Open nowSpace certificate program
Mission to Mars
Students plan a trip to Mars from the launch pad to the surface. Each week answers one question a real mission team has to answer, and ends with something to build and test at home.
- 23 lessons over 5 weeks
- At your own pace
- Ages 9 to 14
What students learn
Why rockets work
Thrust, weight and staging, explained with a balloon and a piece of string.
How orbits happen
Why going sideways matters more than going up, and why the road to Mars is an oval.
How robots explore
What a rover carries, how it lands with no pilot, and how it survives dust and cold.
How machines decide
Why a rover can't be driven by joystick, and how it learns to tell safe ground from rocks.
Five weeks, week by week
Week 1
Lift off
What a rocket has to beat, and how it does it.
- What a rocket has to beat
- Push back to go up
- Why rockets drop their stages
- Balloon rocket on a string
- Week 1 quiz
Week 2
Stay in orbit
Why going sideways matters more than going up.
- Falling without landing
- Why rockets curve sideways
- The road to Mars is an oval
- Orbits on a stretched sheet
- Week 2 quiz
Week 3
Land a robot
Seven minutes, no pilot, one chance.
- Seven minutes with no help
- What a rover carries
- Wheels, power and dust
- Egg-drop lander
- Week 3 quiz
Week 4
Let it think
How a rover finds its own way with AI.
- Why nobody drives a rover with a joystick
- How a rover sees rocks
- Teaching a machine with examples
- Train a rock sorter
- Week 4 quiz
Week 5
Your mission
Design a Mars mission and present it.
- How mission teams plan
- Present like an engineer
- Design your Mars mission
Things to build
From things already in the house. No kit to buy.
- A balloon rocket on a string
- Orbits on a stretched sheet
- An egg-drop lander
- A rock sorter you train with examples
Final project, week 5
Design your Mars mission
Pick a question about Mars, choose a landing site, design the rover and plan the trip. Present it as a poster, slides or a short video. An instructor scores it against a rubric and sends written feedback.
Finish every lesson, pass each quiz and get the project approved to earn the certificate, which downloads as a PDF with an ID anyone can check.