Danny

Facts We Need to Know in Order to Get a Rover to Mars
What do I need to consider before trying launching a rover that will land on mars?
 * The dust storms will cause erosion and may mess with electrical equipment, so protect it
 * Watch out for the moons, so you don’t hit them and send it off course
 * It’s days are slightly longer, and it’s seasons are much longer, so make it for prolonged cold and heat
 * Minimum distance to earth: 55.7 KM* 106
 * Maximum distance to earth: 401.3 KM*106
 * Average air temperature: -63o C
 * Need enough fuel to escape earth’s gravity and to keep it on course
 * Launch window to determine aim for Mars where it’s going to be in the futureFourth planet from the sun
 * o Launch window every 2 years
 * Mars has polar caps made of frozen carbon dioxide and water, so may want to stay clear for landing
 * It has seasons, so make sure it can store energy, so it can work in winter

//Ms. Mc: good facts about Mars and its conditions. Please be sure to make all additions we discuss in class (-1). If you can't get everything, let me know and I'll send it to you. Good job! (9/10). Please don't use the highlight as it's a little hard to read.//

Rocket History
Rockets have been around for a few thousand years, but only have developed in the last few hundred years. They all officially started with the Hero Engine from Greece, which looks like this: And it was propelled by steam from the heated water coming out pipes in the central sphere to spin. It could have been used for conveyor belts or as a motor. The next appearance by a rocket is by the Chinese in 1232 AD. They made firework-like items with basic gunpowder, attached them to arrows and would light them to shoot the Mongols. They kind of looked like:

Rockets didn’t appear next until 1898, when Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a schoolteacher, had the idea of using them for space exploration. From that idea, he is now called the “Father of Modern Rocketry.” Dr. Robert Goddard then explored the possibilities of liquid fuel instead of solid, and made the first liquid-propelled rocket on March 16, 1926. It may not have gone far, but it “launched” us into a new era of rocketry. Small societies of rocket builders would engineer and launch rockets. One of those societies was German, named The Society of Space Travel, and made the V-2, which made an appearance in WWII. Eventually, there was a first successful satellite orbiting Earth in 1957. America made their first appearance in space in 1958, and then NASA was formed, hoping to find somewhere that would benefit all humans. Many machines and humans were, are and will be in space for years

Ms. Mc: good summar of the history of rocketry but a few more details would have been good (-1). Please refer to your diagrams in your text (i.e., "as seen in Figure 1"). 9/10

Rocket Flight Simulation
media type="custom" key="14043436"

Instructions for Operating: 1. Have volume on 2. Click the green flag to start simulation 3. Click the red button to stop the simulation 4. If the simulation does not work, click on the "Learn More About This Project" link

Anna: I love the music! It made you simulation seem very professional. You could probably use a bit more on you liftoff definition. The way you made the different parts of your rocket break off was pretty cool.

Jonathan K: I liked the music and also how the rocket broke off. You also had good transitions from one background to the other.

Labelled Rocket Photo
The "Nosecone" of the rocket cuts through the air to make it go to a greater altitude faster. The "Body Tube" of the rocket holds all the components of the rocket in. The "Recovery System" of the rocket makes it able to lessen the damage of recovery to the rocket, making it reusable. The "Recovery Wadding" as seen in figure 1, is used to protect the "Recovery System" from getting burnt. The "Launch Lug" make the rocket able to attach to the launching mount. The "Motor Mount" makes the rocket able to contain the motor. The "Fins" of the rocket add stability to the rocket and the ability to go straight is improved. The "Motor" provides thrust to the rocket.

// Ms. Mc: great definitions and labels! 10/10 //

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Atlas V 541 Rocket


The "Atlas V 541" rocket is currently being used for transporting the "Mars Science Laboratory" to Mars. The Atlas is made of a Nosecone, which is used for protecting the spacecraft from damage on the ascent in Earth's atmosphere. The "Payload" as seen in figure 1, contains the Rover "Curiosity." There is then the "actual" rocket motor, which contains a combination of fuel, liquid oxygen, and some other liquid fuels. The 4 solid fueled rocket motors are used to boost the thrust. Finally, the "Centaur" is like the mind of the rocket, and it fires twice to confirm the right path toward Mars. This enormous rocket is 58 meters tall and has the total mass of 531,000 kg. NASA chose this shuttle for it's capabilities with handling heavy loads on liftoff.

