• Our project goal is to create a safe shelter for us to live on in Mars. 

• We've decided that our base will be made out of bricks made of the soil on Mars. The soil on Mars can withstand the harsh temperatures and the natural disasters. We will be testing our bricks in a variety of different ways, including wind and temperature tests. We're also building a model base in Minecraft to show how our colony could develop in the future.

• Our mission to make a safe space shelter isn't anything easy to do, it takes focus and experiments to get results. We chose the big task of building the Mars bricks for our base because it's a very big part in the success of the mission. 

• We decided to make bricks made out of a Martian soil replica. The replica is composed of basalt dust, sand, Iron(III) oxide and ferric oxide.

• We've used our knowledge of chemistry and classifications of matter to identify the types of elements and mixtures that are in our Martian soil. 

• We did four tests of our bricks to make sure they are up to the standard for our base. Results here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F_x0533BWLv2Q2n0tLdJEAIyVdWHhqEsxHyObIHjXl8/edit 

• We have made models in Minecraft to show how we have progressed from the early space shelter to a more advanced one. 

• The Instagram post can be found below ⬇️

Our project fits in very well because it is the focal point of the entire project. Our astronauts will need somewhere to live. If not, even with all the energy and transportation, they wouldn't be able to make it out alive. All the other projects contribute to making a better space shelter. We will be living sustainably on Mars with this space shelter.

The bricks we made turned out way better than we expected them to. A lot of the bricks were able to manage most of the tests. We reached our goal of building a type of brick that can withstand all four tests.

Communication contributed a lot to this group project, In general communication is one of the most important things when working in a group, otherwise, the project would fall apart. 

One thing we should have done differently is start working on making bricks earlier. Another thing we could have done differently would be considering the amount of mess we'd create when making the bricks, that way, we could minimize or avoid it.

• To continue our project and improve on it, you could make structures and legitimate buildings. This would fully finish and complete the project. 

• Continuing our project and building structures will make the project feel complete. We would like to fully see the final product of the base. It is important to have a full base instead of bricks alone.

• We would like our project to be continued, so the Mars base can be completed. The final product of having a real life Mars base made out of Mars bricks would be so cool. 

 Alyssa:  This project was really fun, I liked how we could implement what we've learned in the past units into our projects. I feel like I also improved my time-managements skills, especially in the last few weeks of space camp. One thing I wish I had done earlier was to voice my opinion a little more, most of the time I was going with what other group members said and did. 

 Braylon: I would say that I learned a lot about how to make bricks and as well as trying different ways to bake/create the bricks in order to get the strongest result. I also learned how to apply certain things and habits we've learned previously in class to the experiment. I think we did a pretty good job at multitasking, especially during the end when we needed it most. However, if I was to change one thing in the past that we didn't do that well, it would probably be to get more organized in the beginning, especially when we were creating the bricks. Our plan and steps were all over the place and I think we could have gotten more done. I did have a lot of fun while doing this experiment and I learned a lot. 

 Cole: During this project I've learned a variety of skills and knowledge. I've learned the process of building bricks, and how to cook them. Over the course of the project I've also learned lots about Mars, and how to live on different exoplanets.  I think we were all able to do our job and complete our tasks with efficiency. Overall this project was very fun and I'm glad I got to apply all my ideas and knowledge to this project. One thing that I was concerned about was how stable our bricks would be, but in the end everything turned out fine.

 Jackson: I feel like I have learned a lot about space and Mars. I feel like a lot of the other subjects that we have learned in science class have helped out a lot, like how making tables (all the way back in September) was important in this project. I think we managed our time well as we got everything done and no one was slacking off. One thing I think we could have done better was make sure our ideas were very good before we started, as the bricks were complicated, and we had a few gaps in our logic.