mars field trip

The real surface of Mars. Recorded by NASA's Curiosity rover. Now in your browser.

About the experiment

Access Mars lets you explore a 3D replica of the Martian surface, exactly as it was recorded by the Curiosity rover. As Curiosity has travelled across Mars, it’s taken digital photographs with two stereoscopic camera systems. By combining and analyzing these photographs, scientists at NASA JPL have created a 3D model used to study Mars and plan future experiments. For the first time, this same 3D model is now available here for anyone to explore in their browser using WebVR.

Mapping the terrain

Image mosaics are captured with the left and right Navcam and Mastcam.

The two mosaics are then combined together to create a stereo match.

Using the data from the stereo match scientists are able to extract 3D mapping data.

Using metadata from the time, location, and direction the images were taken, scientists can tile the terrain data into a composite piece of terrain.

Introducing Katie Stack Morgan

As you explore the surface of Mars, you’ll learn about key points of interest from Katie Stack Morgan of NASA’s JPL. Since 2012, Katie has been working as a planetary geologist on the Mars Science Laboratory mission, analyzing Curiosity’s discoveries and planning future parts of the mission. Her primary focus is studying the geology of ancient Mars to learn what the planet may have been like in the past, and if it might have supported life.

Take a look at the code on GitHub . Check out more WebVR Experiments . Get the latest on Mars from NASA .

• 01; Landing Site; Photographed by Curiosity; Aug 7, 2012 - Aug 26, 2012
• 02; Pahrump Hills; Photographed by Curiosity; Feb 17, 2015 - Mar 11, 2015
• 03; Marias Pass; Photographed by Curiosity; May 22, 2015 - Aug 6, 2015
• 04; Murray Buttes; Photographed by Curiosity; Sep 1, 2016 - Sep 4, 2016
• 05; Current Location; Photographed by Curiosity; October 3rd, 2017

Griffin Museum of Science and Industry

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Museum hours Open today from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Museum hours Open tomorrow from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

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Plan a visit

Virtual Field Trips

Virtual mars 2040.

Learn how NASA plans to get the first manned mission to Mars by the year 2040.

About the lab

What would you pack for a long journey in isolation? What would you eat when you can't order out or go grocery shopping? Find out what items astronauts pack for space travel. Students will pack their own virtual suitcase for a journey to Mars whether they are in the classroom or learning from home!

• Grades: 5-8
• Capacity: 35 students
• Duration: 45 minutes
• Live via Zoom or Google Meet
• Offered Tuesdays through Fridays at a flexible time based on your schedule
• Lined notebook paper or graph paper
• Pencil or pen
• LEGO bricks (optional)

Next Generation Science Standards

Science and engineering practices:.

• Asking questions and defining problems
• Developing and using models
• Planning and carrying out investigations
• Constructing explanations and designing solutions
• Obtaining, evaluating and communicating information

Crosscutting Concepts:

• Energy and matter
• Structure and function

Disciplinary Core Ideas:

PS 3: Energy ESS 1: Earth's place in the universe ETS 1: Engineering design ETS 2: Links among engineering, technology, science and society

Students will:

• Explore STEM with a focus on NASA research, missions, goals and aims.
• Communicate effectively with peers and adult role models and practice 21st century science and technology skills.
• Work collaboratively to tackle many of the same challenges that NASA scientists are confronting themselves in the effort to travel to and inhabit Mars.
• Engage in science learning experiences.

Key concepts

Review key vocabulary and science concepts with your students before your visit.

Activities and resources

Try these hands-on classroom lessons and other resources to extend learning.

The Connecticut Science Center is currently CLOSED to the public due to public health concerns about COVID-19. For more information about COVID-19 and FAQs, please follow this link. Learn More

• Hartford, Connecticut
• Buy Tickets
• Search for: Search Button

Virtual Field Trip: Mars

• Nick Villagra & Bryan Avery
• May 22, 2020

In July 2020, a rover named Perseverance will blast off towards Mars to hunt for evidence of extraterrestrial life. This is just the latest in a series of missions stretching back decades to probe the mysteries of the Red Planet. NASA scientists share images and data from these missions with the public so that we may explore this rich and beautiful world alongside them.

On this field trip Friday, we’re leaving Earth behind on a journey of more than 100 million miles to Mars. We’ll see stunning imagery of this planet from orbit, learn about the daredevil maneuvers needed to land cargo safely, and roam across dunes and mountains to piece together the geological history of Mars, including a time when rivers flowed across its surface. Prepare for an out-of-this-world experience!