//Ms. Mc - great overview and photo of the launch vehicle. 10/10//

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Rocket Flight Data
Recently, an experiment was conducted to research how the mass of a model rocket affects the height of the rocket. The heaviest rocket used flew 63.7 meters, whilst the lightest rocket used flew 71.3 meters. This shows that, though there is more inertia in the heavier rocket, the higher the ratio of thrust to mass, the higher the rocket goes. Inertia means that an object prefers to keep doing what it is currently, whether moving or not, and the more massive the object, the more inertia. On the launch pad,the rockets were the same because the rockets both had balanced forces. During liftoff, the heavier rocket used more fuel because the greater amount of fuel needed to overcome it's inertia. In powered flight, the rockets both use practically have the same amount of fuel consumption, but because it used more fuel during liftoff, the heavy rocket ran out of fuel earlier compared to the lighter one. Because of the amount of gravity on it, the heavy reached it's apogee much earlier versus the light one. Originally, the hypothesis made was the heavier the rocket, the higher it will go due to inertia because it was thought to have more force duringthe coasting stage. As seen in Graph #1, the masses varied from 43.5 g to 47.1 g. The majority of the lighter massed rockets had a higher apogee then the majority of the heavier rockets. The average apogee was 77.3 m, which is relatively high. It was believed that the varying masses helped make the relationship in the scatter plot inverse. The problem that there is insufficient data to come to a conclusive result arises in this case though. The problem of inconsistant weather also appears, as well as the problem of inconsistent amounts of recovery wadding. With the data given though, the relationship proved the hypothesis made wrong.

Rocket Fin Redesign Lab
Since the fins are tilted, they will provide more spin, which provides stability, which will make the rocket have a higher apogee. We also increased the amount of fins to provide stability. This idea did not work because, even though the new one's weight was 45.4g compared to the original 47.1g, the apogees were 21.3m for the new one versus 63.7m for the old one.I think the apogee was mostly affected by the way we tilted the fins. The angle they were tilted provided more push down when it spiraled, but if we tilted them at the opposite angle, the air would have provided lift.Also, they could have not been placed an equal amount apart.

5/3/12 Log Entry #8 History of Robotics and Robots

In ancient China, the first recording of any automata or robots, an automaton appeared before the king. Because he was made of completely artificial parts, but could do human like things, the king was terrified. He could not comprehend how the artificial figure could be like a human, so he destroyed it. Just like many events in history, man does not understand something, so they destroy it. The next breakthrough in robotics was in about 400 BC, when someone invented the water clock. The previous form of measuring time was using an hourglass, but you had to constantly turn it over, which made it less accurate then the water clock. There are many mentionings of artificial life in mythology and legends. In 1088, there was a mechanical programmable automated drum player. In 1495, Leonardo da vinci started imagining and planning a humanoid robot. From 1500 to 1800, many feats were accomplished, like inventing the first calculators and automata that played music.



There were also many instances of famous mechanical animals, like a duck, or a beetle, or a bird. Then the more useful machines were invented like the completely automated weaving machines. Later, there were better working weaving machines and also robots that could serve tea in japan.



Then, better analyzing engines were trying to be built, and soon there were radio controlled devices. In 1921, the word “robot” was first used for mechanical automata purposes. Robots eventually evolved into computers, and also what we today think of as robots. Not only now the word “robot” is used for good machines, now there is a whole section of fictitious books dedicated to portraying robots and computers as horrible beings that should not have been invented because they cause the apocalypse.

//Ms. Mc - good general overview, however, it's important to include names in historical accounts. Also you need to specifically refer to your figures in your text (i.e, "Fig. 1 shows . . ."). -1/2. You didn't discuss Fig. 1 in your text (-1). 8.5/10//

5/13/12 Log Entry #9 Curiosity and Mars Science Laboratory's Instruments Curiosity or the Mars Scince Laboratory (MSL) have many high-tech instruments to measure various data about objects on Mars. The goal of these instruments are to analyze Mars to see if it is suitable for humans and to see if there was any microbial history on the surface. A group of instruments named "Sample Analysis" instruments were used to analyze samples from the soil and rocks on the surface. This group included a Gas Chromatograph, a mass spectrometer, and a laser that can tell if compounds are made of organic matter. An instrument named "CheMin" which will identify the exact compositions of rocks and classify them. There are also many high-resolution cameras for zooming and just regular photos and to stream to us the panorama that it's in or even to examine the chemicals that make an object up. There are even cameras for where the rover lands. There are instruments to examine the environment like for radiation or exact temperature or even humidity. The "Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons" instrument detects hydrogen below the surface which could mean hydrogen. You could even consider the way MSL handles with steering an instrument from all of its fine tuning. All of these mentioned instruments and much more help Curiosity on its mission. //Ms. Mc - good start but you also were to give the similarities/dissimilarities with the past rovers, how Curiosity is going to produce energy, and how she is going to communicate with scientists on Earth. 2 figures also were required. 6/10//

