Design a question-first space mission
30 minutes · Paper · Pencil · A planet or moon knowledge card
Your investigation
- Choose a destination and one question that measurements could help answer.
- Decide whether a flyby, orbiter, lander, or rover suits your question. Draw and label your spacecraft.
- Choose two instruments, such as a camera for terrain or a thermometer for temperature, and explain what each measures.
- Add one environmental challenge and one limitation: what would your mission still not know?
Think, draw, explain
Would a surface rover be suitable for Jupiter?
What makes a scientific mission question testable?
Grown-up guide & possible answers
- No. Jupiter has no solid surface suitable for driving. An orbiter or atmospheric probe would suit different questions, with demanding environmental constraints.
- A testable question connects to obtainable evidence, such as comparing measured temperatures. An imaginative design should still distinguish predictions from observations.