Congratulations! You have just been hired as one of several consultant groups for The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA. They want your group to analyze data that has been collected from throughout the solar system to determine which planet or moon is the best target for a space mission to look for life. Since NASA is working on a tight budget you can only make one recommendation. For this reason you must present your findings, along with any evidence to support you choice, to a committee composed of your fellow NASA consultants in order to convince them that your target holds the best chance of success.
Using the resources provided in this webquest, your team will look at a variety of different spacial bodies. Your first task will be to learn, as a group, all that you can about our home planet Earth. From there your team will split up and each member will explore two other planets or moons on their own. After everyone on the team has completed the research stage, you will meet back up and discuss your findings. Once you have gone over all of your data as a group, it will be time to decide which spatial body your team thinks NASA should visit to look for alien life and why. You will then assemble this information, along with supporting evidence and reasons for turning down other possible targets, in a presentation to the rest of the NASA committee.
