For the last several years, the authors have implemented an integrated Mars Colony project for their third-grade classes. Students explored several considerations related to colonizing and inhabiting a new world, including food sources, types of citizens, transportation, and housing design. Nearly everything about the project was open-ended, full of student choice, authentic, and original. Making and launching model rockets was always a favorite part of the project. Building solid fuel rockets almost entirely from scratch was a valuable experience. However, despite a few artistic differences, students' designs were nearly identical and didn't fit the open-ended feel of the Mars project. They wanted to improve the rocketry project to better match their problem-based experience as well as find ways to better use equipment in their school's dedicated makerspace. This article describes how they developed an integrated set of lessons allowing students to design and make a specialized payload that would travel inside their rockets and return safely to solid ground. It became an authentic maker experience integrating science, math, literacy, and human-centered design principles over a period of several weeks.