Students will work in groups to research, design and diagram elements of a self-sustaining habitat capable of supporting human life on Mars. Students will then present their designs to the class.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"Maintaining mental health during future deep-space exploration is a serious and complicated problem. Such exploration will require people to remain in closed environments for incredibly long periods. But connections between our gut microbes, the gut itself, and our brain could hold new solutions. Research has suggested that influences can travel along this microbiota-gut-brain axis. So, to identify potential mood-boosting microbes in an enclosed environment, researchers turned to the Lunar Palace 365 experiment, where the Lunar Palace 1, a closed bioregenerative life support facility, housed people for a year. The researchers identified four potential “psychobiotics” that corresponded with mental well-being, as well as three possible mechanisms for the improved mood. First, these microbes may be fermenting dietary fibers to produce short-chain fatty acids. Second, they may regulate amino acid metabolism pathways, including the one that converts tryptophan to serotonin..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.