What grade level of students can participate in the Mars Exploration Student Data Teams (MESDT)?

Students in grades 9 through undergraduates can participate in MESDT.

Can a group of students simply submit an application and become involved in MESDT?

No, for starters, students must have an adult facilitator to lead their team. Secondly, there are a set of simple procedures to follow in order to be involved.

What are the procedures to be followed in order to be involved with MESDT?

The first step is to submit the MESDT Application. From there, you will need to download the follow the sequence of activities to prepare your team for analyzing data.  In addition, you will need to view the archive presentations (MESDT Intro, Geological terms, etc.) to understand how the analysis of this data set fits into the overall picture of Mars Exploration.  There are some technical requirements that will need to be adhered to in order to participate. (See TECH requirements)

What are the technical requirements for a team to participate in MESDT?

From time to time, MESDT will have online conferences that cover a variety of topics.  In order for your team to be prepared for this, we ask that you have the following available for participation:

1. Telephone connectivity:  To participate in teleconferences, you will need a speaker phone that can be muted.
   
   
2. You will need a way to display a PowerPoint presentation.
   
   
3. For online conferences, a short but REQUIRED test is needed to make sure we don’t have any issues with your school’s network.  Tests will be scheduled soon after a team is accepted to participate.  Please make sure your network administrators are in the loop on this!  If we run into any technical problems, most likely they will be the people that will fix it.  While our online conferences simply use a web browser, we will still need to check the connection.  Also, some of the data being analyzed requires specialized software.  This will need to be installed on the school site computers, and usually requires administrators to authorize any installation on school computers.

How much does it cost to participate in MESDT?

There is no cost for teams that participate in MESDT. 

How many students can be on a student team?

There needs to be a minimum of 8 students but there is no maximum number of students that can be a part of any team. It is important, however, to make sure that all students who are on the team are committed and dedicated members.

Currently, MESDT teams will be using data that is sent back from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) by the CRISM instrument.  As MESDT expands, other MRO instruments will be added to the list of available data to be analyzed.

What is the time commitment?

Data analysis will be conducted according to the school schedule.  You as the lead facilitator will decide when and how much data you will analyze.  Therefore, each team will also be expected to meet on their own, as needed, to learn material or accomplish projects or outreach activities.

Once a month, teachers and students will participate in web-based conferences  where scientists, engineers, and program staff will present background information on Mars, rovers, geology, and missions (*).

* NOTE: Due to scheduling and time zone difficulties, these meetings may take place during the school day. We do our best to minimize interruption, but request the cooperation of the school in letting the students fully participate.

What is CRISM?

CRISM stands for Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars. CRISM is a visible-infrared imaging spectrometer with a scannable field of view. CRISM can cover wavelengths from 0.362 to 3.92 microns (362 to 3920 nanometers) at 6.55 nanometers / channel, enabling the CRISM team to identify a broad range of minerals on the Martian surface.

What will the CRISM data/image look like?

There are many examples of CRISM images available at the CRISM (http://crism.jhuapl.edu/gallery/featuredImage/index.php) website.

What will MESDT teams be doing using the CRISM data?

CRISM divides Mars up into 1964 tiles. For MESDT, each team will be responsible for one of these tiles. As the spacecraft orbits Mars, it scans the surface in low resolution (100-200 meters per pixel). This "Multispectral Mode" or "push broom mode" (named push broom because CRISM is imaging the surface as it orbits Mars), is the mode that students will be using to image the surface. This Multispectral Data Set is what the teams will start with (this is the same way the science team starts its progression through the CRISM data). This mode also allows us to identify the locations on the planet that are of interest of us, but are of a coarser resolution. But this will allow us to go back and image those areas of interest in the "Hyperspectral" or "targeted" mode to obtain more comprehensive information of that area.

So, the teams will be (1) evaluating some of the data products derived from the multispectral mode, and (2) identify areas where a targeted observation has the potential to show up a lot more interesting mineralogy and interesting geology.

Then, those targets that your team selects will go into the targeting database and eventually be targeted by the spacecraft, and then you will have the opportunity to work with the high resolution data that you requested. So, its really a full circle process working with the data. It is exactly the same way the science team progresses through the data.

Is MESDT only for Arizona schools?

No. MESDT is a national program.

How long will MESDT be available for student teams to participate?

MESDT will continue as long as the spacecraft and CRISM spectrometer remain healthy.