Katie

Facts about Mars you need to know in order to get a rover there

 * Distance from Earth: 56 – 399 million km or 35 - 249 million miles
 * Cold temperatures ranging from -125 – 25 o C
 * Crust: solid and rocky
 * Mars' surface is covered in craters (hundreds of thousands) so need to pick smooth landing site
 * Orbit inclination: 1.85 degrees
 * There are seasons that change temperature
 * It takes 214 days to reach Mars
 * Now scientists use Hohmann transfer orbits to launch rockets into space
 * Lots of dust and dust storms on Mars—could block solar panels or damage rover
 * Can't run into moons
 * Need to steer and maneuver around rocky sandy craterous surface

// Ms. Mc: Good facts, Katie, but you also were to discuss how you would need to take them into account to get a rover to Mars and have it operate on its surface (-1). Please make all additions we cover in our class discussions as well (-1/2). Good job, overall. 8.5/10 //

History of Rocketry
Throughout history, different forms of rockets have been used to make the ones we have today. The first step toward making the first rockets was the creation of the Hero Engine, displayed in figure 2, by Hero of Alexandria, from Greece. He used steam as a propulsive gas to make a ball spin, resembling an engine. The Chinese also first used rockets as fireworks for celebrations. Eventually they used the rockets as bombs for war. However, these rockets were only used for simple purposes, not for space exploration. The first person who introduced the idea of using rockets for space exploration was Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a schoolteacher from Russia. Robert Goddard, an American, flew the first rocket propelled with liquid fuel instead of solid gunpowder. Verein fur Raumschiffahrt, from Germany, used rockets in World War 2 to attack London. Back in America, NASA was created to peacefully explore space. This is how NASA, and the modern rocket, which is depicted in figure 1, came to be: with help from many d ifferent cultures.



//Ms. Mc: Good general overview of the main contributions to the science of rocketry but left out Sputnik (-1/2). Also, dates are important when discussion history (-1/2). Pleaser refer to your figures in your text (i.e., "as seen in Figure 1, . . .). Second drawing is a litle vague and doesn't add to your piece (-1). 8/10.//

Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation
media type="custom" key="14055568"

Instructions to run simulation:

Click on green flag to start simulation

Make sure sound is on.

If simulation doesn´t appear, click on the ¨learn more about this project¨ link above.

Rachel L. - love the dancing people! the rocket could have been slower. I liked the rover!

Brett - Nice colors, but I think that there was too much background switching. You did switch backgrounds perfectly though.

Model Rocket Diagram


All parts of the rocket in figure 1 contribute to making it fly the best it can. The body tube provides the structure while the nosecone streamlines the flight, reducing air resistance. The launch lug gets the rocket to fly straight off the pad while working with the fins who keep it flying straight once it´s in the air. The motor mount holds the motor in place while the motor provides the thrust. The recovery system allows the rocket to be reused again as the wadding protects it from burning up when the motor catches fire. //Ms. Mc: Good labels and descriptions! 10/10//

Mars Science Laboratory Launch Vehicle, Atlas V-541


The Atlas V-541 is a Launch Vehicle, which means it is a spacecraft that carries the rover to Mars. What makes this different than other Launch Vehicles, though, is that it is 191 feet tall and 1.17 million pounds. This means that it has the right liftoff capability for the rover Curiosity. It was also chosen as the vehicle for this mission because other similar models have been successful in the past. The Atlas V-541 is comprised of the common core booster, four smaller motors, a nosecone or payload fairing, and an engine called the Centaur. The nosecone protects the spacecraft when it's traveling through the Earth's atmosphere and protects the rover. The common core booster and the four motors on the sides increase engine thrust and finally the Centaur engine fires first to put rocket in Earth's orbit, and then again to push rocket out of orbit and into space. By then the motors and the payload/nosecone have come off and the spacecraft is ready to cruise until it gets to Mars.

