Jacob

= Log Entry #1: = = Jacob H = = Mars Facts: =
 * = Mars has two poles =
 * = It is the fourth planet closest to the sun =
 * = It is right next to earth =
 * = It is the third smallest planet =
 * = Water has been discovered on this planet =
 * = We have sent robots to Mars to bring back samples and to video tape it =
 * = We have sent many successful Rover's there =
 * = There is lots of evidence that water has been there =
 * = Our rovers have survived much longer than excepted. =

= = = To send a Rover to Mars, you would need to know: = //Ms. Mc: good overview of facts about Mars and what you woud need to know about Mars in order to send a rover there. You were to get some of the answers to your questions from the websites provided and from our class discussion (-2). 8/10//
 * = How far away mars is =
 * = How much fuel your rocket would need to get there =
 * = How fast the rocket is =
 * = What size of rocket you would need to send a rover based on it's weight =
 * = How the rover can land on mars =
 * = How long the rover could last on mars =
 * = The correct timing when earth is lined up with mars =
 * = Mars is covered by thousands of craters, so you need to pick a safe landing place =
 * = Mars has dust storms that can damage the rover =

=Log Entry #2= =Jacob H= =History of Rocketry= =The first sights of a “Rocket like” device occurred around 100 BC by a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria. It was known as the Hero engine. He used steam as a propulsive gas, and mounted a sphere on top of a kettle. A fire placed under the kettle turned water into steam, and blew out a tube in the sphere, propelling the sphere. The next appearance of rockets occurred with the Chinese. They used bamboo sticks filled with gun-powder to create explosions in parties and festivals. When some of the bamboo sticks shot up in the air instead of exploding, they attached them to arrows, and shot them at their Mongol enemies.= =Much later in time, Konstanin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of exploring space by rocketry. He suggested using liquid propellants in order for the rockets to achieve greater range. He stated that the speed and the range of a rocket were only limited by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. Later, and American named Robert Goddard made a rocket fueled by gasoline and liquid oxygen. It was successful, and started off modern rocketry. In the great World Wars, rockets were made by Germans known as the V-2 rockets.= =Russia and America were in a competitive “space race”. NASA was formed with the goal to achieve peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind. NASA was formed to stay in the Space Race with Russia, after the Soviet Union launched a satellite with a dog on board, which survived 7 full days before oxygen ran out.= = = = = = = = = = = = = //Ms Mc: Good general summary of the main points of the history of rocketry. Dates are always helpful when discussing history. (-1). Good diagrams but please remember to add a caption when you insert them (-1) and refer to them in your writing (i.e., "As seen in Figure 1, ...). 8/10//

= = = = = Log Entry #3 = = Jacob H = = Rocket Flight Scratch Simulation = = = =media type="custom" key="14076102"= = Click on the Green flag to play video, and click on the Red stop sign to stop the video = = =

= =

Patrick S: GREAT!!! I like your rocket!!! The scenes that occur between liftoff and Mars are great. Good definitions, overall, a good project!!!

Benita- I love the little alien at the end, the detail in all of the stages and of course on the rocket were great! the definitions were great, good detail and overall an awesome simulation! Good job!

ENTRY 4: Rocket Parts: 4/16/2012

FIGURE 1: Each of the Rocket's Parts has it's own unique function, allowing this scientific marvel to work. The Nose Cone guides air around the rockets, while it's fins keep the rocket travelling straight, as seen in figure one. Without a body tube, you can have no rocket. It holds together all of the other parts so the rocket can function. The recovery system is the device used to get the rocket back to us unharrmed, so we can use it again, while the recovery wadding protects the system from hot gases. The launch lug guides the rocket straight off the launch pad. The rocket's motor causes the rocket to actually move, using in this case a solid propellant, while the motor mount holds it in place.

//Ms. Mc: Good definitions of the rocket parts and nice figure! Please include a title for your figure in the caption and put the captions under the figure (you can use the "add caption" feature to do this when you insert the file). 9.5/10//

LOG PROMPT 5: The Atlas v-451 rocket 4/17/12

The Atlas v-451 rocket is an amazing feat of machinery and science, as it is being used to send the newest mars rover, Curiosity to Mars. The Atlas rocket is shaped like most other rockets. It has an RD-180 engine that burns liquid oxygen. This engine is capable of producing 800,000 pounds of thrust at lift-off. For its main body, it has a Centaur upper stage, which is used to accelerate the rocket out of Earth’s atmosphere, as seen in figure 1. The common core booster is the Atlas V rockets propellant, which the engine burns. The payload faring closes and protects the rocket, while payload adapters are sufficient to survive in space-like requirements. The Atlas v-451 rocket was selected for this mission because it had the right lift-off capability for heavy weight requirements. It was also selected because other rockets in this family have succeeded. The Atlas v-451 rocket is 191 feet tall and weighs 1.17 million pounds.