The View from Orbit Pack plenty of entertainment on a trip to Mars because it takes about 9 months to get there. The wait is worth it, even just for the spectacular view from orbit. Since August 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been taking surreal aerial photographs with the most powerful telescope ever sent to another planet. For its 10 year anniversary, mission operators at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) released a highlight reel showcasing the rich variety of Martian features, from steep canyons to majestic dunes. It even caught an avalanche in progress!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdHkgtLgcSY

Landing After scoping out Mars from above, it’s time for a tense moment: landing on the surface. Enter the atmosphere too quickly or without adequate protection and the lander can slam into the ground in a fiery demise. For relatively light payloads like the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, deploying inflatable cushions will do the trick. However, NASA has had to use a fantastically complex procedure for heavier payloads like the Curiosity and forthcoming Perseverance. It involves pyrotechnic devices, swift vehicle configurations like something out of a Transformers movie, a heat shield, parachutes, rockets—all automatically controlled with a gigantic software program, and all happening within 7 minutes. Needless to say, a lot can go wrong.

Check out this video that recreates that nerve-racking moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2I8AoB1xgU

Major Geological Features Geology is an important lens through which we investigate Mars. We’ll highlight some of Mars’ most striking features and learn the stories of how they formed using geological clues. At each location, you can view the images using different kinds of data: elevation, visible light, and infrared light, each giving a unique perspective of the surface.

Olympus Mons and other volcanoes https://www.google.com/mars/#lat=18.46757&lon=-133.922874&zoom=6&q=olympus%20mons This shield volcano is over 16 miles tall — larger than the state of Arizona and the largest in the entire solar system. How could such an enormous feature be possible? Check out this clip that shows how Mars’ unique planetary characteristics played a role in the formation of Olympus Mons and other gigantic volcanoes. https://youtu.be/Cww3yVQpcjY

Valles Marineris https://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-11.814292&lon=-65.284086&zoom=5 This massive canyon appears like a scar across the surface of Mars. At over 2,500 miles long, 120 miles wide, and 23,000 feet deep, this is one of the largest canyons in the solar system, second only to the rift valleys on Earth. There are still many hypotheses as to how Valles Marineris formed, but what we do know for certain is that three factors played a role: volcanic activity, flowing water, and a thin planet crust. See how Valles Marineris compares to the Grand Canyon: https://youtu.be/vkbap5IlMQI

Evidence of flowing water

Dry Riverbeds https://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-40.442737&lon=-271.912102&zoom=7 https://www.google.com/mars/#lat=25.324116&lon=-424.061189&zoom=6

Gale Crater https://www.google.com/mars/#lat=-5.916003&lon=-583.040320&zoom=8&q=gale%20crater

Wherever we find water on Earth, we find life. Scientists have wondered if the same is true on Mars ever since we’ve begun exploring there. Dry riverbeds seen from orbit hinted at a much wetter past, prompting NASA to send the Curiosity rover to investigate further. The rover landed at Gale crater in 2012 and quickly found evidence that the crater was the site of an ancient lake, proving Mars would have been habitable in the distant past.

Check out this description of one of the best pictures Curiosity took from the surface: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2UaFuJsqxk

In this simulator, you can see all the pictures Curiosity has taken along its 12-mile journey: https://accessmars.withgoogle.com/

Life? More recently, scientists have even discovered that liquid water exists on Mars today! With evidence that liquid water flowed on the surface of Mars, scientists hope the Perseverance rover will find evidence of life. If evidence of life can be found, we will then begin to understand how life might form all over the Universe. https://youtu.be/gksddX9N26w

Our red neighbor holds many secrets to discover. Using cutting edge robotics, sensors, and creative solutions, NASA and other space agencies are putting together the puzzle that is the history of Mars. Lucky for us, we can tag along virtually… until we visit for ourselves…

If you’d like to explore Mars further, check out these great resources and interesting discoveries: SciShow Kids: Should We Go to Mars? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vphJ6WyuxGk NatGeo Mars 101: https://youtu.be/D8pnmwOXhoY The Job of Designing Spacecraft for Mars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_7QkQCHezc Dry Ice Dune Surfing: https://youtu.be/s-J7L59yifU Curiosity Finds Strange Rock in Gale Crater: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aanN6fbNhqc

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Field Trip on Mars

Curiosity, the Mars rover, is the next best thing to being there.

