— Day 1 — Day 2 — Day 3 — Day 4 — Day 5 —

Summary:
Today was the second day of the Marooned on Mars project, but really the first day of students working. Most group’s decided to tackle the “obtain safe drinking water” goal first. Some groups built homemade water filters, some boiled water to kill germs, and some even made their own charcoal to absorb contaminants. But I think the cleverest solution was the one described in the video above: simply use a phase change. Water is really the only substance that turns into a gas at 212°F, so by boiling the wastewater you can extract clean H₂O gas. And then by cooling off the gas, you can condense it back into liquid water! Drink up, Mark Watney.

Resources:
November 2-7 – Marooned on Mars (pg221).docx