5/17/12 Log Entry #10 LEGO Mind Storms Robot Example media type="file" key="DGSrobot.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video #1- LEGO Mind Storms Challenge This video shows you the robot doing the challenge, but it doesn't show you the programming. Before a robot can do anything like what's above, it has to be programmed. If there is anything wrong with what it does, it's your fault that you programmed the robot wrong. Here is a brief explanation of how to program the challenge above. This programming block makes sure all motion in the wheels stop to get ready for the challenge ahead. This assures us that it won't veer off-course during the challenge, and it will be semi consistant. This programming block makes it so when you make a sound at least 75 sound units loud, the robot starts moving. It will wait indefinitely (or at least until the robot runs out of battery fairly quickly) for you to make a sound at least 75 sound units loud. What port? -1/2  This is a timer just to wait. What this does is separate the processes of starting the movement and actually moving. It lets it just process all of the coming in, so it can come and actually move.

This programming block is used to move infintitely. But the C and B on it mean that it's moving both powered wheels, Also, the forward sign means it's going forward. The infinity sign is sayingthat it's moving infinitely. This programming block is saying to wait for a certain amount of value of light being reflected back to the light sensor. The light sensor detects the percent of light reflected back from a red light it shines. This means as soon as the light detects a certain amount of light or less reflected back it will tell the robot to do the next block. How much light and what port? -1  After another reset block, this programming block comes. This says to play a recorded sound, in this case "Watch Out!," at a certain volume after the robot stops. What volume? This is just like the reset block, except for sound. It just tells the robot that the sound stopped, so it can continue with the rest of the program. This is useful if you have more programming after it. Good +1 Ms. Mc - great job! 19.5/20

6/4/11 Log Prompt #11 Is There Life on Mars? There are many theories of if life on Mars exists or if it even could. Throughout the 70's and 80's there was a pessimistic view of life being able to thrive until scientists discovered that life could exist in much harsher conditions then thought before, and there was apparently all the required conditions for life at one point of Mars' history. There were signs of water on Mars (such as?), thanks to Spirit's broken wheel, and signs of organic substances on a meteorite that fell on earth from mars quite a while ago. (This is disputed now though.) This is why we sent Curiosity (see Figure 1) to Mars. We aren't looking for any large lifeforms, or any at all. We are looking for fossilized microbial lifeforms. Microbes are microscopic organisms that are either one celled, cell clusters, or multicellular complex structures. They include most illnesses, from the common cold to chicken pox to the flu. Single celled organisms were the first forms of life on earth probably because monkeys and birds didn't just appear and just have been the same for millions of years. But what if Curiosity does find microbe like substances that may or may not be alive? Well, then Curiousity could examine it and put it in situations that may provoke all its 8 traits of life, if it's alive. It could have never lived, which would be obvious if tested, if it's dormant, or if it's dead. It's sometimes hard to tell either way from testing, so sometimes you have to make an educated guess. But what are the 8 characteristics of life? It's made of cells, which are little building blocks of life forms that include organelles, mini organs, and a mitochondria, which gives it its power. If it doesn't have cells, it has to be non living. Life has to need materials, such as water and food for us. It has to keep something consistent, called being homeostatic, like we keep the same temperature. Life has to respond to some kind of stimuli, like a noise, or just sunlight. It just has to respond to something. It has to grow, in some way or form, and reproduce, sexually or asexually. That means if the product has two or one parent respectively to the order. Life has to be able to adapt to a different environment, so go from a warm environment to cold, or something like that. It finally needs to be able to produce energy from oxygen and other elements (see Figure 2). So is there life on mars? Was there any in its mysterious past? We'll find out when Curiosity arrives. Ms. Mc - good general summary of the spacecraft exploration of Mars and the 8 characteristics of life. Specific evidence would help your argument (-1/2). Also, what are the definitions of alive, dead, dormant or non-living? (-1/2). 9/10