Ari

4/9/12 Log Entry #1
 * Mars Fact Sheet**
 * Mars and Earth orbit the sun at different speeds
 * They line up and are close enough to each other about every to years
 * Need to launch when Earth and Mars are aligned so the distance between is as short as possible so that we can use less fuel
 * Need to aim where mars will be, not where it is currently
 * Mars is covered by hundreds of thousands of craters
 * Has huge dust storms
 * Mars has seasons, in winter rover wont be able to do anything
 * Only gets 44% sunlight so need a __backup__ generating
 * Takes 7-8 months to travel to mars
 * Very cold (-250 C) rover needs to be able to withstand cold temperatures
 * Temperature varies greatly within a few feet of the surface
 * Rover needs good traction as surface is rocky and has loose soil

//Ms. Mc: Good general overview about Mars and its conditions based on our __class__ discussion but don't see much original work (-2). Need to relate all facts to what impact they would have for getting a rover to Mars or for working on Mars (-1/2). 7.5/10//

Log Entry #2 =**History of Rockets**= 4/9/12

=== The first rocket-like machine was called an aeolipile. It was created in 100 BC by a man named Hero of Alexandria. He used steam as his propulsive gas. He put a kettle with two L-shaped arms over boiling water. The steam was forced out of arms and cause the kettle to spin. The Chinese put gun powder powered rockets on arrows and shot them at enemies. They were not too accurate but were definitely scary. The first date for the recorded use of these was in 1232. === === A Russian man named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first to think that space could be explored by rockets. In his report from 1903, he also suggested using liquid fuel to achieve a greater range of travel. Because of his ideas he is called the "father of modern aeronautics." But, the first person to actually use his ideas was Robert Goddard, an American. He had the first rocket fueled by liquid propellants. On March 16, 1926 his liquid fueled rocket flew for 2.5 seconds, but reached a height of 12.5 meters. Because of his achievements, he is called the "father of modern rocketry." Since we now know how, everyone started to make rockets. Germany created the V-2 rocket as a weapon to use in WWII. Russia used rockets to launch the first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit around the earth. The US used its rockets to put man on the moon. Rockets used to be little gunpowder things, but now they range from little toys to huge vehicles for space travel. ===

Figure 1. This is the hero engine that was built in 100 BC

Figure 2. Chinese soldier firing a rocket arrow

//Ms. Mc: Good general overview of the history of rocketry. When discussing history, always include dates (-1/2). Good drawings. Remember, that the caption should include a title and not a sentence. Please refere to your figures in your text too. (9.5/10)//

Simulation of Rocket Going to Mars Log entry #3 4/9/12

media type="custom" key="14053982" Instructions for Playing Simulation: Just click on the Green Flag to start, and the Red button to stop. If simulation doesn't work, click the "learn more" link above.

Matthew G: Good simulation but give more time to read definitions

Luke M: I like the sound at the end of the simulation, but I __agree__ with Matthew for the first few definitions. Also all of the definitions were correct

Log Entry 4 Labeled Rocket Figure 1- the rocket with it's parts labeled

The nose cone is the very top of the rocket. It helps the rocket cut through the air and improve it's aerodynamics. As seen in figure 1, the body tube is the largest part of the rocket. It houses all the recovery systems, the motor, and has the fins. The recovery system consists of a parachute that is ejected from the rocket and returns it to the ground safely. The recovery wadding provides a protective barrier between the motor and the parachute. That way the parachute does not get burned. The motor mount just holds the motor inside the rocket. The motor provides all the thrust for the rocket. The fins are on the side of the main tube and stabilize the rocket while it's in flight. The launch lug hold the rocket on the guiding metal rod that keeps it straight at the beginning of flight.

// Ms. Mc: Good labels and descriptions! 10/10 //

Log Entry 5 MSL Launch __Vehicle__

The launch vehicle chosen for the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) is the Atlas 5 rocket. This was chosen because of it's size and power. NASA had to take into consideration the weight of the MSL when choosing a rocket to carry it. It needed to be big enough to get out of earths orbit and big enough to carry the large package. At 191 feet tall and 1.17 million pounds, the atlas 5 was perfect for the job.

The three main parts of the rocket are the nose cone, the centaur motor, and the four rocket boosters as seen in figure 1. These play a big role in the stages of the rocket.There are two stages for the rocket. The first of which consists of the oxygen and fuel tanks that launch the rocket into space. once these fall back down to earth we reach the second stage. This centaur stage. The centaur mechanism gives and extra boost to propel the remaining parts out of earth's orbit. The nose cone splits apart and the final projectile is shot forward towards it's destination. Ms. Mc: Good summary and I like how you labeled the photo. Missing one part, the common core booster, which with the SRBs lift the rocket off the launch pad. 9/10

Log Entry 6 Rocket Launch Lab Analysis

Rockets were launched as an experiment to test if mass affects the apogee of the rocket. It was hypothesized that the more mass the rocket had, the lower its apogee would be. That was thought because, the more mass that a rocket has, the harder it would be for the rocket to get going and keep going. The forces that that acted on the rocket were gravity, the push from the motor, and a tiny bit of wind resistance. To make sure that it was a fair test, there was only one variable. That variable was the mass of the rocket. Other things like materials, motors and launch angle were all the same in each test. This made sure that only the mass would affect the apogee. 
 * Figure 1. Rocket Mass Compared to Apogee **

The rocket’s masses ranged from 43.5 (g), to 47.2 (g). As seen in figure 1, the lightest rocket had the highest apogee at 142.8 (m). This shows that the lighter rocket flew the highest. Our heaviest rocket weighed in at 47.2 (g), it reached an apogee of 100 (m). The relationship between mass and apogee is an inverse relationship. This was also proved when the lightest rocket had the highest apogee and the heaviest had one of the lowest. That means that when mass went up, the apogee went down. This proves that the heavier rockets will have a lower apogee. The hypothesis that was made was proved correct because there was an inverse relationship between the mass and the apogee. The heaviest rocket (47.2 g) was not the rocket with the lowest apogee. As seen in figure 1, the lowest apogee was 71.3 (m) and it was reached by one of the rockets that weighed 46 (g). it only reached this height, because it had somedifficulties. In midflight the motor fell out. Without the thrust from the motor the rocket could reach its maximum height. This was just one of the things that could affect the apogee. Because there were two days of launches, the weather played a factor in the apogee of the rockets. But for the most part, mass affected the apogee by making the apogee go down when the mass went up.

