By Zach Hammack, Lincoln Journal Star, June 22, 2021
A team of scientists has just landed on the edge of the Shackleton Crater, an abyss on the moon's South Pole cloaked in shadow.
The crew — a chemist, a hydrologist and an astronautical engineer — is on a mission: Install an endothermic electrolysis reactor in the crater that splits molecules of water in two, providing hydrogen for fuel and oxygen to breathe for future visitors.
But the mission hits a wall. There's an implosion in the reactor.
With a bit of ingenuity, the engineer improvises, converting an extra oxygen tank into a fuel container.
And like that, with the reactor now operational for five years, the scientists are off, departing in the Dream Big Moon Pod in which they arrived.
Three, two, one. Liftoff!
While this reads like a realistic description of a NASA mission to the moon in the not-too-distant future, the story of these scientists is the unique vision of Amanda Gutierrez, whose essay detailing the imagined moon landing won the incoming sophomore at Lincoln Pius X High School a trip to a rocket launch this fall.
Gutierrez's essay, "Dream Big Moon Pod," took home the top prize last month in the high school category of NASA's Artemis Moon Pod essay contest, which invited students from across the country to envision how they would lead a crew's mission on the moon's south pole.
Read full story at:
https://journalstar.com/news/local/education/lincoln-pius-x-student-shoots-for-the-moon-with-essay-earns-trip-to-historic-nasa/article_9f230c2a-c3d1-5bf1-8308-d44926f2cd4a.html