On Friday, the 5th Grade classes went on an exciting “Voyage to Mars” in the Nierman Challenger Learning Center at the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in Balboa Park. The students worked in teams and followed detailed step-by-step instructions to simulate replacing a crew working at Chryse Station, a permanent research base on the Martian surface, in the year 2076. In addition to doing research on Mars, students calculated trajectories for entering and exiting Martian orbit and launched probes to the Martian moons of Phobos and Deimos. Each team of students performed specific jobs during their mission, including weighing components needed to build a probe and calculating its mass, recording the vital signs of other astronauts, determining the nutritional value of foods on the spacecraft, and exploring the planetary geology of Mars.