Figure 1: The Atlas v-451 rocket //Ms. Mc: Good overall summary of the parts and their function. It's the Atlas 541, however, which means that it's nosecone's diameter is 5m, it has 4 SRBs, and 1 Centaur engine (-1). Your figure is a little vague. This is just part of the rocket being lifted up for assembly (-1/2). 8.5/10//

Log Prompt #6 4/27/12 Rocket Anaylisis

The purpose of this Experiment was to discover how the mass of a model kit rocket would affect its apogee. The rocket started to lift-off into the air when a charge was detonated in the rocket’s engine. The rocket’s engine caused it to propel itself forward towards the sky. This required a certain amount of thrust from the engine to do so, based on the rocket’s mass. When the rocket had enough inertia, it could propel itself without any engine. Gravity was also a force that acted upon the rocket, which caused the rocket to peak and shoot down to earth in its apogee. There was very little air resistance, because of the Rocket’s mass. The more mass it had, the less air resistance there was. In Figure one below, the lightest rocket flew the highest, while the heaviest rocket flew almost the lowest. The rocket that flew the lowest did so because its engine fell out, and its recovery system also failed. It was Hypothesized that the more mass the rocket has, the lower it will fly, and the less mass it has, the higher it will fly because of the numerous different forces such as inertia, gravity and air resistance that were discussed above.

**Figure one: point of each rocket’s apogee after launch** In the experiment, eight different rockets were launched. Usually to collect a reasonable amount of data, around a hundred rockets would have been needed to be launched. Based on the data given, it was thought that the lighter the mass of the rocket, the higher it would fly. The rocket that flew the highest had the least amount of mass, being 43.5 grams as seen in Figure 1. Although the next too rockets had lower masses, they did not fly as high as three that had masses of 45.5 and 46.0 grams These rockets apogee occurred later than the previous two, at around a hundred and twenty meters high. The rocket with the most mass’s apogee occurred around 100 meters in the air. There was one rocket that had no relationship to the data. It flew much lower than all of the others, (around 70 meters) but did not have the most mass. This probably occurred because the rocket’s engine was not glued tightly to the body tube, causing it to fall out. Therefore, it was thought that there was an inverse relationship between the rockets. Some mistakes might have occurred in the data due to the fact that rockets were flown on different days. One day might have had more wind, or a higher temperature than another. This would have caused the mistakes that occurred, because some of the rockets flew off course. The angle gun measurements might have also been a little off. Overall it was concluded that because of this data, the hypothesis was found to be correct supported by the graph evidence, and it is true that the more mass a rocket has, the lower it will fly.

Figure #1: New design for rocket
Although our rocket has a mass significantly higher than before, it has eight different fins placed in eight different places., as seen in Figure #1. These fins are all have the same thickness and shape, so the rocket would not be off balance. They were also placed in equal positions on the body tube, in an attempt to make the center of gravity as close to the center as possible. Because of this, our rocket will have more stability. Without stability, a rocket will veer off in any direction, causing it to lose lots of altitude. Without any fins, the rocket may curve off any where, and could be disfunctional in many ways. With eight fins, it has maximum stability, achieving maximum altitude, and causing a higher apogee to occur. Based on a previous failure with the rocket engine, it was made sure that all of the pieces making the rocket were glued tightly together. The first rocket had a mass of 46.2 grams. This was with a regular 3 fins near the bottom of the rocket. The second rocket's mass increased by 5.2 grams, totalling in at 51.4 grams. the mass of the ne rocket increased so much due to the fact that there was almost triple the amount of fins than previously. On the first normal trial, the rocket flew considerably lower than the others. This was due to the falling out of the engine, having its apogee at 71.3 meters. The second trial was a complete and utter failure. The fins were not placed correctly on the rocket, causing there to be no stability at all, and the center of gravity was off. On top of this, the rocket's mass increased by over 5 grams, not allowing it to go as high. Because of all these errors, the rocket veered off to one direction, and flew about 11 meters.

