Human Mission to Mars

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be on a NASA team that was planning a mission to outer space?

What skills would you need to contribute to the group effort?

What problems could you help solve?

What could you learn from your fellow team members?

This fall, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science is offering a course that immerses students in the space mission experience to as great a degree possible without leaving planet Earth. Human Mission to Mars, a three-credit course open to all majors, is the brainchild of Ata Sarajedini, dean of the College of Science, who holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from Yale University.

“Mission to Mars came out of a desire to design a course that helps students solve problems working in groups,” Ata said. “How do you address a general question that poses problems? Each student has different skills and abilities. Let’s teach them all there is to know about sending a human being on a journey to Mars and back, while solving all the problems along the way.”

The course is being team-taught by faculty members, from the College of Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, and the College of Design and Social Inquiry. All together the faculty members represent a wide variety of academic disciplines, including architecture, astronomy, biology, biochemistry, geosciences, sociology, psychology, physics and exercise science. Students working in small teams will tackle challenges such as timing of the launch, coping with the long-term physical and psychological effects of space flight on humans, building and maintaining a colony on Mars capable of sustaining human life and growing food on Mars. Workable solutions will be sought through use of the scientific method, which is based on data observation, formulation of hypotheses and predicted outcomes.

One inspiration for creation of the course is “The Case for Mars,” a book written by Robert Zubrin, who earned a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Rochester, an American aerospace engineer and president of the Mars Society. He believes that a permanent settlement on the red planet could be built in 20 years. Zubrin will make two appearances at FAU addressing the class as a guest lecturer and making a presentation that will be open to the public. His book is required reading for the class. “The Martian,” a science fiction novel by Andy Weir that was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Matt Damon, is optional.

At the conclusion of the course, students will have gained experience in applying the scientific method to address challenges of many kinds and developing and testing hypothesis- driven solutions. They will have learned to use their creativity in generating hypotheses and not to fear failure, because in planning space missions as in every other area of human endeavor, the road to success is often paved with knowledge gained from earlier failed attempts.