“There is no foreign land; it is the traveller only that is foreign.” —Robert Louis Stevenson

Stevenson, a Scot, was exploring California in 1880 with his new bride. I’m one of a team of more than 500 travelers exploring Mars from California with the most sophisticated robot ever sent to another planet. As I write, Curiosity is pounding a hole into a rock in Gale crater. That Neanderthal feat may not seem like proof of its sophistication. But it is. It took us ten years of engineering on Earth and six months of preparation on Mars to get to that rock. Drilling a two-inch-deep hole into it and extracting a baby-aspirin-size piece will take weeks more. We’re doing it all to look for chemical evidence that Mars is not so different from Earth—that it too was once hospitable to life.

I’m a geologist, and I do fieldwork on Earth. I usually head out with only a handful of other people. We drive into remote areas with four-wheel-drive trucks or get dropped off by small airplanes or helicopters. Then we walk a lot. To plan a field campaign takes months, not a decade, and when I want to sample a rock, I reach into my rucksack, grab my rock hammer, and knock off a piece. Sampling takes minutes, not weeks. Back in the lab we analyze samples in a few days rather than the months it takes Curiosity. On Earth as on Mars, doing fieldwork well takes a great deal of practice—but on Mars it’s at a different level.

For starters, we need a bunch of brilliant engineers just to figure out how to wield the hammer or the drill. At Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory they practiced for years on Curiosity’s twin sister, testing tens of thousands of lines of computer code that command the seven-foot robotic arm to make sure they could execute the hundreds of motions required to place a 65-pound drill as gently as a feather on a target the size of a pea. We drilled scores of real rocks, and then we made fake rocks and drilled those too, because we worried that the rocks might be different on Mars. We were certain the weather would be different. The daily 180-degree-Fahrenheit temperature swings on Mars would cause the whole rover, including the drill bit, to expand and contract. So we had to figure out how to keep it from getting stuck. We worried too whether the powder produced by drilling would clump and clog the tiny tubes and sieves of our onboard chemical lab. We sweated a lot of details.

Then, after we endured the famous “seven minutes of terror” as the sky crane set Curiosity down lightly on Mars, we went through six months of hand-wringing. We had to go easy with our brand-new $2.5 billion vehicle. When I swing my hammer on Earth, every once in a while I miss and whack the hand that holds the chisel. Band-Aids and time usually solve the problem. On Mars we really don’t want the drill or the percussion hammer to hit the rover, ever. The arm was built with as little slop as possible in the joints, and those thousands of lines of software were checked and checked again—but we still didn’t know exactly how it would all work on Mars until we tried it. For one thing, gravity there is about one-third as strong as it is on Earth. And so the dozens of activities we had practiced already in California, we practiced again on Mars, in very small steps. If working on Mars weren’t so amazing, it would be enough to make you scream sometimes. But after six months we were ready to drill a rock.

So what is this precious powder we come in search of, like early explorers to the Spice Islands? Curiosity is looking for evidence that life could once have existed on Mars—for environments that could have supported microbes and for organic molecules the microbes might have made. We’re not searching for life itself; that would take instruments even more advanced than Curiosity’s. Its job is to help us figure out where a future mission should look for life.

For Hungry Minds

A habitable environment includes three important ingredients: water, a source of energy, and the chemical building blocks of life, such as carbon. Earlier missions proved that Mars was once wet. Orbiters photographed ancient river valleys; rovers found minerals that contained water in their crystal structure. Curiosity is testing for the other two ingredients of habitability. Since the surface of Mars today is not hospitable, we’re hunting for ancient rocks that preserve records of a wetter, more Earth-like environment. We’re expecting to find such rocks in the stacked sediment layers of Mount Sharp, at the center of Gale crater. But we stumbled on some not far from our landing spot, and so we’re drilling there first.

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We have to drill to find the good stuff. Drilling gets at material inside the rock that is less degraded and more likely to contain a faithful record of an ancient environment. From the study of Earth’s ancient environments, the major focus of my research for more than two decades, I’ve learned how difficult it is to discover such a record—and especially to find organic molecules that may have been made by ancient organisms.

Even on Earth, which we know was teeming with microbial life billions of years ago, we find the traces in only a few locations. The paradox is that water, an essential ingredient for life, can also destroy organic carbon molecules. In just the places where we might look for life, places where water has flowed through sand or silt, precipitating minerals that bind the particles into rock, the water has often erased the organic traces of life—with rare exceptions. On Earth we’ve learned how to hunt for those exceptions. It’s a long shot, but we’re hoping Curiosity will find organic molecules on Mars. They can be made by nonliving processes too, so finding them wouldn’t prove there was once life on Mars. But it would tell us where to look.

