Criteria
The required goals, specifications, or success standards that an engineering design or system
must meet.
An early, functional physical model of a design used to test performance, evaluate criteria, and
identify areas for improvement
Prototype
Martian Regolith
The layer of unconsolidated, weathered rock, fine dust, and mineral soil covering the solid
bedrock of Mars.
Physical Change
A change affecting the form or appearance of a material without altering its underlying chemical
composition (e.g., mechanical filtration, phase changes, dissolving).
Constraints
The limits, restrictions, or boundaries placed on a design project (e.g., maximum mass budgets,
strict safety parameters, cost, time).
The required goals, specifications, or success standards that an engineering design or system
must meet.
Criteria
Physical Property
A characteristic of matter that can be observed or measured without changing the substance's
chemical identity (e.g., state, color, particle size, magnetic properties)
Chemical Change
A process in which one or more chemical substances are transformed into entirely new
substances with different chemical properties (e.g., acid-base neutralization
Prototype
An early, functional physical model of a design used to test performance, evaluate criteria, and
identify areas for improvement
A controlled experimental test where only one variable (independent) is intentionally changed at
a time while all other conditions are kept identical.
Fair Test
Chemical Property
A characteristic that describes a substance's ability to undergo a chemical transformation and
change into a new substance (e.g., reactivity, acidity, flammability).
Neutralization
A chemical reaction between an acid and a base that shifts the solution toward a neutral pH
(approximately 7.0), forming water and a salt.
Fair Test
A controlled experimental test where only one variable (independent) is intentionally changed at
a time while all other conditions are kept identical.
The limits, restrictions, or boundaries placed on a design project (e.g., maximum mass budgets,
strict safety parameters, cost, time).
Constraints
Acidity / pH
A standard chemical scale (ranging from 0 to 14) used to specify how acidic (pH < 7) or basic/
alkaline (pH > 7) an aqueous solution is.
MARS
The fourth planet from the Sun, reddish in color.