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Classroom Activity: Spacecraft Materials and the Chemistry of Space Exploration

NASA's Cassini spacecraft is visible in front of Saturn's moon Enceladus, which is seen as a white, frosty glove with plumes in the lower left of the moon. The space around it has a purple color.

This artist rendering illustrates NASA's Cassini spacecraft flying through the plume on Saturn's moon Enceladus. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

In this lab activity, students will become materials scientists for a day. Working with NASA to design a satellite or a rover means understanding the properties of metals under conditions very unlike those on Earth. Which material should we use to construct a rover going to a planet like Venus? What if we were traveling to an icy planet or even underwater? The answer can be found in chemistry!

View the full classroom activity on the JPL Education website ›

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