We’ve already proved, with the first rock we drilled, that Mars was once habitable. A flat mudstone, shot through with veins of a mineral that formed in water, the rock looks like something from a mining district. Curiosity’s analysis showed that the water was not too acidic for life—it would have been drinkable. It contained sulfur compounds that on Earth are an energy source for some microbes. It contained a carbon source too. We still can’t say that the pond our rock formed in, maybe three billion years ago, was inhabited—only that it could have been.

We didn’t need a gas chromatograph, though, to sense that Gale crater is full of promise. We just needed to look at the photographs. Within a month of landing, we realized that Curiosity had touched down on an ancient streambed. The stones looked like the ones I’d sent skimming across the creek behind my house in Pennsylvania, back when I was a boy.

Images of distant and unknown places have long inspired explorers and the public too. The photographs made during the Hayden expedition to Yellowstone were an essential reason it was selected as America’s first national park in 1872. Photographer William Henry Jackson captured the public’s imagination and support by confirming the existence of western landmarks previously regarded as glorified myths: the Grand Tetons, Old Faithful, and strange pools of boiling-hot mud. Half a century later photographer Ansel Adams began his long career of delighting the public with luminous pictures of parks that many would never visit.

Curiosity’s photos are like that—inspiring but also familiar. Our robot is no Ansel Adams, and Gale crater is not the next national park, but its strikingly Earth-like appearance in Curiosity’s postcards has delighted the public and all of us at the Jet Propulsion Lab too. From the day we landed, this place looked different from all the others we’d visited on previous missions to Mars. From the summit of Mount Sharp to the highlands of the crater rim to the close-up of those stones shaped by water in an ancient stream, the images have reminded us of home.

It’s a strange and potent thought to have about another planet. Soon after you read this, we should be on our five-mile way across the crater to the mountain. As a traveler on Mars now, I’m feeling the truth of Stevenson’s statement: This land is not so foreign. It’s a beautiful place to go for a drive.

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How to take a virtual field trip

Discover how to whisk your students away to museums, mars, and more, without leaving the classroom.

By Google Arts & Culture

Visiting without barriers

Whether you're visiting a museum, historic site or location in a far flung place, Expeditions, also known as virtual field trips, are available to everyone, anywhere, with a web browser or mobile device.

Planning is key

If you are a teacher, we recommend that you start by reading through the tour, to get an idea of what it's about. Check to see if it covers the subject you want to teach. Do you want to run through the whole thing or just pick out highlights?

Perseverance Touching Down on Mars (Illustration) (2020) NASA

Near or far

You can take the class to a wide variety of places. From a visit to the local museum , to a quick trip to Mars . You can project the tour on a screen or share it on Google Classroom. These tours are a mixture of 360° and 2D imagery. There are no pop ups within the panoramas.

Past, present and future

There are tours that look at the past, that explain how systems work today and what we should be thinking about to preserve our future. You can search for a specific tour or browse through by subject: arts , natural history , science and technology , geography , history . 

And there's more...

Once you've been through a tour with your class there are more  virtual field trips  to try or you can go to   Learn with Arts & Culture . There's subject related material and lesson plans that you can use in the classroom or give to students as worksheets to work through at their own pace.

Ready to begin your virtual field trip?

 Click here to set off

Hampi - Poetry in Stone

Archaeological survey of india, the james webb space telescope explained, 10 spectacular sites you can explore in south africa, south african tourism, mahabalipuram - sculpture by the sea, what will the james webb space telescope see, game drives: a south african adventure, rajghat: varanasi through the millenia, ellison onizuka, superstars of the south african bush, sarnath - turning the wheel of law, newton’s laws of motion in space, 5 things you didn't know about south africa's "hole in the wall".

Mars 2020: Perseverance Rover

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover will seek signs of ancient life and collects samples of rock and regolith for possible Earth return.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover searches for signs of ancient microbial life, to advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars. The rover is collecting core samples of Martian rock and soil (broken rock and soil), for potential pickup by a future mission that would bring them to Earth for detailed study.

Launch / Landing

Meet Perseverance

Landing site: jezero crater.

NASA chose Jezero Crater as the landing site for the Perseverance rover. Scientists believe the area was once flooded with water and was home to an ancient river delta. The process of landing site selection involved a combination of mission team members and scientists from around the world, who carefully examined more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet. After the exhaustive five-year study of potential sites, each with its own unique characteristics and appeal, Jezero rose to the top.