// Ms. Mc: Great overview! I appreciate the fact that you drew your picture, however, it would have been even better if you labeled the common core booster and the Centaur as well. Please refer to your figure in your text (-1/2). 9.5/10 //

Rocket Lab Introduction
The purpose of this experiment was to see if the mass of a student-created rocket affected how high the rocket flew when launched. Different forces acted on the rockets when they were in different stages of flight. When rocket was sitting on the launch pad, the forces acting on it were the force of gravity and the force of the launch pad reflecting the gravity. Gravity is the force between the rocket and the Earth, and it is greater for rockets with greater masses. When the rockets were launched it began powered flight, and the forces acting on it were gravity, the force of thrust, and the force of air resistance. Thrust was the power produced by the engines in the rockets, and this was the same for all the rockets. Air resistance, however, is how the air pushes back on the rocket. Air resistance is greater for rockets with greater masses, and it makes the apogee less also. When the rockets’ thrust was turned off, the rockets coasted, and the forces acting on them then were gravity and air resistance, making the apogee less, and inertia, which is not a force. Inertia is how the rocket keeps going once the thrust is turned off. During the brief moment of the apogee, the forces of gravity and air resistance balanced the force of inertia, suspending the rocket in midair for a moment before it began its decent. It was hypothesized that if the mass of the rocket was greater, then the height of the apogee would be lower because gravity and air resistance, which are greater for rockets with greater mass, kept the massive rockets from having a higher apogee. The masses of the rockets were everywhere from 42.2 to 45.9. The range of the apogee hight is 107.24 through 53.2. Most of the data shown in graph 1 was reasonable, but rocket number 4 was an outlier that should have flown about 80 meters higher if it fit in with the predicted line. This was possibly due to an angle gun error. The masses of the rockets were inversely related to the hight of the apogee becaues rockets with less mass tended to fly higher, and more massive rockets tended to fly lower. The prediced line of relationship went through 5 of the 9 points, rocket numbers 3, 1, 9, 7, and 6. The hypothesis was correct when it prediced that when the mass of the rockets were greater, the apogee would be greater because evidence in graph 1 supports it. Rocket 3 was tied for the lightest and it flew the highest. Rocket 6 was the heaviest and flew the lowest except for the outlier.. There were ways error could have occurred in the experiment though, because there was a light wind on the day of launch and different people measured the angles every time. Wind could have pushed the rockets higher or lower, and different people could have different ways of measuring the angles. Also the sample size was small, and the masses weren’t very varied, so error could hace occurred that way.

Rocket Fin Re-Design
Figure 1 shows the way we redesigned our rocket to fly higher. All we did was move the three fins on the bottom and sandpaper the fins and body tube to take off mass. We figured that the people who designed the rockets in the first place would make them so they would fly the highest. //(Ms. Mc - good thought!)// During our first rocket flight, the rocket weighed 44.1 grams and during the second flight the rocket weighed 43.3 grams. For the first flight, the rocket's apogee was 82.4 meters, and the second flight went only 51.1 meters. There were no drastic changes made to the rocket; only one fin was more evenly placed and some of the glitter was taken off the sides, reducing the mass. Also during the first flight, our rocket veered to the left, but during the second flight, the rocket went straight up and appeared to go much higher than the last time. //(Ms. Mc - but the data doesn't support this. Why do you think?)//

History of Robotics
Robotics started very long ago in 350 B.C. when a Greek mathematician named Archytes built a mechanical bird. In 1495 Leonardo DaVinci created a figure that looks and moves like an armored knight, however it wasn't until leter in the 1700s when robotics started to really take it's shape. In 1738 three automatons were invented by Jacques de Vaucanson (depicted below), the last and most famous being a duck that quacked, waddled, and even digested food. From 1770 to 1898 many more impressive yet simple machines were invented. Dolls could write, sing, and draw, looms and boats were designed to work with punch cards and remote controls. Soon after, the modern robots were developed. The idea of actual robots began taking shape in the mid 1900s. The word robot was first associated with the automatons Rossum's Universal Robotics, a play commonly referred to as R.U.R. and shown below. Also in this time period, movies and books were written about the subject. In the 1960s, things start picking up. Artificial Intelligence Laboratories are founded at a number of schools, where research is conducted and robotic mechanisms are produced. Robot arms are created for medical purposes, and computer-operated mechanical hands are put into use. Robots are used for many purposes now, like forming questions out of user's statements and of course, for entertainment. By now robots are much more detailed than the bird that started it all in 350 B.C., like the Cyberkife that is used to treat tumors, and let's not forget the importance of robotics in space exploration.



