Michael+B


 * 4/9/12**
 * LOG ENTRY #1**
 * What you will need to know**
 * Mars is sand based and very cold
 * Mars is half the diameter of Earth
 * Mars's atmosphere is thin and could not sustain human life
 * Mars has many different land masses such as: polar ice caps, volcanoes, canyons
 * Mars also has weather
 * Mars has salts under its surface that could only be caused by water

//Ms. Mc: Some good facts about Mars and its conditions, however, you were to relate them to getting a rover to Mars and having it work on its surface (-2). Also, you didn't make any additions from our class discussion (-2). 6/10 //

Michael B. The first step towards making the first rocket was the hero engine. The hero engine used a round wheel with water inside that has two L-shape “limbs”. he wheal as a fire. This made the water into steam. The steam tried to get out and made the wheel spin with thrust. The Chinese took the next step towards rocketry. They would attach tubes with gunpowder to long sticks. The gunpowder would when detonated would make the rocket’s thrust enough to make it move. They would use these as fireworks. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of space travel with rockets. He assumed that by using liquid propellant rockets could reach space. He was right about this and he is now also known as Father of Modern Astronautics. In 1915 Robert H. Godard began working with liquid fluids. He tried experiments for many years. He made the rockers larger and higher flying. Godard has been named Father of Modern Rocketry for his discoveries. The Germans were the first to use rockets during World War 2 which led to worse weapons. The bombs developed a lot during the war so that they could even cross the entire span from Germany to the US. After the War NASA was created, and the war of space travel was begun. The US and Russia battling in the lead. This gave way to the cold war. Russia may have been the first to orbit earth but the US reached the moon first. Now we are searching all over our solar system and even our galaxy for well… anything interesting
 * 4/9/12 **
 * Log Entry #2 **
 * Rocketry history **

.

Figure 1 Hero Engine



Figure 2 Chinese Fireworks

//Ms. Mc: Very good general summary of the history of rocketry. Good diagrams too! Please refer to your figures in your writing (i.e., "as seen in Figure 1"). Please put your captions in when you import your images. Please see me if you don't know how to do this. 10/10//

4/9/12 Log Entry #3 Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation

media type="custom" key="14079706"

If you cannot view please click link above.

1. Press the green flag to watch 2. Watch and Enjoy 3. Press the stop sign to stop the presentation.

Comments:

Tommy Br I liked your choice of liftoff spot You spelled landing wrong in one of your speech bubbles

Tommy Ba

I liked your rocket and liftoff background but i think your 2nd and 3rd background could be a bit more accurate.

=Log Entry #4= Rocket Parts 4/16/12

Figure 3: Rocket parts

The nose cone breaks the air for the rocket to move more smoothly. The body tube holds all of the inside parts inside. The recovery system helps recovering the rocket easier. The wadding makes the recovery system. The launch lug helps the rocket launch. The fins help keep the rocket straight. The motor makes the rocket move and the motor mount holds the rocket in place. //Ms. Mc - good labels but some of the definitions needed more detail. Recovery system is defined with the same words as its name (-1/2). What does the recovery system do? (-1/2). How does the launch lug help the rocket? (-1/2). Please include the caption when you download the file. 8.5/10//

= Log Entry #5 = = 4/18/12 = V-541

The parts that make up the Atlas V-541 are: The solid rocket Busters: 4 boosters that help get the rocket off the ground. The centaur upper stage: A Centaur Upper Stage functions as the second stage of the rocket. Atlas Core stage: The first stage.

The atlas V 451 was chosen for this mission because it is relatively small and can hold the rover correctly. The diameter of the rocket is 5m. The height is 191ft and the mass is 1.17 million lbs. //Ms. Mc: good overview but you need needed to explain what each of the 4 major parts of the rockets do (-2). Didn't discuss the payload fairing (-1/2). You also need to add a caption to the files you upload and refer to them in your text (-1). 6.5/10.//

Log Entry #6 4/27/12

The purpose of this experiment was to find whether mass affects apogee. This was done by examining 6 different rockets that were built the same way and had the same parts. The rockets were launched with different masses and the height of apogee was tested. The forces acting on the rocket were discussed and the main forces were thrust, gravity, and air resistance. It was hypothesized that the mass of the rocket would affect apogee because a lighter rocket requires less thrust. A lighter rocket needs less thrust because it has less inertia. Another reason that a lighter rocket would fly higher is that it’s powered flight will last longer.

Graph #1 shows the relationship between mass and apogee. The data shows that there is no relationship because the points seem to be all over the place, for example the least massive rocket scored 71.3 m which came right in the middle. The hypothesis was not supported because the data showed no relationship. Some problems with the experiment were the sample size because it was much too small for the experiments results to be assured. The other problems were that one of the landing Para shoots did not open the weather was a little off for each launch.

