Desert Environment Advanced Challenge

Suitable for:

Ideal activity for 10+

What you’ll learn:

• Planning skills
• Environmental considerations
• Communication of ideas
• Presentation of ideas on a plan and verbally
• Demonstration of problem solving skills
• Applying maths in real applications

Background:

The Bloodhound LSR High Speed Testing took place on a dry lake bed (Hakskeen Pan) in Northern Cape, South Africa. There are no facilities of any kind at the Pan; it is essentially a blank desert landscape many miles from the nearest town.

The Bloodhound project team, the car and all of their equipment had to be transported there and set up to run the project at its crucial final phase, leading to the record attempt. This involved 30 personnel for up to 90 days. This was done by Stuart Edmondson, Engineering Operations in 2019.

This video shows how crucial keeping the environment protected around Hakskeen Pan is:

Your Challenge:

Your challenge is to consider human and storage needs when running the car in South Africa and to plan a base for personnel to live and work in, set in a desert environment.

You can work in groups or on your own.

Workshop requirements:

• A large blank piece of paper
• Pens & pencils, including different colours + rulers
• Tables & chairs to work from.

Process:

Task 1:

• Work together to decide on requirements making notes, drawings, layouts, etc. on the plan provided.
• You will then need to work as a group on how you can take care of this pristine environment considering everything including recycling, energy, food, water and team welfare
• There are issues relating to water. Each person requires 200 litres per day for washing, cleaning, drinking. Calculate how much water you will need & think about how you will store it

Task 2 (Key Stage 3 Level 5+)

We also need water for washing, showers, cleaning clothes and cooking.

a) It is estimated an adult uses 5 Litres of water per shower. Supposing you have 2 showers a day (you might need this because it is so hot in the desert), how much water will be needed for the 60 people for the 90 days?

b) Supposing you chose to store this water in standard water tanks measuring 3 metres by 2 metres by 2 metres. How many of these water tanks would you need?

Task 3 (GCSE Higher Level)

a) It is suggested storing the water in a vertical cylindrical tank.Using your answer to Task 2a, calculate the height this tank would need to be?

b) How much would the water weigh?
(1 cubic metre of water weighs 1 tonne)

c) The tank has to be manufactured from metal.
The manufacturers need to know the total surface area of the cylinder. Calculate it in square metres.

Task 4

Why store the water in a cylindrical tank rather than a rectangular one?

Why not have the tank with a 20m base instead of a 5m base so it does not need to be as high?

Task 5

Simon, an engineering student came up with the idea below for a shower, in the Bloodhound LSR desert camp.

It consisted of a long rectangular water tank 450mm high, painted black, with a pipe leading to a shower head over where the person stands.

Do you think this would work? Why? What are any advantages or disadvantages you can think of?

 

 

Please share your Desert Camp plans with us:

Twitter: @bloodhound_edu
Email: enquiries@bloodhoundeducation.com