Local students take trip to Mars

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Little green men, space ships and moon walking were simply the imaginings of a creative man named Jules Verne. Less than two centuries later, that imaginary world has become a reality.

The children of today not only dream of taking a spaceship to the moon, but are active in pursuit of colonizing other planets.

While all brick on the outside, the inside of Hangar 110 was converted into a Martian community complete with inflatable homes. More than 120 students from Wright, Longwood and Valparaiso elementary schools gathered on Eglin for a single mission: build a life-sustaining pod on Mars.

The 15th annual Marsville event is a collaborative effort between Eglin and the surrounding community's elementary school fifth-grade students, and faculty members. One of its top goals is to encourage students to pursue careers in science and engineering.

"Marsville allows students to explore the possibilities of inhabiting Mars," said Glenda Stewart, 96th Mission Support Group plans and programs specialist and the lead project coordinator for Marsville. "We hope this inspires students to pursue careers in the highly demanding career fields of science, math and engineering."

Just days prior to the event, groups of two or three students were given a concept project where from recyclable household material was used to create scale models of the seven components of life: air; water; waste management; food acquisition; transportation; communications and recreation.

"The students choose one of the seven basic life functions and show how it would react in different habitats," said Tom LeMonds, Valparaiso Elementary School fifth-grade teacher and Marsville project coordinator. "We gave students a 60 cm by 30 cm piece of Styrofoam and all recycled household materials to create the models."

More than 24 models were displayed during the Marsville event.

"What the kids came up with is simply amazing," said Billy Stover, NASA Space Transportation Planning technical manager and guest speaker of the event. "The innovation on display is incredible. The imagination and ingenuity give them the ability to see things in completely new ways. I think (the projects) are better than what the people who get paid to think this stuff up are."

Marsville was supported by dozens of volunteers from the 96th ABW's communications, civil engineer, security forces and medical units, as well as the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate. Other volunteers included cadets from Niceville High School's Air Force Junior ROTC unit.

Before long, the hangar was converted into a chaotic construction site. Plastic sheets, duct tape and boxed fans were used to make housing pods that could fit up to 20 students. The students ate lunch, which were designed to create as little waste as possible, inside their pods.

"It's really exciting because one day this could happen and we could actually live on a planet like Mars and create our own rivers and lakes," said Brooks Horton, a participant in the event. "Maybe one day I will build my own place there."

The event gave participating students a new perspective on how science, mathematics and engineering can aid in future discoveries.

"(Marsville) provides students with learning skills to really think beyond what we already know," said Dianne Lockner, Wright Elementary School 5th grade student. "It's really amazing to think of all the possibilities that lie out there."