Jezero Crater tells a story of the on-again, off-again nature of the wet past of Mars. More than 3.5 billion years ago, river channels spilled over the crater wall and created a lake. Scientists see evidence that water carried clay minerals from the surrounding area into the crater lake. Conceivably, microbial life could have lived in Jezero during one or more of these wet times. If so, signs of their remains might be found in lakebed or shoreline sediments. Scientists will study how the region formed and evolved, seek signs of past life, and collect samples of Mars rock and soil that might preserve these signs.

Jezero Crater is 28 miles (45 kilometers) wide, and is located on the western edge of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia, which lies just north of the Martian equator. The landing site is about 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) from Curiosity's landing site in Gale Crater.

Sounds of Mars

Grab your headset, turn up the volume and listen for the subtle differences between the sounds on Earth versus how they would sound on the Red Planet.

The Perseverance rover will search for signs of ancient microbial life, which will advance NASA's quest to explore the past habitability of Mars.

The rover’s mission has four science objectives: Studying Mars' Habitability, Seeking Signs of Past Microbial Life, Collecting and Caching Samples, and Preparing for Future Human Missions.

View raw images sent back by Perseverance from its explorations on Mars.

Visit the one-stop-shop for all Perseverance media.

Mission Updates

Read updates provided by self-selected Mars 2020 mission team members who love to share what Perseverance is doing with the public.

Mars Rock Samples: The Stories They Could Tell

NASA's Mars Perseverance rover is building a unique rock collection, which also includes samples of Mars atmosphere and loose surface material. These samples record the history of the Jezero Crater landing site, and may even preserve signs of ancient life. Learn more about these precious samples, which Mars Sample Return could deliver to Earth for detailed study in the future.

Mars Ingenuity Helicopter

Strapped to the rover's belly for the journey to Mars was a technology demonstration — the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity, which completed 72 historic flights making it the first aircraft to achieve powered, controlled flight on another planet.

News and Features

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Team Says Goodbye … for Now

Rock Sampled by NASA’s Perseverance Embodies Why Rover Came to Mars

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A New Home for Ingenuity Mars Helicopter Prototype

After Three Years on Mars, NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter Mission Ends

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9 Free Space Virtual Field Trips You Need to Take

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please read my disclosure policy .

Have you ever wanted to take your kids on a field trip through the far reaches of the universe? Show them what it’s like to stand on the moon?

Then you need to take a space virtual field trip with your kids!

Space Virtual Field Trips

There’s nothing like space virtual field trips for showing the universe to your children. You’ll explore Mars, check out the moon, tour the International Space Station, and more!

You and your kids will love taking these space virtual field trips through space in the comfort of your own home.

1. Interactive Mars Tour

See the images the Curiosity Rover sent back from Mars! The field trip begins by introducing NASA’s Curiosity Rover mission. Then you have the option of moving along Mar’s terrain, learning more about the mission, or traveling to different mission sites.

Head off on an interactive Mars field trip.

2. The Known Universe

Tour the known universe with an amazing video from the American Museum of Natural History. You and your children will start by hovering over the Himalayas before rising above the Earth and into space. This virtual field trip will take you to the farthest reaches of known space before returning you safely home again.

Don’t miss this stunning Tour the known universe .

3.The Nine Planets Solar System Tour

Head off on a virtual interactive tour of the solar system with The Nine Planets Solar System Tour. You’ll be able to view the solar system along with the constellations behind it. And you’ll also study each of the planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. In addition, you’ll explore the composition of the dwarf planets or the sun, and take a closer look at various moons.

The Nine Planets Solar System Tour is a beautiful space virtual field trip.

4. International Space Station Tour

Expedition 33 Commander Suni Williams will take you on a tour of the International Space Station. You’ll learn about the different modules such as Harmony, Destiny, and Columbus. You and your kids will see the observation deck as well as the command post.

The International Space Station Tour is a fascinating glimpse of life in outer space.

5. Explore 3D Virtual Sites in Space

This site allows you to download and view 13 different sites in space, sites such as the Moon, Saturn, Pluto, Ceres, and the Milky Way Galaxy. Your kids will be fascinated by these glimpses into other worlds.

Head over and explore these virtual sites in space .

6. U.S. Space and Rocket Center

Tour the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville Alabama. See how large the rockets were. Take a look at a mockup of the lunar lander. And glance inside the mobile quarantine facility.

The US Space and Rocket Center Tour is an incredible glimpse into the history of US Space exploration.

7. Boeing Virtual Field Trip

Head over the Boeing for a trip to the historic Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. You and your kids will see inside the Starliner/CST-100, check out the Starliner simulator, meet some Boeing employees, and much more!

