• What was the mission or aim of your project?   

Our mission was to convert Mar’s water into safe and drinkable water. Using homemade filters.

• Why was this your mission?

This was our mission because we were asked to research water on Mars, we assumed that the frozen water bodies on Mars were melted, and even then the water would still be unsustainable because of the amounts of chemicals, Iron and saline.

• What action/experiment did you take?

We made 4 different filters, sand and sediment filter, activated carbon and a combination of the two. We recreated Mars’s water and ran it through each of the filters 5 times per trial. (We had three trials)

Our filters were:

1.  Sand and sediment filter; that included cheesecloth, gravel, sand, and a coffee filter. 

2.  Activated Carbon Filter; that included cheesecloth, activated carbon and a coffee filter. 

3.  And a combination of the two.

• How did you use what you learned in grade 9 science in the design?

We had a lot of pictures that showed the audience the steps of our experiment. We also had small samples so they could see the results for themselves. We each had our own pitches so we were all prepared when needing to present.

• Instagram images of your science fair board.

• What impact did our group have

We made people see Mars as a whole new planet. We created sustainable water on Mars out of filters and distillation. It made people think and ask questions about if it was possible now to live on Mars because we have water to drink there. 

• How successful was your action (its OK if it didn't go as planned)?  Did you meet your goal?

I would say that our group was overall very successful, our goal was to make the water on mars healthy and drinkable and we did that, there was some bumps along the way, like the water wasn't very clear and we lost a lot of water in the process but we were able to take all the unhealthy chemicals away with the filters and we were able to remove the sodium and iron with the distillation. 

• What contributed to your groups success (or lack of success)?

A big part of our group's success was our collaboration and communication. We made sure we all had equal parts when performing the experiment, we would also communicate outside of school when necessary to make sure we would have enough time to finish our project. We had planned everything out beforehand to bake sure we would finish everything on time.

• What would you do differently if you could?

If we could do something differently we would add less amounts of water in the filters, we started with a high  amount of water, which took a very long time to filter through (some took 30-75 minutes), we didn't end up needing all that water for testing so it just occupied time that we didn't need to use.

• Pitch to a future group

After our group researched we have discovered that frozen water bodies have been found on mars. Our mission was to make sustainable water on  mars. Even if this water was melted it would still be unsustainable because of the chemicals, saline and iron in the water. Our group's mission was to make the water on Mars sustainable. We recreated mars water and ran it through our 3 home made filters (Sand and Sediment, Activated Carbon, and a combination of the two. After running the water through the filters each sample came out with a different color but despite that the chemical results came out the same and they were clean. The issue was the amount of saline we still had in the water but that issue was easily overcome by a method called distillation. Once we distilled the water there was little to no Saline therefore our project was successful.

• Inspire a future group of students to pick up where you left off.

When doing the project we initially had hoped to have a trial where we combined the most successful filter with the distillation although we ran out of time and that left us with just the separate trials. We know when combining the water would be sustainable, but the next step would be to confirm that.

• Why is this an important cause?  Why should they continue with it?

This is an important cause because not only does this help with filtering water on Mars, but their are many places here on our Earth where we can't drink water because of the elemants found inside of it. These filters we created can be easily made with homemade materials and are highly effective.

• How would we extend this  if we could keep working on it?

We would try to find out a way to make all the water clear and I would add the filter water with the distilled water to see if it would actually be drinkable, again we did run out of time so we would add less water so the filtering wouldn't take as long. 

• Each member of the group should reflect on what they learned.  You may have learned some neat stuff about science, but you also learned some other great skills like time management, goal setting, collaboration, and problem solving.

• Leila - During this project, I learned a lot about the planet Mars, before this semester I wasn't very interested in astronomy or life on Mars, but after researching and learning more about it, I am now more interested. I did learn a lot about time management and responsibility, this was a very important project so I tried my best to use my time wisely, and I made sure to be well prepared by planning our experiment before we actually started, this was to make sure we could finish everything on time, including our individual trials, analysis's, and our poster board. I also learned hot to communicate and collaborate with my team members,  without this skill, I am sure our experiment wouldn't have been as successful. 

• Hla - I learned a lot of new things from doing this project, such as how to make homemade filters, how filters work, and most importantly, how to make clean water that we can drink. While making this project, we struggled a little to get & make things and actually start the actual process of filtering the martian water. Even after figuring out all of those issues, we didn’t realize how much time it would take to get just a bit of water through the filters, and how much water would be wasted in the process. And sometimes when a person would be absent it would mean more work for each person, but we still tried to communicate with each other so we could get some of the other work that we needed to be done was done but from home. And even though we struggled a lot, in the end we were able to make it clean and sustainable for us to drink from the martian water, which made all the trouble worth it in the end. 

• Dyala - Through this experiment I learned many things such as how to make homemade filters and how to distill water. All these are very important because you never know what situation you might be in. In this project we had a lot of research and planning to do, and we needed to test out the filters which took a lot of time and had distill water which also took some time, some filters took a lot of time to get all the water out also so we definitely needed to plan our time wisely and barely miss a day because if you do you can miss a lot. We had A LOT of problems on the way but we overcame them and we got through it. When someone wasn't here we would compromise and figure out what they can do and if they can't we would try and figure it out.  

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Bhrithi - During space camp, I have learned many things about Mars and how to construct a sustainable place on a planet for us to live. Researching about our topic, I got to learn  different ways we could filter out the Martian soil into drinkable water. Our team was able to get through the challenges together as a team using collaboration and problem solving. We split up parts for each other to corner and finish our project, we helped each other if one of us needed it.  Even after we finished our trials, we noticed we had even more issues that we  came across but we were able to get through them without giving up and were able to finish our project as a successful experiment.