Log Entry 7 Rock Fin Redesign

Figure 1. Design for new rocket fins.

I thought that this design would help the rocket reach i higher apogee. I thought this because with more fins (as seen in figure 1) the rocket should be more stabilized. The mass of the first launch was 46 g. The new mass is 47.1. the three extra fins added a good amount of weight. The first launch was a lot better than the second. Since the rocket was not stable at all, it spiraled out of control, it reached an apogee of 8. that is only a fraction of the first apogee. The extra fins added a good amount of weight, which could have affected the apogee. Our center of gravity was below the center of pressure, that cause our rocket to fly randomly.

Log Entry 8 Robotics History

The term "robot" was first introduced in 1920 by a writer named Karel Capek. His play, Rossum's Universal Robots, introduced the idea of the creatures being made in a factory and mistaken for humans. The word "robotics" was eventually coined by another writer by the name of Isaac Asimov. In 1948, the principles of cybernetics were formulated by Norbert Weiner. These became the basis for all practical robots. The first actual robots only appeared in the second half of the 20th century. The first of which was the Unimate. In 1961 it lifted hot pieces of metal from a die casting machine and stacked them. Industrial robots, like the Unimate, are widely used now. They perform jobs more cheaply, reliably and accurately than humans. They are used in widely in manufacturing because they be programmed to do the same job over and over with the same results. Robots are also used for jobs that are too dangerous for humans, and are also used in earth and space exploration, surgery, weaponry, and laboratory research.

// Ms. Mc - good summary, Ari, but you forgot to include 2 figures (-4). Also, please date your entries. 6/10 //

Log Entry 9 NXT Robotics 5/18/12

we had to program lego robots to do things. We had to make them go forward and backward and turn around. we could move them in a way, and then they would repeat what we did. And as seen in video and figure 1, we made the robots stop at a line before falling off a table. (How was it supposed to start and what sensors were you to use? -1)

media type="file" key="ankrobotvideo.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video 1. Robot stopping at line

FIgure 1. Code for Stopping at Line

There is an invisible block called "wait for sound" at the very beginning. It tells the robot to wait until a certain sound was heard before moving. The way we used this is when i said "go." The green block tells the robot to go forward. You can tell how fast it’s going because the little windshield is about 75% full. It will go forever because we set the distance bar to unlimited, you can tell that because there is an infinity symbol at the bottom. This block controls port CB. The next block tells the robot to stop at a certain color. This block tells a sensor to turn on and do it's job. Its job is to tell how much light reflects off different surfaces. Once a certain light is detected, it will trigger the next block. And the block after that tells the robot to play a sound once everything else is done. The robot says "watch out," at 75% volume.

Ms. Mc - incomplete. Please be sure to check your work against the prompt. 13.5/20

Log #11 Life on Mars 6/4/12

Scientists, astronomers, and regular people have always been intrigued with Mars. There are three reasons this is so: the first of which, is that Mars is the planet that most closely resembles Earth. The second is that, other than Earth, Mars was then most likely to have developed life. And the third reason is that Mars will probably be the first actual planet to be visited by humans. A fourth reason that has come up sort of recently, is that meteorites from Mars were researched and found to have microbial life. That was very exciting until other scientists proved that theory wrong, which was a downer. But again, scientists are going back to that same specimen and examining it again, looking for things they might have missed. Because new technology has been developed over the years, they are very interested in what they might find. The USA launched a mission dubbed Mariner 9 (as seen in figure 1), that was the first spacecraft to be put in Mars' orbit. It returned around 7,330 pictures, covering around 80% of Mars' surface. It showed tons of volcanic activity and a lot of water erosion. We now know that life can be supported in much harsher conditions than previously thought. On Mars, since the conditions are much harsher than on Earth, we used to think that was a bad thing, but now we know that it doesn't actually change much. Figure 1 - The Mariner 9 orbiter

If we find life on Mars with the current mission, the MSL, it will not be full blown life. But probably more like microbial life. Microorganisms or microbes are single-celled ( Like figure 2), cell-clustered, or multi-cellular organisms. These organisms are microscopic and impossible to see with your eye. Since it is more likely to find these on Mars, MSL has many devices to detect these tiny life forms. MSL has acid, a spectrometer and a device to drill into rocks and test their contents. If we were to find a microbe, the most likely way that we would find is in a fossil after it has died. We could classify it as dead because it used have the characteristics of life (ie. responds to stimuli, uses energy, has cells) but does not anymore. In the case that we did find one alive, it would have to have adapted to to the Martian environment, respond to stimuli, use energy, and need materials. In later missions, if we wanted to bring one back to Earth, we would probably bring it back in a dormant state. That way it can still be able to live once it is on Earth. and once it is here, it would still be able to grow and reproduce and we could study it. All of these will be used to find microbial life, but if we find a living thing the size of a human, your guess is as good as mine for what NASA will do.

Figure 2 - single celled microorganism

//Ms. Mc - well-written overview with good supporting evidence. Not sure about finding human-like life on Mars though :) 10/10//