EGLIN AFB — More than 300 fifth-graders took the school bus to Mars on Thursday.
At the annual Marsville event put on by the environmental compliance division of the 96th Civil Engineering Group, the students simulated what life would be like if they visited the Red Planet.
When the students arrived at the hangar at the 33rd Fighter Wing, they hunkered down with sheets of plastic and duct tape. Then, to the kids’ delight, a box fan inflated the “pods” into structures humans might build to survive in the oxygen-deprived environment.
Volunteers from the 96th Civil Engineering Group visited students at Lewis School and Baker School and Longwood and Wright elementary schools over the last month to talk about the conditions on Mars and the challenges humans would face trying to live there.
They talked about air and water quality, transportation, communication, food and nutrition — all the things needed to support a colony, said Katie Eichling, a contract employee with the 96th Civil Engineering Group and one of the event’s coordinators.
“We told them there are no stores on Mars, so everything you need you have to figure out how to make yourself,” she said.
Marsville, which has been held for 18 years, is designed to get the students interested in science and math, Eichling said.
The students split into groups Thursday to come up with solutions to some of the challenges humans would face.
“We learned how we can live there and how we can communicate from Mars to Earth,” said April Dutollo, a 12-year-old student at Lewis.
Using cardboard boxes and aluminum foil, her group built a radio with a satellite, solar panels and several buttons for astronauts to talk to people on Earth.
April’s classmate, 11-year-old Yanae Powell, was tasked with coming up with ways to get oxygen and water.
“We learned about the aquifers,” she said. “There’s a bunch of water under the surface of Mars.”
More than 80 airmen volunteered for the event, and several of them spoke about how the students could use science and math to follow in their footsteps.
Explosive Ordnance Disposal technicians showed students their bomb-locating robots. An F-35 was parked in front of the hangar, and pilots explained how they fly the jets and use them to launch missiles.
Master Sgt. Brian Jelsma of the 728th Air Control Squadron helped students build the pods.
“It spurs the imagination,” he said.
As the kids started dismantling the pods and preparing to return to their schools, Eichling said Marsville was a success once again.
“Hopefully they remember what we talked about and someday they may be the first people who actually get to go live on Mars,” she said.
