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Mars Rover Project.

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Developed and Distributed by
Applied Technologies
PO Box 1419 - Calhoun, Georgia   1-800-334-4943

 

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The Mission:
NASA has launched its Mars Exploration Rover Mission and landed Spirit, the first of two robotic rovers on the surface of Mars.  The rovers will explore several kilometers of the alien planet's rocky terrain recording images and analyzing a variety sensor data.  In anticipation of this historical event, the development team at Applied Technologies participated in the development of an exciting educational simulation called the Mars Rover Project.
 
The Project:
*Through the nine week hands-on project students build an autonomous programmable robot, explore a scale model of a Martian landscape that they design and build, then send their rover to another location to explore alien Marscape remotely.  For more details on the activities performed in the project,
click here.

Developed by Teachers:
In the summer of 2002 dozens of teachers from across the country attended a series of meetings and workshops sponsored by NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the Los Angeles Unified School District, and the National Science Foundation.  The goal of these meetings was to refine a nine week (45 hour) unit of study that would be academically rigorous in math and science while also being engaging and fun for students.  

Steven Dworetzky, author of the Mars Rover Project curriculum support materials and, Ken Berry of Cal State University hosted the workshops.  If you'd like to learn more about the curriculum,
click here.  To see the workshop participants knee deep in projects, visit the  Imagiverse Web Site.
*The Lesson Plans and Standards Correlations will soon be available online for free!  Check back soon!

The Rover:
If you are interested in participating in the Mars Rover Project, you'll need a rover kit.  The kit we offer is unsurpassed in flexibility and ease of use.  With this kit, your students can build a robot with more capabilities than any other available unit.

In addition to the Mars Rover, we include instructions for building many other computerized models.  To learn more,
click here.


The Mars Exploration Rover kit (MERk) includes over 1500 K'Nex building pieces, a controller, servos, sensors, a wireless camera, software, and manuals.  
For more detailed specifications,
click here.
To purchase the kit,
click here.

Workshops:
In the coming months, a series of workshops will be planned for teachers interested in participating in the Mars Rover Project.  To find out about workshops being held in your area, click here

knex_parts2.jpg (29791 bytes)knex_robo4.jpg (26976 bytes) knex_robo8.jpg (29304 bytes)teachers_work6.jpg (17825 bytes)
Workshop pictures courtesy of
Imagiverse 
click pictures to enlarge

rover 2.jpg (72642 bytes)

*NOTE - Applied Technologies and the Mars Exploration Rover kit are in no way affiliated with the National Aeronautics Space Administration, and the kit is not endorsed by NASA or any other government agency or employee.

 

 

TC