Take the Boeing Virtual Field Trip!

8. Tour of the Moon in 4K

Head to the moon for a tour in 4K! You’ll check out the Orientale Basin, the Shackleton Crater, the Apollo 17 Mission landing site, and more. Plus there are videos about how the moon evolved and seeing the Earthrise on the moon.

Tour of the Moon in 4K is an unforgettable space virtual field trip!

9. Virtual Planetarium: Sun, Moon, Stars

In the virtual planetarium show, “Sun, Moon, and Stars”, you’ll check out the sun’s daily path, classify start, note common constellations, and more.

Watch the Virtual Planetarium: Sun, Moon, Stars today.

Your and your children will love these space virtual field trips that explore the universe.

You’ll see the sun, the moon, and the stars. Meet people designing our future in space. And learn what life is like on the International Space Station.

>> Check out more virtual field trips you can take from home!

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Can’t Get to Cape Canaveral? Take Your Students on a Space Virtual Field Trip

Nothing brings a STEAM lesson to life quite like a field trip to a space museum. Students light up at the sight of space artifacts, real-life spacecraft, or a dazzling planetarium display.

If you can’t make the trip to a space museum, there are ways to bring the space museum to you! Some of the world’s finest exhibits and interactive STEAM activities are now available through virtual tours and field trips. This list includes virtual field trips with live real-time interaction as well as self-guided experiences and video tours. There are options for every grade level and budget.

Happy exploring!

8 Space Virtual Field Trips for Students

1. space foundation discovery center virtual field trips.

Space Foundation Discovery Center offers interactive virtual field trips for students of all ages. Students can tour the solar system with Science On a Sphere ® and learn about rocketry, engineering, robotics, weather or Mars exploration. Sessions are led by a Space Education Specialist and include a hands-on STEAM activity.

The museum also offers a virtual version of its popular Mars Robotic Laboratory . Students can program and operate LEGO EV3® robots to complete mission objectives on a simulated Martian terrain!

Scholarships are available. See field trip program options and schedule here .

2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor Center Virtual Field Trips

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Visitor Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, offers free virtual field trip programs for student groups. Each interactive program includes a 45-minute live virtual session with an informal educator, plus a list of online resources. Available topics include living and working on the International Space Station, how to build a satellite, and an overview of NASA Goddard’s science missions.

See available programs and schedule a time here .

3. International Space Station Virtual Tour

Take the tour now.

4. American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) “Hall of Planet Earth” Virtual Field Trip

Designed for grades 6-8, this virtual field trip to the AMNH Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth allows students to uncover the role of plate tectonics in the formation of Earth’s oceans, continents and mountains. Students use Google Arts and Culture to virtually tour the Hall and see exhibits up-close, then complete a provided activity to gain deeper scientific understanding. The virtual field trip can be customized to fit one class period, or extended over two or more class periods with additional activities from the downloadable Teacher’s Guide.

Get the resources and start the tour here .

5. Boeing & Discovery Education “Innovating the Future” Virtual Field Trip

Students get a behind-the-scenes tour of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in this inspirational virtual field trip from Boeing and Discovery Education. They’ll virtually meet Boeing team members who are writing the next chapter of space history with the launch of the Starliner/CST-100 spacecraft and the deployment of the Space Launch System (SLS). Students will also be expo sed to career possibilities in STEAM and aerospace. An included Companion Educator Guide provides a standards-aligned activity designed to explore key concepts in aerospace and engineering.

Get the resources and start the field trip here .

6. Access Mars

Take a virtual field trip to The Red Planet! This extraordinary 360-degree experience presented by Google allows students to navigate the surface of Mars as recorded by NASA’s Curiosity rover. Along the way, they’ll visit different mission sites and learn about the Curiosity mission.

Blast off to Mars now.

7. The Museum of Flight Virtual Programming

With over 175 aircraft and spacecraft, thousands of artifacts and dozens of exhibits, The Museum of Flight in Seattle is one of the largest air and space museums in the world. They also offer a galaxy of virtual programming for students K–12. Choose from virtual space missions, virtual interactive museum tours, digital planetarium programs, and more. Most of The Museum of Flight’s virtual programming is led by their professional educators, with some teacher-guided options. Financial assistance may be available for qualifying groups.

Explore virtual remote programs here .

8. Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum

This world-famous museum offers several interactive virtual experiences for school groups. Options include virtual museum tours with a youth docent, virtual storytimes, virtual planetarium shows, virtual science demonstrations, their popular virtual scavenger hunts and more. They also offer self-guided and teacher-guided options. Their Anytime Expeditions deliver on-demand classroom content for teachers, including content guides and hands-on activities.

