AOS Field Report 1

Astronaut Field Report: Environmental Conditions On Mars

10-1-04

PERFORMER REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS DEMO

This demo is a two-person show. The Astronaut on Surface (AOS) is assisted by the Museum Galaxy Guide (MGG) stationed inside the visitors’ gallery. For convenience, MGG is given the name KELLY in the script, who can be either male or female.

DIRECTOR’S NOTES:

1. Neither performer needs to memorize the script dead letter perfect, but EACH PERFORMER MUST HAVE THE SCRIPT BOXES IN THE RIGHT ORDER WITH THE RIGHT CONTENT.

2. “KELLY” in the script can have a 3 x 5 cue card, but not read from it.

3. AOS can have a cue sheet on the Space Odyssey metal clipboard on the SPECIAL EFFECTS CART.

Pre-Show:

After communications check and AOS is on the way out, MGG talks about the surface of Mars and asks visitors what they think Mars is like.

AT BEGINNING OF SHOW:

ASTRONAUT ON SURFACE (AOS) enters, pushes the special effects demo cart to down center.

NOTE: Either the Astronaut or the assistant can work the hand held OCC.

SCRIPT FOR Astronaut Assistant “KELLY” / SCRIPT FOR AOS “LT. STONE”
Let’s ask our astronaut. Hello, there. [LT. STONE], what’s it like out there?
Hi KELLY. Looks like you have a lot of visitors there in the Mars Outpost. What’s it like out here on Mars? Sunny and cold. It’s always sunny and cold., at least when there’s no dust storm happening.
Would you say Mars has a nice climate?
No, it’s a pretty hostile place for us Earthlings. There’s less air than Mt Everest, it’s colder than Antarctica, it’s drier than the Sahara desert and I’m being bombarded by three different types of radiation. On the positive side, the gravity is much less, so I can do work with less effort.
Less air than Mt. Everest? Can you elaborate on that?
Sure. Let’s show the visitors the fan experiment.
[LT. STONE takes out a ANEMOMETER and FAN.]

[DIRECTOR’S NOTE: The general idea here is for both KELLY and the ASTRONAUT to describe the instruments in their own hands, but when it comes times to explaining the science involved, performers will explain each other’s science. This cuts down on dead air time by each performer. Specifically, KELLY explains the science of the ASTRONAUT’s demo and the ASTRONAUT explains the science of KELLY’s demo.

