Alex+B

Entry #1


 * Mars has less mass and thus, less gravity.
 * Mars and Earth have different distance to orbit.
 * They also orbit at different speeds.
 * Mars’ temperature can vary from -125 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius rover would need to be able to withstand these temperatures.
 * Mars has strong seasons
 * Used to have a magnetic field
 * At closest distance, Mars is 35 million miles away.
 * Mars’ Gravity is about 1/3 of Earths
 * Takes 7-8 months to get to mars
 * Mars’ surface has many mountains and other land forms
 * Make rover sturdy to minimize need for repairs
 * Mars has two moons so want to steer clear during landing

//Ms. Mc: Good facts about Mars and its conditions. Also needed to relate the facts to how they might impact getting a rover to Mars or having one work on its surfact (-2). Please capitalize Mars as it's a proper noun. 8/10//

Entry #2

History of Rocketry

This is what the Hero Engine looked like. It was a Greek invention that demonstrated the power of rocketry. By heating up water, it used the thrust created by the pressure the steam to make a sphere on top move. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fire arrows. they used these as weapons against the invading mongols. They were fired much like rockets are today, but were aimed at targets. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was the first person to suggest using liquid propellant as a way to get rockets out into space.

On March 16, 1926, Goddard achieved the first rocket flight using liquid propellant. He proved that this could not only be done, but that it was the most ethical way. Also, this marked the beginning of an era in which many things were shot into space using the same ideas. In World War II the Germans invented the V2 Rocket. They used it as a weapon against the Allies by putting an explosive charge, called a warhead, in the tip. NASA was formed to achieve peaceful exploration of space.

//Ms. Mc: Good overview of rocket history. The Chinese flaming arrows are very different from today's massive rockets, however, and I think you meant to say that liquid propellant rockets are more efficient as opposed to ethical (-1). Missing the first mand-made satellite, Sputnik (-1) and your second drawing (-2). Please put a caption under your figures and refer to them in your text ("as seen in Figure 1"). 6/10.//

Entry #3

Rocket Simulation media type="custom" key="14081188" Instructions 1. Turn on sound 2. Click on green flag

Damon - I liked the transitions. You probably need to make the rocket a little lighter, you cant see it in most of the backgrounds. Good animations.

Alex,

I liked the way your landing craft bounced when it hit the surface. I think you could have had your rocket move slower, otherwise it is distracting from the speech bubbles. I think your speech bubbles were well written.

William AF

Entry #4

//Ms. Mc: Very good labels and definitions, however, the definitions were to be in a paragraph as I reminded you and you were to draw the internal parts on top of your photo (-1). Also, you need to add a caption with a figure # and title under your uploaded files when you put them on your page (-1). 8/10//

Entry #5

The Atlas V 541 Rocket is comprised of the Payload Fairing, which houses the payload, the Payload itself (a rover in this case), a Common Core Booster, which is the main source of propulsion for the rocket and burns liquid oxygen, the Solid Rocket Boosters, which provide extra thrust, and the Centaur upper stage with a single or dual engine. The Atlas V 541 rocket was chosen for this mission because it can lift the weight of the rover. The rocket is 191 feet tall and is about 1.17 million pounds fully fueled.

//Ms. Mc - good overview and photo of the launch vehicle. What does the Centaur engine do? (-1). Good caption but you were to refer to your figure in your text with the specific figure # (-1). Please include a date and title with each entry. They should be labeled "entry #" instead of "prompt #." 8/10//

Entry #6

The purpose of this experiment was to observe the relationship between the mass of rockets and their apogees. The forces that acted on the rocket while it was in flight were gravity, air resistance, and thrust from the engines. The gravity was pulling the rocket towards the ground and made it harder for the rocket to achieve a higher apogee. The air resistance also resisted the upward motion of the rocket. The force making the rocket move up was thrust, and it made the rocket go higher. It was hypothesized that the rockets height would decrease as its mass went up. This is because it will take more thrust to get it off the launch pad and to have more thrust it must use more fuel, faster.