//Ms. Mc: Good summary, Katie, You need to # the figures in the order that you discuss them in your text and specifically refer to them in your text (i.e., "As seen in Figure #1, ....). -1/2. 9.5/10//

Curiosoity Rover
Curiosity, although designed to be like its preceding rovers, is twice as long and five times as heavy concealed in 10 times bigger a payload. Curiosity, unlike Spirit and Opportunity, contains instruments for sampling, processing, and analyzing rocks and soil. Curiosity is different because its mission is to explore if the conditions for microbial life on Mars or clues preserved in rocks are favorable. The rover will also function slightly differently. For example, the power will be generated with a radioisotope power generator that turns heat from radioactive decay into electricity. Also a new landing method will be used, and scientists will communicate with the rover through radio relays through Mars orbiters. The main part of the rover is the Sample Acquisition/Sample Preparation and Handling System, that contains machines that dust off rocks, drill into rocks, scoop soil, and collect particles of rocks that they deliver to the lab machines to analyze. This is the brawn of the rover, and can be seen below in figure 1. The brains, however, consist of multiple instruments which are described and depicted below in figure 2. The Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) is made up of a gas chromatograph, mass spectrometer, and a tunable laser spectrometer. These instruments analyze samples brought in by the robotic arm to identify organic compounds to determine isotope ratios. CheMin is an X-ray machine that examines raw samples. it determines how much of which minerals are in the rocks and soils. The Mars Hand Lens Imager takes extreme close-up pictures of materials on Mars's surface. The Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer calculates amount of different elements in rocks and soil. The Mast Camera is a hi-def video camera positioned at eye-level that takes in video to be stored away. The ChemCam vaporizes thin layers from Martian rocks. It also has camera that takes pictures of the rocks illuminated by the beam. The Radiation Assessment Detector assesses the radiation of Mars's surface. This relates to whether or not life is supported on Mars. The Rover Environment Monitoring System measures atmospheric pressure, weather, and ultraviolet radiation levels. The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) measures hydrogen levels one meter below the bottom of the rover and it detects water below the surface.



// Ms. Mc - very good overview of Curiosity's mission and instruments. Your first figure is of Opportunity though and not Curiosity (-1/2). 9.5/10 //

On The Edge
Description of Challenge: For this challenge, we had to program our robots to use either the light or the distance (ultrasonic) sensor to detect what it is used for. There is a strip of blue tape on the edge of a table, so that when the robot gets near the tape or the edge, it will stop. Caleb and I programmed our robot to detect the change of light (blue tape) and stop and say, "watch out!". Look at video 1 below for example. How did the robot start? -1/2

media type="file" key="ontheedgevideo.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video 1: robot completing on the edge challenge



Code explanation: Block 1 tells the robot to stop Ports? -1/2 Block 2 tells the robot to detect a certain sound level and then move on the the next block Port? -1/2 What volume of sound? -1/2 Block 3 tells the robot to move forward forever (until block 4) Ports? Blocks 4 and 5 and tell the robot to stop when a certain amount of light (light given off by the blue tape) is detected. Port? Amount of light? -1/2 Block 6 tells the robot to say "watch out!" Volume? Block 7 tells the robot to wait 1 second.

//Ms. Mc - good overall, just missing a few details. 17.5/20//

Microorganisms and Life on Mars
Studies have shown that life can live in harsh environments, which increases the chances of life being able to survive on Mars. Also, proof has been provided to show that Earth and Mars exchanged materials at a time when the environments were very similar. Figure 1 shows a meteor from Mars, which represents the time when materials were freely exchanged between the planets. When a group of scientists announced that they had discovered life on a meteorite from Mars with proof, debate about this topic led to their claims being shot down as the evidence could have been provided without the help of life. Now however, there is evidence of liquid water flowing on Mars. Rovers Spirit and Opportunity found evidence of water that used to flow on Mars, further proving (suggesting) that life may have existed on Mars. Microorganisms, also called microbes, are single celled or made up of cell clusters. Figure 2 below shows microbes underneath a microscope. Microbes are a large category of living things that are microscopic sized. "Living things" means that this thing has all 8 characteristics of life (and all are fully functioning), which means this things is made of cells, needs materials, is homeostatic, responds to stimuli, reproduces, grows, adapts, and uses energy. If a sample of microbes from Mars contained all 8 elements, it would be classified as alive. It would be dead if some of the characteristics used to be working and aren’t now, and it would be dormant if the characteristics are stopped temporarily or slowed down, but either of these things would mean there was life on Mars at some point. Something would be categorized as nonliving if not all 8 characteristics had ever been functioning.



// Ms. Mc - great overview and photos! 10/10 //