See available virtual programming here .

Looking for more classroom resources?

Check out our Programs for Teachers for STEAM lesson plans, grant lists and professional development opportunities. Our Students page includes programs, STEAM activities and more for you to explore!

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Testing rocks on earth to help nasa’s perseverance work on mars, jet propulsion laboratory, remembering roubion, a rock superstore, put to the test, more about the mission.

Using carefully selected terrestrial rocks, engineers try to figure out how to work with crumbly rocks like the one the rover encountered on its first sampling attempt.

When NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover tried to collect its first rock core sample last August, the outcome presented a puzzle for the mission team: The rover’s sample tube came up empty . But why?

Not long after, Perseverance successfully gathered a sample the size of a piece of chalk from a different rock . The team concluded that the first rock they had chosen was so crumbly that the rover’s percussive drill likely pulverized it.

But engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, which manages the mission, want to understand why that first sample, nicknamed “Roubion,” turned to dust. The mission’s scientists and engineers had run extensive test campaigns on dozens of rock types prior to launch, but they hadn’t seen any react exactly like Roubion. So a new test campaign was started – one that would include a field trip, a duplicate of Perseverance’s drill, and JPL’s unique Extraterrestrial Materials Simulation Lab. Answers remain elusive, but here’s a closer look at the process.

Re-creating the unique physical properties of Roubion would be key to the test campaign.

“Of the rocks we’ve seen, Roubion had the most evidence of interaction with water,” said Ken Farley of Caltech, Perseverance’s project scientist. “That’s why it fell apart.”

Rocks altered by water can be more susceptible to falling apart; they’re also highly valuable to Perseverance’s scientists. Water is one of the keys to life – at least on Earth – which is why Perseverance is exploring Jezero Crater . Billions of years ago, Jezero contained a river-fed lake, making it an ideal spot to look for signs of ancient microscopic life now. Perseverance is collecting samples that future missions could bring back to Earth to be studied in labs with powerful equipment too large to be sent to Mars.

To find Roubion stand-ins, a handful of rover team members were granted permission to hunt rocks in the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve, a two-hour drive from JPL. The team was searching for rocks that filled a geological sweet spot: weathered enough to be Roubion-like, but not so fragile that they would fall apart at the slightest touch. They eventually selected a half-dozen rocks.

“It was very physical work,” said JPL’s Louise Jandura, chief engineer for sampling and caching, who has been leading the test campaign. “We were chipping away with rock hammers and crowbars. A couple rocks were big enough that it took all five of us holding on to a stretched-out canvas to get it into the bed of our truck.”

Next step: testing at JPL. One of the places where that happens is the Extraterrestrial Materials Simulation Lab, a kind of service center that prepares materials for testing elsewhere at JPL.

The low-slung building sits on a hillside above the Mars Yard. Barrels out front contain reddish dust called Mojave Mars Simulant, a special recipe for re-creating the messy conditions rovers travel in. Piles of rocks – some peppered with drill holes – are strewn about a forbidding industrial saw near the entrance. In back stands a concrete bunker with rock bins labeled with names that sound like Mad Libs for geologists: Old Dutch Pumice, China Ranch Gypsum, Bishop Tuff.

“I like to say we do artisanal selection and preparation of materials,” said Sarah Yearicks, a mechanical engineer who leads the lab. “Testing them is part manufacturing and part mad science.”

Yearicks is one of the people who picked out the rocks at the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve excursion. For the testing on Roubion-like rocks, Yearicks’ team worked with a construction-grade drill – not a coring drill – along with other tools, while Jandura’s team used a “flight-like” duplicate of Perseverance’s drill.The teams passed the rock samples back and forth, testing them in different ways.

Jandura’s team ran their flight-like drill a few millimeters at a time, stopping to check that a core was still forming; if it had crumbled, they’d look at variables that might be the cause. For instance, the engineers tweaked the drill’s rate of percussion and the weight placed on its bit. They also tried drilling into the rock horizontally instead of vertically, in case the build-up of debris was a factor.

For every adjustment they made, it seemed, a new wrinkle would emerge. One was that fragile samples can still resist the percussive drill. When Jandura’s team reduced the force of percussion to avoid powderizing the sample, the drill bit couldn’t penetrate the surface. But choosing a spot that holds up to stronger percussion means choosing one that likely interacted less with water.