If you look at Graph #1, you will see that the masses of the rockets ranged from 42.9 grams to 46.2 grams. The apogees of the rockets ranged from 38.4 meters to 78.1 meters. There is no relationship between the results of the experiment. It was hypothesized that rockets with more mass would not go as high as the ones with lower masses. The hypothesis was not confirmed as there was no relationship between the data. Two points that showed the conclusion were the one that went 67.5 meters and the one that went 62.5.

Some errors that could have affected the outcome of the experiment are human error in measuring the data, changing the observed height because the angle was off. Also, the Launchpad could have tilted between launches and made the measurements inaccurate. Also the engines could’ve contained slightly different amounts of fuel, changing the end of powered flight.

Entry #7

The new design for the fins will help the rocket maintain a straighter course while still having a low mass. This is because there will only be one more fin, making it also have a straighter course. See the figure #1 for the placement of the fins. The mass of the new rocket was 46.8 grams. The old one had a mass of 43.6. The new rocket had an apogee of 53.2 meters. The old rocket had a higher apogee of 67.5 meters. The flights of both rockets were stable.

Entry #8

5-1-2012

The robots typically thought of today are complex electronic machines designed to do tasks. However, robots can be very different. They can be programmed to think using just electricity and sensors, programmed to do one thing, or controlled by a human. Robots are used for many things, including space exploration, car manufacturing, and even warfare. The first electronic robot was created in 1948 and could sense light and objects around it. It was called Elmer. See figure one for a figure showing Elmer.

Robots are used widely for jobs humans cannot perform safely. Such as picking up large objects and exploring a hostile environment. Rovers are used to perform a variety of tests on the planet Mars (see figure #2). Robots can be used to do almost any task. Robots are still in a relatively early stage, as they can be programmed to do many more things than we currently use them for. Although the idea of robots has been around for centuries, it has not been anything more than a dream until recently. Leonardo DaVinci, for example, designed many robots. One of the more famous ones was the humanoid mechanical knight he designed. Now that robots are used so widely for manufacture, they are easily taken for granted.

//Ms. Mc - good general overview of modern robotics, however a little more on early robotics would have been good as this entry discusses the history of robotics (-1). Good job overall! 9/10//

Entry #10


 * 5/17/2012 **


 * On the Edge **

The challenge "On the Edge" was to program the robot to move until it detected an edge. The robot was then supposed to stop and say "Watch Out!" How did the robot start? (-1/2)

media type="file" key="waf and ab robot.AVI" width="300" height="300"




 * Written Explanation of Code **

Block 1- a wait block that instructs the robot to wait until the sound sensor detects a sound above 60 decibels to do the next action. What port? (-1/2)

Block 2- a movement block that programs the robot to move forever at 75% power until told to stop.

Block 3- a wait block to delay the next action by 0.1 seconds.

Block 4- a wait block that tells the robot to wait until it detects a certain amount of reflected light.

Block 5- a movement block to stop the robot.

Block 6- a wait block to delay the following action by one second.

Block 7- a sound block that makes the robot say " Watch out!" at 75% volume.

//Ms. Mc - good job, 19/20//

Entry #11

Mars is very likely to have developed life. There is much significant evidence to support this, too. So far, the spacecraft sent there have not discovered any living life, but it has discovered many things to support any possible life. On Earth, all life requires water, so we have looked for evidence of water on mars. Lots of evidence of liquid water in Mars' past has been discovered. (Such as?) Also, Mars Odyssey discovered that Mars' ice caps may contain huge amounts of frozen water. More evidence of water has been discovered by the rovers Spirit and Opportunity. (Such as?) A meteorite (shown in figure #1) that has come from Mars is said to contain the fossilized remains of ancient life on mars. However, the patterns that are supposed to be created by life, have also been shown to be created by volcanic activity.



A microorganism is a single-celled organism that is found almost everywhere. They reproduce very quickly but slow when the environment becomes cold. Figure #2 shows the basic concept of this. Microbes are thought to be the origin of all life because it is said other organisms evolved from those microbes.

//Ms. Mc - good overview of the findings with respect to water and life on Mars but you need to give specific evidence to support your claims (-1/2). You also were to describe the 8 characteristics of life and how you would classify a Mars specimen as either alive, dead, dormant, or non-living (-2). 7.5/10//