombardment era took place somewhere between 4.1 and 3.8 billion years ago. During this era, the planets and moons of our solar system were heavily bombarded by numerous asteroids that existed in our Solar system during that era. The Maria on the surface of the Moon are evidence of that era. Some of the collisions that occurred were so massive that allowed lava to surface, flood these areas and create the Maria. As the crust on the far side of the Moon is thicker, collisions did not have that huge an impact and lava basins were not formed. Earth had its own scars from that era, just like other inner planets but they have long vanished due to erosion, weathering and tectonic activity.

Here is a model that could explain how this Late Heavy Bombardment era may have occurred.

1. The Moon is not spinning around its axis which is why we only see one side of it.
Classroom activity suggestion: You can easily explain this to your students, by doing a little representation. Ask a student to play the role of the Earth and another the role of the Moon. You can also ask them to wear masks to make this a more vivid experience. Than ask you student to simulate the motions of the Moon and the Earth. While the Earth-student rotates around his/her axis, ask the Moon-student to perform:

During the process ask the rest of the class to observe the faces of the students and see in which case the face of the Moon-student always faces the Earth-student.

When introducing the question to your students ask them to make a guess (hypothesis), but don’t tell them the correct explanation. Then, perform the representation as a small experiment and then ask them to decide what is the correct explanation and compare it to their initial hypothesis.

The Moon’s orbit around the Sun is not a circle; it’s an ellipse and the Earth is located at one of its fixed points. When the Moon is on its orbit’s point that is closest to Earth (Perigee), it is 15.000 km closer to Earth then when it is at the farthest point (Apogee). Full moons that occur when the Moon is on the Perigee are called Supermoons and they usually happen once a year. They are 14% bigger and 30% brighter than an average full moon. However, the difference is quite small even to be noticed when the Moon is high on the sky and there is nothing to use as reference. Supermoon tides are higher only by a few centimeters so they cannot cause any floods or any other natural catastrophes. 

For more information and explanations around the Moon’s features, history and many others you can visit ESA’s Lunar exploration website.

Intuitive drawing (or painting) and personal geography are two widely known art techniques through which the artists try to develop their imagination and reflect on themselves or different situations. These are fun activities you could also do with young students. The Moon is an excellent starting point for both.

If you have young students, you can stir up their imagination by giving them a picture of the full Moon and ask them to draw anything that the areas of the Moon reminds them of. This is a little intuitive drawing activity, similar to the game we often do with cloud shapes when trying to imagine what they could depict. 

Which part of the Moon do you think the next lunar mission should study and why?

The International Space Station (ISS) is a space laboratory in orbit around Earth. It is the product of collaboration between the United States, Russia, Japan Canada, and Europe and for many it is one of the greatest international project of all time. The first components of the station were launched in 1998 and its construction was completed two years later when it was finally ready for people to visit it. The ISS is meant for research that cannot be done on Earth. For example, studying the effects on people from living in space. You can take a tour inside the ISS here.

There are many interesting activities you can do with your students using data, images and videos from the ISS.

What is your zodiac sign?

More about galaxies

Which of the objects presented above is the most staggering for you and why? Have you ever presented any of these objects to your students? How did you combine it with the curriculum? If not, how would you do it?

You can use the “Star in a box” simulation in your class to teach your students about the H-R diagram and the fate of stars. Among many other interesting aspects students will also see how fast stars evolve once they leave the main sequence compared to the era when they fuse hydrogen.