==Throughout history, robotics has played a significant role in not only the lives of many, but to the benefit of the world and all of mankind. It has brought us to be able to save lives by curing diseases, to discovering new planets in our solar system.==

Past Robots

==The very first robotic related device to have records of its creation was around 100 B.C. It was called the Hero engine, named after its inventor, Hero of Alexandria. It used fire to turn water above it into gas. This gas was then propelled through a tube in a sphere above it, causing the sphere to rotate, creating the first ever engine. 250 years later, a Greek mathematician named Archytas created mechanical flight robot, propelled by steam. Much later in the year of 1495 A.D, the great Leonardo Da Vinci created what he called, mechanical Knights, which on the outside looked like medieval knights, but moved like humans on the inside.==

**Modern Robots**

==In 2000, the famous, “Battle Bots” show was broadcasted, where the countries best and brightest inventors gathered to create a robot that would be capable of destroying their opponents. In 1998, the LEGO Company released their brand-new //Lego Mindstorm// robots, for the entertainment of everybody. In August of 2001, the FDA released the //Cyber knife// capable of doing complicated surgeries and saving the lives of many. In January of 2004, NASA celebrated the New Year by successfully landing the rover, //Spirit// on the Red Planet, Mars.==

Looking back in time, mankind has come a long way from 100 B.C. We have achieved hundreds of mechanical inventions; including robot’s to make the world a better place.
//Ms. Mc - very good summary and pictures but don't forget to give them captions and specifically refer to them (i.e., include the figure #) in your text. (-2). I especially like how divided your discussion. I think that you mean computers and not robots that have helped to cure disease and to discover new planets.//

5/18/12
Title? -1/2 media type="file" key="jhvideo.AVI" width="300" height="300" align="center"

Video 1: On The Edge Challenge
In the video above, A Lego Mindstorm robot was used to simulate a Mars-like enviorment challenge, this one called On The Edge. Here, we had this robot propell itself foward on its wheels, and then stop on a piece of tape just before it fell of the table. To do this, a light sensor was attached to the robot. This light sensor, would face the ground, and detect a change in color or darkness on the table. When it sensed the change of brightness on the piece of tape, it paused the movement of the robot. How did it start? -1/2 The first block in this code is a wait for sound block .(-1/2) This says that when the robot hears a sound above a certain level, (in this occasion, my voice saying go,) it will start to obey the next sequence of commands. (What port and how much sound? -1). This next block is a movement block. It says that the robot will move at a certain speed around 75% power and keep moving forever until the next command block. (Ports? -1/2) The third block envolves the light sensor. It detects a change in the brightness of the table (the tape). (What port and how much light? -1/2) The next block says that after the change in brightness is detected, it will stop moving. (By coasting or braking? -1/2). The final block says that after all of this is done, it will play a sound through its speakers. (What sound and how loudly? -1).
 * Figure 2: Robot Sequence code**

Ms. Mc - good overall but you left out some parts. 15/20

Over the years, there have been many possibilities of life on Mars. The first was in the 1960’s when changes in the vision of a telescope that could have been the result of biological causes. This led to many attempts to monitor surface changes in 1972. Unfortunately, these experiments turned up negative. Even though this failure occurred, there were many other opportunities to show life on Mars. It was found that Earth and Mars have over 30 similar materials that make their planet up. Since Earth can support life and is similar to Mars, Mars might have been able to. Another is that life on Earth started very quickly, due to being in the right conditions. Mars might have been in the right conditions to support life, but just isn’t now. In 1996, a new scientific breakthrough was discovered when scientists found bacteria-like objects, hydrocarbons and four magnetic substances in a Martian meteorite. Recently, because of deep channels in Mars’ surface, it was thought that water might have once flowed freely there. Through many missions to Mars from NASA, such as pictures taken by the Viking and Mariner space crafts, this was deeply studied. Data eventually confirmed that there once was water on Mars, through a rock-like substance that could only survive // (be created actually //) with water.

A micro-organism is a microscopic organism or form of life that is made from either one single cell or a cluster of cells ( figure 2). A man named Anton van Leeuwenhoek ( figure 1) studied and discovered these in 1675 through a microscope made by himself.

To have life, something must have:

- able to grow and develop - reproduces - able to adapt/evolve - homeostatic - Responds to stimuli - made up of cells - Uses energy - Needs raw materials

If it once had these, but does not have it now, it is dead. If it never has or never will demonstrate any of this, it is considered non-living. If something is dormant, it has the eight but does not use them or is in “hibernation.” If a sample from Mars was found, you would need to go through tests to find if it has all eight characteristics of life to classify it.





//Ms. Mc - good overview. What did the landers and rovers find on Mars? You need to insert your figures in the order in which they are discussed in your text (-1/2). What does homeostatic mean? (-1/2) 9/10//