 The date is May 16, 1992, or is that 2012? The location is NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio, or is it? This dichotomy was not a problem for about 200 students, teachers, and volunteers participating in the Northeast Ohio Premier of Marsville, the cosmic village. If I could wave my hand right now, what I'd like for all of you to do in the next few minutes is to pretend. And what I would like for you to pretend in the next few minutes is that suddenly we have been transported into the next century. And not only have we been transported into the next century, but we are located on the surface of Mars. And on the surface, perhaps you're located near that tall volcano Olympus Mons, which is nearly 19 miles tall, or perhaps you're near one of the old craters that is on the surface. Or maybe you're located near Valus Marineris. That's the large canyon that stretches across Mars, and is over 2,000 miles in length, and in some places is over four miles deep. And you're on the surface today to create that first Martian settlement, which is Marsville. Marsville is a student activity that is sponsored by the Challenger Center for Space Science Education and the Educational Information and Resource Center. The Space Agency Forum for the International Space Year has called this program a recommended educational activity for the International Space Year in 1992. Marsville link-ups are springing up throughout the country. In accordance with NASA's commitment to help get young people interested in math, science and technology, the Marsville and the Hangar at NASA Lewis Research Center was sponsored by the Office of Educational Programs. This was the first Marsville link-up at any NASA field center. It's really then most befitting that you be at the NASA Lewis Research Center, and it's my pleasure on behalf of Larry Ross, the Center Director, and all of the staff here to welcome you here today. The students involved in this Marsville link-up came from 16 different schools in a three-county area around Cleveland. The students are in the fifth to eighth grade. I have fifth graders, and the excitement was tremendous. The kids were very enthusiastic. They worked through a lot of problem-solving scenarios, and we had fun after school, two to three to five days a week on the last week. On May 16th, ten teams of students would build habitats on the Martian surface. Each team consisted of groups of students from three different schools. The students met face-to-face for the first time at NASA Lewis Research Center. Prior to this link-up, the only contact these students had was by telephone and fax machine. Each team was assigned a life support system that they were responsible for bringing to the colony. Once they completed that, they worked on team uniforms, sensing the identity of their team and recognizing that artistically in creating a uniform. They packed their own lunches according to very strict Marsville regulations, and then they had to talk to teams from other schools. They were grouped by three and four teams at peace and decide how they were going to build these inflatable habitats when they got here today. They never met in person before they were here today. The student teams each had to design a support system for a specific area. Life support, communications, food production and delivery, environmental control, or waste management. The modules were designed and built before arrival at Marsville. While construction was going on, each team sent representatives to be evaluated in two areas, uniforms and meal selections. They were asked questions about their uniforms by members of the Office of Educational Program staff. The meals were evaluated on content if they contained the four food groups and by weight. After all, these meals would have to travel about 141 million miles before being consumed. Also looked at was recyclability and usability of food wrappers and containers. After the ten habitat pods were completed, the students toured the Marsville complex. As they stopped in the different pods, the home team explained their ideas and systems, asked questions and gave their views. Before the visitors moved on, bonus cards were exchanged on the basis of responses, personal recognition, and for a job well done. After lunch, the students then converted the individual pods of Marsville into a community, Marsville, the cosmic village. They did this by constructing interconnect tunnels between adjoining pods. When this was completed, all of the pods were connected and the students revisited each of the pods by starting at one end and passing the tunnels to move from pod to pod until they emerged from the last one. At the conclusion of the day's activities, the pods were deflated and the participants were asked to evaluate the day's events. The students were also presented with certificates of participation. Here are some comments from participants. It was kind of fun thinking of how to do it because I make the tunnel since I was the tunnel maker and, well, Over did a lot of help for me today and we did a lot of things together today. I think it was fun putting the bubbles up. Yeah. Sorry. It's just how to cooperate like it's in a story and how to... We never fought. We never had put this together since we were sitting here. We had never done this before, so it was like... Especially, I really thought we were going to fight because we had never seen these people and you're like... going at their face. They're really nice people. I think their smiles on their face says it all and I think the group collaboration efforts were wonderful. They did a great job. I'm so proud of them. You know, today we're pretending that we're in the future. We're pretending that we're building this bridge. Do you know in the future it is not impossible to dream that maybe in 20 years to 30 years from now that some of you seated on this floor may be driving through this gate working at the NASA Lewis Research Center to help build those bridges.