Game mars rover

The real Perseverance rover will have a helicopter friend, too! It will be a test to see if small aircraft can be used to do science on future Mars missions. Mission to Mars Student Challenge. Make a Moon or Mars Rover Game. If you liked this, you may like: Space Volcanoes!

Because Mars is so far away, we don't always know if the real rover is doing its job on Mars. We wait for Curiosity to send back pictures and information. Usually, rovers can only send data when Mars orbiters pass overhead, collect the data, and send it back to Earth. The data tells us how far the rover drove and if it is 'feeling' healthy. Based on that information, engineers make plans for the next day's exploration.

Your game rover has a hard time with steep slopes. NASA's rovers can climb steep hills and explore deep craters. However, safety comes first! We don't want to risk tipping a rover over, because there are no tow trucks on Mars! While engineers can test drive a rover on Earth on a degree slope, they usually don't risk anything over degrees on Mars - and not often!

Your game Mars rover takes on some rough terrain. If you hit a rock, it's mission over! Curiosity's aluminum wheels have faced sharp rocks, and show some wear and tear. However, testing on Earth shows that if we drive the rover carefully, a few holes and dings cannot stop this rover from rolling!

Mars Rover game players are searching for water, which on Mars, is better than gold! On Earth, where there is water there is life. Searching for signs of water is the first step to learning if Mars ever could have supported life. We see lots of signs that Mars once had water at the surface. In this board-game lesson, students play the roles of a Mars rover, scientist and engineer to make exploration decisions and accomplish science goals.

Students learn to write basic command sequences, which lay the groundwork for developing computer programming skills. Flat marbles, small rocks or plastic pieces of five different colors 1 set per team.

Computers or tablets with internet access. Assemble the game board as shown here. To get rovers from one place to another safely, engineers carefully plan out the routes they want a rover to take. Each day, they send code to the rover telling it where to go, how to get there, and which tasks to perform once it arrives. Before you start coding the game itself, you'll need to build the environment where the game will take place and begin to create rules for how that environment will operate.

On Mars, rovers have to navigate hazards such as rocky or sandy terrain, dust storms, and other inclement weather. About the images: Hazards are everywhere on Mars and can include rocky terrain, dust devils, and rippled sand dunes, as shown in these images clockwise from left taken on and at Mars by the Perseverance rover , Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter , and Curiosity rover , respectively.

At this point, we have placed our rover on the Martian terrain and created the hazards it must avoid, but at this point, they are all stationary. We need to write rules that move our objects around the game environment. This is where pygame starts to come in handy. Perseverance landed on Feb. The map also shows the location of the Mars Helicopter. When driving Mars rovers, we have to be very intentional about how we move a rover across the harsh landscape to reach its destination.