Lesson Plan (Grades 6–8): Mini Mars Habitat Design – Monitoring and Optimizing Life-Support Conditions

Lesson Title: Mini Mars Habitat Design – Monitoring and Optimizing Life-Support Conditions

Grade Level: Grades 6–8

Subject Area: Engineering Design / Physical Science (Thermodynamics & Gas Laws) / Computer Science (Arduino Programming)

Overview Space agencies and private companies alike are racing to establish human outposts on Mars, where environmental conditions are harsh: an atmosphere over 95% carbon dioxide, surface pressures less than 1% of Earth’s, and wide temperature swings far below freezing at night to above freezing at midday. In this immersive, multi-session STEM lesson, student teams act as aerospace engineers tasked with designing a small, sealed habitat model that maintains safe conditions for human occupants. Using PVC pipe and plastic sheeting, teams build a 50 cm cube enclosure. They integrate Arduino-controlled sensors (DHT22 for temperature/humidity and MH-Z19B for CO₂ concentration) to continuously monitor internal environment. Applying life-support equations, students determine required ventilation rates or CO₂ scrubber capacity, then iterate their design—adding insulation, small vents or fans, and humidity control measures—to keep temperature between 18–26 °C, relative humidity 30–60 %, and CO₂ below 1 000 ppm. Through hands-on construction, programming, data logging, and analysis, learners develop deep understanding of closed-environment challenges, feedback control, and sustainable design—skills essential for future planetary explorers and Earth-bound engineers alike.

Objectives and Standards

Learning Objectives

1. Environmental Needs: Describe how temperature, humidity, and CO₂ levels affect human health and comfort in sealed environments.
2. Structural Design: Construct a leak-minimized habitat model from PVC framing and plastic sheeting, including sensor ports and service access.
3. Sensor Integration & Coding: Wire DHT22 and MH-Z19B sensors to an Arduino Uno, write code to read and log environmental data at one-minute intervals to the serial monitor or SD card.
4. Quantitative Analysis: Use logged data to calculate average, maximum, and minimum values; graph trends over time; and compare them to safe operational thresholds.
5. Life-Support Calculations: Apply the ventilation equation (where is metabolic CO₂ generation rate, are concentrations) to size a hypothetical fan or scrubber system.
6. Design Iteration: Based on data analysis, propose and implement modifications (e.g., adding insulation, installing a small fan) to bring environmental parameters within safe ranges.
7. Professional Communication: Prepare and deliver a concise team presentation that explains the initial design, data findings, iterative improvements, and real-world relevance.

Standards Alignment

• Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
  • MS-ETS1-1: Define criteria and constraints for the design of a habitat system that maintains human-compatible environmental conditions.
  • MS-PS3-4: Plan and conduct an investigation to demonstrate how thermal energy transfer (insulation, heat generation) can control habitat temperature.
  • MS-ESS3-3: Apply scientific principles to design a solution minimizing human impact on Earth’s environment, paralleling closed-loop life-support in space.
• Common Core State Standards – Mathematics
  • 6.EE.B.6: Use variables to represent quantities in real-world problems (e.g., CO₂ concentration as a function of time, ).
  • 7.RP.A.3: Use proportional reasoning to solve multistep ratio and percent problems (e.g., calculating required fan flow rate based on CO₂ generation).
  • 6.SP.B.5: Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context (computing average temperature/humidity/CO₂).
• NGSS Crosscutting Concepts
  • Systems and System Models: Viewing the habitat as an integrated system of structure, sensors, control elements, and inhabitants.
  • Stability and Change: Understanding feedback mechanisms to maintain stable environmental conditions.