A4 pages = 17  word count = 1341 (includes images, and video links).

Minecraft Education Edition – Free lesson plan: Create a Lunar Space Station

Design Brief: Create a Lunar Space Station

Individually, or in your teams, create a moon station to be used for deep space exploration. For example, reaching and establishing a space station on Mars (or elsewhere).

Keywords and Keyphrases:

Minecraft Education, Lunar base, STEM, collaboration, regolith, space exploration, moon, SpaceX, Elon Musk, LOP-G Moonbase, NASA, Roscosmos, moon dust, oxygen, food, water, space travel, spacecraft, physics, chemistry, moon village, design, deep space

Driving questions for this lesson:

1. What are our plans with the moon?
2. What is on the moon which we can use? Alternatively, how can we use the moon to our benefit?
3. How could the moon be used as a space station or a place where people can live?
4. What are the plans for future space explorations? Investigate Richard Branson and Elon Musk’s ideas (SpaceX)? How are they going to accommodate people in outer space?

Learning Objectives

• Students will learn about the ethics involved in the Moon use by humans
• Students will learn about mining Moon minerals from a Minecraft perspective
• Students will learn about NASA’s, and Roscosmos’ new LOP-G Moonbase project and have their chance to design all or some of the LOP-G. Read more here: https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2018/04/nasas-proposed-multi-billion-orbiting-moonbase-used-to-justify-50-billion-space-launch-system.html
• Students will design Lunar living facilities and consider modern lunar transport designs
• Students will consider building materials. For example, regolith (dust on the moon surface) could be used in 3-D printing. Building blocks could be produced by using the regolith available on the surface.