Course 1: «Martian Signal: The Althorn Family’s Space Mission»

Welcome to the author’s course — a cosmic adventure with the Altorno family, aliens from Proxima Centauri. Together with the Altorns, participants will complete missions where: Altorno, the ship’s captain, and Lirania, the chief engineer, travel to Earth with their children Zorin and Melia. Due to an unexpected error made by the artificial intelligence, their journey turns into a crash landing on Mars.

The mission, consisting of 12 parts, will teach the basics of working with Arduino and help the aliens survive on this mysterious planet.

Mission Topics:

• Pulse-width modulation (PWM) for controlling LED brightness.
• Basics of working with resistors and breadboards.
• Exploring single-color and RGB LEDs to create lighting effects.
• Using a piezo buzzer to generate sound signals.
• Controlling lighting with light sensors and potentiometers.
• Programming servos for movement and manipulation.
• Creating user interfaces with seven-segment displays, matrix keypads, and joysticks.

Each lesson is filled with practical tasks that will help participants deepen their knowledge and create projects. Together with Zorin and Melia, you will learn how to use Earth technologies to communicate with the planet and design a rescue mission to return home. The Altornians invite you to join this exciting course and become part of a space adventure that will teach not only technical skills, but also collaboration and creative thinking in critical situations.

Now, meet the characters of our story:

Parents

Althorn – the father, captain of the ship. Determined, with extensive experience in space flights and strategic planning.

Lirania – the mother, chief engineer. A skillful technology and mechanics expert, able to solve any technical problem through her inventiveness and knowledge.

Children

Zorin – the son, 12 years old. A curious and brave boy who dreams of becoming a pilot like his father. He loves studying the night sky and exploring navigation charts.

Melia – the daughter, 10 years old. A creative and energetic girl with a sharp mind and a love for science. She assists her mother with engineering tasks and often finds unconventional solutions to difficult problems.