Perseverance has so far captured six samples from highly weathered, water-altered rocks, and the team knows it’s capable of many more. But their experience with Roubion has prepared them for some of the extremes Mars will throw at Perseverance in the future. If they find more rocks like Roubion, the Extraterrestrial Materials Simulation Lab will be ready with its menagerie of Mars-worthy materials.

A key objective for Perseverance’s mission on Mars is astrobiology , including the search for signs of ancient microbial life. The rover will characterize the planet’s geology and past climate, pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet, and be the first mission to collect and cache Martian rock and regolith (broken rock and dust).

Subsequent NASA missions, in cooperation with ESA (European Space Agency), would send spacecraft to Mars to collect these sealed samples from the surface and return them to Earth for in-depth analysis.

The Mars 2020 Perseverance mission is part of NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration approach, which includes Artemis missions to the Moon that will help prepare for human exploration of the Red Planet.

JPL, which is managed for NASA by Caltech in Pasadena, California, built and manages operations of the Perseverance rover.

For more about Perseverance:

mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/

nasa.gov/perseverance

Andrew Good Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. 818-393-2433 [email protected] Karen Fox / Alana Johnson NASA Headquarters, Washington 301-286-6284 / 202-358-1501 [email protected] / [email protected] 2022-015

Welcome back and thank you, Mars500

The record-breaking simulated mission to Mars has ended with smiling faces after 17 months. Mars500’s six brave volunteers stepped out of their ‘spacecraft’ today to be welcomed by the waiting scientists – happy that the venture had worked even better than expected.

Mars500, the first full-length, high-fidelity simulation of a human mission to our neighbouring planet, started 520 days ago, on 3 June 2010, at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow.

The international crew were isolated in their interplanetary spacecraft mock-up, faithfully following the phases of a real mission: a long flight to Mars, insertion into orbit around the planet, landing, surface exploration, return to orbit, a monotonous return flight and arrival at Earth.

During the ‘flight’, the crew performed more than 100 experiments, all linked to the problems of long-duration missions in deep space.

To add to their isolation, communications with mission control were artificially delayed to mimic the natural delays over the great distances on a real Mars flight.

The crew of three Russians, one Chinese and two Europeans have performed exceptionally well. They have kept together and showed that motivation and team spirit can keep humans going under very difficult conditions. Scientists are pleased at their exceptional discipline.

“Thank you very much for your outstanding effort,” said ESA’s Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain in his greeting from Paris after the crew stepped from their module.

“I welcome the courage, determination and generosity of these young people who have devoted almost two years of their lives to this project, for the progress of human space exploration.”

Touching reunions

The hatch was opened at 14:00 local time (11:00 CET, 10:00 GMT) and the ‘marsonauts’ walked out from their modules and greeted the mission directors.

After their first taste of freedom, they were led to meet doctors and their families and close friends.

“It is great to see you all again,” said Diego Urbina, ESA’s Italian crewmember, after emerging.

“On the Mars500 mission we have accomplished on Earth the longest space voyage ever so that humankind can one day greet a new dawn on a distant but reachable planet.

“And, as a European Space Agency crewmember, I am honoured to have been part of this remarkable challenge together with five of the most professional, friendly and resilient individuals I have ever worked with.

“I’ll be forever thankful to those who, even from a distance, always stood close to me during this space odyssey.”

Romain Charles, ESA’s French crewmember, noted: “One year and a half ago, I was selected by the European Space Agency to be part of the Mars500 crew. Today, after a motionless trip of 520 days, I'm proud to prove, with my international crewmates, that a human journey to the Red Planet is feasible.

“We have all acquired a lot of valuable experience that will help in designing and planning future missions to Mars.

“We're ready to embark on the next spaceship going there!”

During their first few days of liberty, the crew will undergo extensive medical checks and psychological evaluation. They will also enjoy some private time and relaxation before talking to the media on 8 November in Moscow.

Their mission continues into early December, as they go through an exhaustive series of debriefings, tests and evaluations to collect the mission’s final data.

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Mars500 crew's statements (mp3)

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Mars500 (IBMP)

Gallery 1: Before

Gallery 2: towards mars, gallery 3: mars, gallery 4: return trip, previous diary entries, diary #14 - 1.3.2011, diary #15 - 3.6.2011, diary #16 - 3.6.2011, diary #17 - 17.8.2011, diary #18 - 13.10.2011, diary #19 - 25.10.2011, previous diary videos, video #12 - 21.3.2011, video #13 - 26.8.2011, video #14 - 1.9.2011, video #15 - 27.10.2011, esa tv: one year inside, replay of the mars500 hatch opening.