[KELLY takes out the anemometer and fan.]
OK. On Earth, this kind of device is used to measure the speed of the wind. It’s called an anemometer.
[KELLY turns on the fan and places it near the anemometer so that the anemometer spins.]
The wind from my little fan here will cause the anemometer to spin.
Air inside the visitor center is just like Earth’s. Air contains billions of molecules, which are tiny little pieces of matter so small you can’t see them even with a microscope. If enough molecules of air hit one of those little cups, it turns the anemometer, and the more molecules that his the cups, the faster the anemometer turns.
What would happen if you tried the same thing out there on Mars?
Let’s see.
[AOS turns on fan, holds it in view of visitors, confirms that they can see the blades turning, then places the anemometer in front of the fan and tries several positions.]
The cups aren’t turning.
That’s because there just aren’t enough molecules of air out here to turn it.
In scientific terms, the air pressure on Mars is about 7millibars or about 1/200th of the air pressure of Earth.
Did you say that Mars is drier than the Sahara desert?
Yes. Look around. There is no running water on Mars, no streams, no rivers, no lakes, no oceans, though we do have strong indications that rivers did flow on Mars long ago in the ancient past, a very long time ago.
Why isn’t there any running water now?
I’ll show you.
[AOS takes out the boiling water jar CANISTER from the FIELD REPORT CART.]
I have a canister of water here from the Hablab. Does anyone know what will happen when I open it up?
[KELLY takes answers from the audience.]
[AOS opens the lid, then watches water boil for a moment.]
See what’s happening. The water is boiling away. The level of the water is dropping. The reason the water is boiling is that the water is made of lots of individual H2O molecules traveling at over 100 miles per hour. Lots of them have enough speed to escape into the atmosphere. This is what would happen to a lake on Mars. All the water would boil away and leave a dry lakebed behind.
Why doesn’t that happen when you open a jar of water on Earth?
On Earth the atmosphere literally holds the water molecules down and prevents them from escaping.
At sea level, where there are lots of molecules of air, water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit. But at high altitude locations, places such as Denver, Colorado, water boils at only 200 degrees Fahrenheit because the air up there has fewer air molecules. The air pressure out here on Mars is the same as if I were standing on top of a mountain 100,000 feet high, more than three times the height of Mt Everest. So, out here, the water can boil even at the temperature of the environment.
By the way, after our show, you can go over to the Experiment Bar and XXX will show you some cool experiments with our vacuum chamber which simulates Mars. Hey XXX, wave to the folks so they can see where you are.
Didn’t you say it’s colder than Antarctica? Just how cold is it?
Let’s take a temperature reading.
[AOS plugs temperature probe into the DCD, then lowers the probe down near his/her feet.]
This is an electronic thermometer. The reading down here at my feet is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
That’s not even below freezing.
No, not there near the ground.
[AOS moves temperature probe first to his waist, the to above his/her head.]
OK, I’ll take another reading up here. Let me send that data card into you.
It’s minus 18 degrees Fahrenheit there. Wow that’s cold.
OK, so I’m climb up here and take one more reading above my head. This is about 2 meters above the surface.
[AOS steps up in little ledge and takes data on OCC above his/her head.]
Did you get that data?
Yes we have a reading of minus 27, really cold..
That same effect happens on Earth. I’m going to put up a graphic for you. Kelly, why don’t you talk a little about that.
[AOS puts up graphic of mountain on Earth.]
You may be surprised that the temperature drops when LT. STONE raises the temperature probe over his/her head, but the same thing happened on Earth when you go up to the top of a mountain. The mountaintop is always colder than the base. But instead of needing a few thousand feet, here, the temperature drops in 5 or 6 feet.
But, LT. STONE, that’s still not as cold as Antarctica.
True, but remember this is summer on Mars, and we’re near the Martian equator. Let’s take a look at the temperatures for the last night and day.
[AOS puts up graphic of DIURNAL TEMPERATRUE ON MARS on monitor in MARS OUTPOST.]
Wow, minus 110 degrees Fahrenheit. That would be a near a world record, even for the south pole.
The way I usually explain it is this. I grew up in NJ In NJ, the air in the summer is so hot and humid that if it is hot in the daytime, it is still hot at night. I went to graduate school in Boulder, CO where the air is much drier and thinner. So even if it is hot in the daytime, it can cool way down at night. Well, here on Mars, the air is so dry and so thin that the temperature can easily drop over a hundred degrees at night.
That’s cold enough to freeze the carbon dioxide right out of the atmosphere. In the winter you get carbon dioxide frost—dry ice—forming on the ground here.
OK, Mars is airless, cold and dry and you’re being bombarded by radiation.
[AOS takes the tomato sphere prop out of the SPECIAL EFFECTS CART.]
On Earth the thicker atmosphere filters out UV rays, but not here on Mars.
Here’s an experiment designed by some students at Alvarez Middle School in San Antonio, Texas. The experiment is designed test how well this plastic protects the plant from UV rays while still letting in the visible light that’s needed for photosynthesis.
KELLY, can you show them how the plastic protects the plant?
Sure.
KELLY demonstratesUV LAMP and assures the audience that the kind of UV this lamp puts out is the kind found in normal sunlight, and is harmless.
1. KELLY shows the light to everyone and asks if they can see the purple color.
2) KELLY holds piece of window glass in front of the lamp and asks people if they can still see the purple light, a YES or NO question. (They can. This means the glass gives the plant no protection.) To verify this, the glass should Be placed to half cover the lamp.
That kind of glass would not make a very good visor since it wouldn’t protect me from UV rays.
3) KELLY repeats the process with the Plexiglas, but now the visitors see that no UV gets through, but visible light does.]
That same plastic is the stuff used to make my visor as well as the protective bubble around this plant because it lets me see through while still protecting me from UV.
Did you say there is less gravity on Mars than Earth?
Yes. It makes doing tasks a lot easier. For example, I can lift a boulder this size here, which would be too heavy for me to lift back on Earth. A rock this size would weigh 140 pounds on Earth, whereas here on Mars it weighs only about 50 pounds. Still pretty heavy, but manageable.
Also, objects fall slower on Mars, so you have more time to catch them before they hit the ground. On Earth an objects falls 16 feet in the first second after you let it go, but here on Mars, that same objects falls only 6 feet in the first second. I wish I could drop this rock and show you, but our safety officer up here won’t allow us to drop any heavy objects because of the danger to our feet or space suits.
Don’t you have something small you could drop for us?
Well, let’s see. Maybe this rock hammer. Have a look.
[AOS picks up SPECIAL EFFECTS HAMMER from the SPECIAL EFFECTS cart and drops it.]
Did you notice how much slower it fell here on Mars?
Cool. Thanks for the demonstration, LT. STONE. My last question is, what would happen to you if you got a leak in that space suit?
If I developed a leak in this pressure suit, I would die from lack of oxygen because Martian air is mostly carbon dioxide. My blood would boil inside my body and that would kill me. Without insulation, I would freeze to death. In the dry air, my skin would gradually mummify. Without my space suit, I would get a lethal dose of radiation in just a matter of hours. But if I drop over dead, at least I would be falling slower when I hit the ground.
Let’s all say thanks to LT. STONE, and wave to him/her as he/she packs up his/her cart and goes back inside the HabLab.
Bye. Have a good visit on Mars. And don’t forget to go over to the Experiment Bar to watch XXX do the vacuum chamber experiments.

POST-Show:

OK to hang out for a bit and chat with the visitors.