Mission: Operation Comet
An urgent discovery changes scientists' and astronauts' mission goals. Can they engineer a solution to save the world?
A large comet is passing close to Earth soon. It’s a perfect opportunity to study and explore long-period comets. As a crew of astronauts, scientists, and researchers, your students will collaborate on building technologies to study the long-period comet and share their data with Mission Control scientists.
Goals quickly change when an urgent discovery is made by crew members and the teams are tasked to change course and quickly problem-solve a solution.
The team must quickly troubleshoot and design a new technology that will solve the emergency and complete their new mission objective: Save the world.
Mission Type: In-person
Mission Goal: Study a comet that’s entered the inner solar system.
Target Audience: 8th grade and up; Adult
Crew Size: 16-26 people
Program Length: 2-2.5 hours
Learning Objectives:
Understand and analyze how comets are formed and how they travel in space
Understand the impact of space weather, including solar storms
Troubleshoot and solve problems using the engineering design process
Collaborate with peers to achieve a common goal
Enhance scientific vocabulary
Educator Notes:
Pre- and post-lesson activities available
Reading level options available (student selected)
Closed captioning available
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) aligned
Common Core State Standards (CCSS) aligned
No personal student data collected
Educational Materials:
Operation Comet Pre-Mission Curriculum
