Rosary students design martian base for the future

Four Rosary Primary students are almost ready to head for Mars after completing their own design for a self-sustaining Martian base.

The Year 6 students said that with Earth’s overpopulation set to be a “definite problem,” they had done a “pretty good job of making Mars a nice place to live.”

Tomas, Lola, Charlotte, and Blake have recently returned from the Australian Space Discovery Centre in Adelaide, where they competed in the National Finals of the Kids in Space competition after taking out the ACT title earlier this year.

Launched by the Andy Thomas Space Foundation and supported by the Australian Space Agency and Makers Empire, the program aims to spark interest in space among Australian children.

“It was such an amazing experience travelling with our friends and learning new space stuff,” Tomas said.

“After this, I have decided I am definitely going to be a space engineer.”

The students’ Martian base, which was designed and then 3D printed, consisted of a main hub that branched off into bedrooms, cafeterias, bathrooms and medical wings.

“We took design inspiration from an octopus,” Lola explained.

“We also have the greenhouse with the animal room, the water room, the crops and the bug room.”

The group had to consider all the elements needed to sustain life, including a source of food, clean water, shelter, and warmth.

“The idea is that it can sustain a trial colony on Mars for 18 months,” Charlotte said.

“We had to decide which animals to bring and how to grow food on a planet that goes down to minus 153 degrees.”

“We also struggled with a way to get oxygen and clean drinking water,” Tomas said.

“We did a lot of thinking and found out NASA uses electrolysis – separating hydrogen and oxygen from salt water – so that’s how we would get the oxygen and use the hydrogen for heating and generating electricity around the base. And we would use a bioreactor to clean the water.”

Future entomologist Blake noted that bugs were also an integral part of the plan.

“There are a lot of bugs on our space base,” he said.

“There is one that would be the most important – the black soldier fly. It eats human waste.”

STEM teacher Kath Watson said it had been incredible to watch the project come together.

“The ideas they have come up with, the detail they have added – their enthusiasm was endless, and that was beautiful to see,” she said.

“This is a generation that will need STEM skills. All four elements of STEM are highly important, but they don’t exist separately – science, technology, engineering, and maths all work together.”

The students said the trip to Adelaide, which included meeting Katherine Bennel-Peg, the first astronaut trained under the Australian flag, had been a spectacular way to finish the project.

“I’ve loved this project – the element of space, meeting all of the other teams in the ACT showcase and the national finals,” Lola said.

“I loved researching things about the greenhouse, and I don’t think I would have learned some of this stuff if I hadn’t done this project. I had so much fun, and I am seriously considering a career in space science.”