Year 5 Mission to Mars

It’s that time of year again….Year 5’s Mission to Mars! We have explored the evolution of Mars as a planet and investigated whether the red planet has hosted (or will host) life. We have discovered that this planet is not for the faint hearted- it is arid, rocky and cold, so we asked ourselves- why are scientist planning to send humans there?

In our Topic lessons, we have studied how and why NASA plan for missions to Mars and researched scientific evidence that investigates if life has ever existed on our neighbouring planet. Through independent and group research, we discovered that scientists have been learning more about Mars by sending robotic machines called rovers.

We discovered that rovers need to survive the nail-biting rover entry, descent, and landing phase of a Mars mission, which is often referred to as "seven minutes of terror".

Year 5 soon set to work on finding out how to design and build a Mars rover. We worked collaboratively with our peers in investigate the different features of a rover, such as solar panels, cameras, and a robotic arm.  We even designed and built our own robotic arm replicas in class…. ask us if they worked!

Through our new Science Project DNA, we have been exploring how ingenious inventions have allowed scientists to design and build Mars rovers! By looking at friction and gravity, we realized just how difficult this was! Not only that, we also investigated how they managed to send these rovers into space and onto Mars! Did you know it takes about seven months for a rover to travel to Mars?

After we discovered that the Earth and planets are spherical, we decided to apply this knowledge and recreate the solar system! We bended chalks and pastels to create images of the different planets and their moons. Keep your eyes open for Year 5’s Galactic Gallery.

Year 5 have accomplished so much during their Mission to Mars topic, and we are still thirsty to find out more! Maybe one day we will be on a mission to live or work on Mars.

Melissa Mannings

Head of Year 5