Reference no: EM133456441
Case Study: Although building things is a lot of fun, making a useful prototype takes a lot of planning, and it also involves a lot of time and materials, which means it may cost some money. Larger and more complex projects obviously require much more planning, and may be very expensive. However, prototypes become even more important for larger projects, so that millions of dollars are not spend building a final product that does not work properly!
Now that you have a basic idea about prototyping, you and your classmates will share thoughts and ideas that will help you see "the big picture" of what you're learning. If you give this activity your all, it will be easier for you to see how concepts in science connect to a variety of topics outside of this course, such as politics, economics, and social issues. The Discussion Board is a tool that will help you better grasp why the content you are learning matters.
For this discussion board, you can respond to the original questions below, and you can reply to others' comments. Please refer to your teacher for more information on expectations for each post and for extra help.
To answer some of the questions, you may need to do research. Remember to cite any sources you use if you do.
Building prototypes is a large part of engineering a successful project. The more complex and expensive the project, the more important prototypes become. But, how is a prototype of something as massively complex as a rocket or a spacecraft built?
Questions: Research the prototypes developed and used for NASA's space shuttle program. Then, answer the following questions.
- Describe one of the prototypes that you researched.
- In what ways were the space shuttle prototypes designed to make them as inexpensive as possible?
- What type of prototypes do you think would be necessary to successfully send a manned mission to Mars and to set up a small colony there? How would the prototypes work? What would they be made of?