Log Entry #8 5/3/12
 * **~270**BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures.
 * **1818** - Mary Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" which was about a robot type thing created by Dr. Frankenstein.
 * **1921** - The term "robot" was used in a play called "R.U.R." or "Rossum's Universal Robots" The plot was simple: man makes robot then robot kills man!
 * **1941** - Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov first used the word "robotics" to describe the technology of robots
 * **1942**- Asimov wrote "Three Laws of Robotics":
 * A robot may not injure a human, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
 * A robot must obey the orders it by human beings except where such orders would conflic with the First Law.
 * A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict withe the First or Second Law.
 * **1948** - "Cybernetics", an influence on artificial intelligence research was published by Norbert Wiener
 * **1956** - George Devol and Joseph Engelberger formed the world's first robot company.
 * **1959** - Computer-assisted manufacturingg was demonstrated at the Servomechanisms Lab at MIT.
 * **1961** - The first industrial robot was in a General Motors automobile factory in New Jersey. It was called UNIMATE.
 * **1963** - The first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed. The Rancho Arm was designed as a tool for the handicapped and it's six joints gave it the flexibility of a human arm.
 * **1965** - DENDRAL was the first expert system or program designed to execute the accumulated knowledge of subject experts.
 * **1968** - The octopus-like Tentacle Arm was developed by Marvin Minsky.
 * **1969** - The Stanford Arm was the first electrically powered, computer-controlled robot arm.
 * **1970** - Shakey was introduced as the first mobile robot controlled by artificial intellence. It was produced by SRI International.
 * **1974** - A robotic arm (the Silver Arm) that performed small-parts assembly using feedback from touch and pressure sensors was designed.
 * **1979** - The Standford Cart crossed a chair-filled room without human assistance. The cart had a tv camera mounted on a rail which took pictures from multiple angles and relayed them to a computer. The computer analyzed the distance between the cart and the obstacles.

//Ms. Mc - good overview, however, you were to summarize the main points in 2-3 paragraphs (-1). You also were to include 2 figures and refer to them in your text (-3). Please be sure to read the prompt details carefully. 6/10//

//Log entry 10// //5/20/12// //Robot Challenge// media type="file" key="mhbone the edge.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video #2: On the edge shown


 * Title of Challenge: On the Edge **

This challenge was called “on the edge” (or off the edge I am not sure which) because you had to get your robot to stop from rolling of the table by using your ultrasonic sensor. Tommy and I cheated a bit and used our lights sensor instead (we were not the only ones) however we did get the robot to stop “on the edge”. Please note that my video was having problems and I think I have it fixed but it may not be. (You didn't cheat. The challenge said you could use the ultrasonic sensor or the light sensor. The challenge was called "on the edge.")



I will now describe the code above from left to right. The first as you can see is a microphone; this is to let the robot know when to start moving. I will usually say go, but sometimes I improvise. (What kind of block? -1/2, Plugged into what port? -1/2, What volume of sound? -1/2). The next is a movement brick to tell the robot to move forever. (What direction? -1/2, What percent of power? -1/2). The next is a light brick; when the robot sees this light with a measure of 31 (I am not sure what unit) it will react. (What port? -1/2). The next is the cube to tell the reaction to stop the robot. (What motors are activated? -1/2) Lastly the next two will 1st have the robot wait 1 second and then say “Watch out." (What volume level? -1/2)

Ms. Mc - good general idea but you needed more detail. 16/20

Log Entry 11 6/5/12 Life on Mars?

There is a possibility that at one time there was life on Mars (Shown in figure 2). (The first figure you discuss should be labeled figure 1). One of the reasons life is possible is because life needs water. There is proof that at 1 time mars did have water because of some salts found on Mars that can only be produced in water. In addition there was some proof of life on a meteorite found on Earth from Mars. The meteorite had signs of bacteria on it which are life forms. Some skeptics though think that these fossils were caused by a volcano. Since the beginning of the space exploration, Mars has been in very high interest for three main reasons. These reasons are that it is the most Earth-like of the planets, not including Earth, Mars is the planet most likely to be able to develop life, and third Mars will probably be the first planet to be visited by humans. Mariner 9 was the the first spacecraft to orbit another planet, it was placed around Mars in November 1971 and stopped working in October 1972. It returned a wide variety of data about mars. Viking was another orbiter, but it did not find what it was looking for because it was looking for life. There are 2 rovers that have landed on Mars, Spirit (Shown in figure 1) and Opportunity who have found much evidence that life could have been on Mars. (Sojourner actually was the first rover).



//Ms. Mc - good general summary of the findings of the spacecraft exploration of Mars but you didn't do the second part on the characteristics of life and how you could classify a specimen from Mars as being either alive, dead, dormant or nonliving. 7/10 - 1 pt. late = 6/10//