Help! I can't think of a project to go with research

[ali070898]

I am doing a project titled "Which Planet in Our Solar System Would Be the Best For New Colonization?". I have done all the research and think I have a good guess, but I don't know how to show it through experimentation. I don't know what kind of experiment to do, biodome? Terraforming? Help! This is due soon and I'm starting to get scared.

[deleted-71709]

This is a very interesting topic, but one that seems to be difficult to put into a science fair project.

There are a lot of things to consider when selecting a location for colonization. This link provides a good discussion of some of those things:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_colonization

One thing you could do to create a science fair project out of this is to take a statistics approach. You could determine what are the key factors to consider for colonization and then give that factor a measure of value for each planet. For instance, you might pick temperature. You could list the desired temperature range for colonization and then list the average temperatures on each planet. You could give each planet a score for how close they came to the desired temperature. You could do the same for water availability, or radiation impact, or many many other characteristics.

You could make some good charts, and draw some interesting conclusions.

Other than that, I'm at a loss for another way to make a science fair project out of this.

Good luck.

Ed Neu
Buffalo, MN

[elin105]

ali070898,

This does look like a very interesting topic! It does seem difficult to put into a science fair, but with the right approach, I think it would look very impressive, especially for a fifth grade student.

I agree with edneu3 in his approach. Perhaps you could quantize the results by measuring the dependent variable on something such as a plant. For example, you could say that a planet is better suited for colonization if it can support plant life. Then you can go into what edneu3 said about temperatures by testing how plants live in different temperatures, etc. If you have access to a lab or a vacuum chamber, then you could also test the effects of acid rain (in chemicals) or low air pressure (in a vacuum chamber), but these may be harder to do.

The most important thing to remember is that to recreate another planet's environment is not realistic. However, there are many factors, such as temperature, sunlight, soil conditions, etc of other planets that can be imitated here, and it is not unreasonable to draw conclusions from testing single factors such as those.

I hope that helps! If you have any further questions, please let us know!