Project Hail Mary
Project Hail Mary
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St. John's Catholic School
This webpage will be your guide to the Project Hail Mary Challenge
Mission of the project
Mission of the project
Design a small rotating space station based on the artificial gravity concpet in the novel Project Hail Mary
Over the next 10 weeks we will explore the science behind the space station in Project Hail Mary.
Your Advisors are: Mrs. Paquin (5-8 Science Teacher); Ed Polewarcyzk (Former NASA Engineer); and Dr. Scott Eaton (University of Southern Maine)
Week 1 (February 23-27) Task 1 Understanding Center of Mass (COM) and the Difference between Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces.
Week 1 (February 23-27) Task 1 Understanding Center of Mass (COM) and the Difference between Centrifugal and Centripetal Forces.
What is Center of Mass, how can we explore center of mass.
What is Centrifugal Force?
What is Centripetal Force?
Demonstrations included:
COM (Center of Mass) demonstrations: Supplies used were a meter long stick with 1 wooden dowel on each side plus a fulcrum. Students then used different sized washers to try to find the center of mass and move the center of mass.
Centripetal force demonstration: 3 strings of difference length, and a bolt tied to one end with a loop for a finger on the other
Centrifugal Force demonstration: supplies used a wheeled office chair and a person sitting in the chair. Pushed person forward then made a sudden turn.
Home Assignment: Draw a design a space craft based on principles and parameters meeting size requirements due next Monday
Week 2 (March 2-March 6) Looking more closely at designs and center of Mass. Exploration of NASA Mission Patches
Week 2 (March 2-March 6) Looking more closely at designs and center of Mass. Exploration of NASA Mission Patches
What are the engineering design steps?
Looking at NASA Article on Artificial gravity and where the engineering is at now.
Artificial Gravity in Space Stations for Long-Term Missions
Students spent more time exploring center of mass.
Home Assignment: Mission Patch Designs; vote in class on possible items to add and 4 colors
What goes into designing a mission patch'?
Color Choice
Representation of those working on the mission
Goal of the Mission
How the mission relates back to something specific. In this case Project Hail Mary.
Week 3 (March 9-March 11) Exploring Velocity, Acceleration, and force vectors.
Week 3 (March 9-March 11) Exploring Velocity, Acceleration, and force vectors.
Mr. Ed will explain centripetal vector forces, velocities, and how to calculate acceleration this week. Do you know what a DYNE is and how it signifies something specific in physics?
Continue Model Builds and vote on a top 2 models
Using paper towel roles, recyclables and string build a model at home. Explain your model to your families as practice for the video you will record for submission as a larger group.
Mission Patch Voting will take place on Thursday and Friday.
Home Assignment: Design a 3D model to match your drawing and a thorough description with size measurements that will be showcased and voted on next week. The top 2 designs will be built into full working models
Week 4 (March 16-18) Engineering working models and calculating acceleration
Week 4 (March 16-18) Engineering working models and calculating acceleration
Its a big week. The club members will vote on their top 2 designs and we will start building working models in class. Students will learn to calculate velocity and acceleration of these two models. We will spend time exploring companies working on similar projects in engineering space craft that can achieve partial gravity in space flight.
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