Ruhi

Facts You Need to Know about Mars in Order to Get a Rover There
//Ms. Mc: Good facts about Mars and its conditions, however, I believe all of these came from our class discussion? (-2). 8/10. //
 * Mars is very rocky and Mars has very large craters, so rover needs to be able to have good traction
 * Winters are harsh, so the rover has to be able to sustain itself in the different seasons
 * 4th planet from the sun, so days are a little bit longer
 * Very, very tall mountains
 * Some salt minerals were found while digging in the ground
 * Many dust storms occur, so the solar panels could get dirty
 * Gravity- 38% of earth
 * Over all temperature- cold (very cold)
 * Needs to be rust proof as Mars' atmosphere contains trace amounts of oxygen which will oxidize iron
 * Mars' surface is covered in craters (hundreds and thousands) so need to pick us a smooth landing site
 * Need to know Mars' orbit in order to line up with it
 * Need to launch when planets are close so we don't need as much rocket fuel
 * Mars has 2 moons so need to steer clear of them

History of Rocketry
Rockets have developed greatly over many centuries, from fireworks too space explorations. Some may think that rockets were always used for bringing people up into space, or sending rovers and satellites to explore the universe. What may be surprising to some, rocketry started off around 100 B.C. when a Greek inventor, Hero of Alexandria, used rocket science proper rocket principles to create steam. This steam was used as propulsive gas. This unique system was a sphere mounted above a water kettle. Below the large bowl of water, there was a small fire which heated up the water. The water turned into steam, allowing the gas to travel through the pipes to the sphere. When the gas escaped from two L-shaped tubes, the thrust caused the sphere to rotate. After the idea of thrust, many more small rockets started to be invented. In the first century A.D., the Chinese used gun powder to create explosives. They would use there explosive rockets to launch on religious festivals. The Chinese would fill bamboo tubes with a mixture and toss them into fires; this would be their idea of fireworks. Later on, the Chinese actually built a true rocket. They discovered that if gun powder tubes were attached to bamboo arrows, the tubes would launch themselves just by the power that was produced from the escaping gas. This idea was used when the Chinese went to war with the Mongols. The Chinese would bombard the Mongols with their newest creation, the “arrows of flying fire.” This was the same idea of the gun powder tubes on bamboo arrows, just larger. Also, the gun powder tubes would just launch alone, not with the arrows. The long sticks that the tubes were on would be used as aiming tools, to help aim the rocket.

Modern Rocketry started a little over 100 years ago. Until 1898, rockets were used for explosives and fireworks. A Russian schoolteacher named Konstantin Tsiokovsky thought of the idea of using rockets for space exploration. This idea sounded absurd, because of the solid propellants the rockets were using. These solid propellants would thrust the rocket up only to a certain point, not allowing them to go very high. Konstantin Tsiokovsky gave another idea, saying that liquid propellants would allow the gas to come out at a greater speed. This would give the rocket a larger thrust, allowing it to go higher faster. Although Konstantin Tsiokovsky could not make a rocket with liquid propellants, an American scientist named Robert Goddard could. He achieved the first successful flight with a liquid propellant rocket after his experiments with comparing solid and liquid propellants. This rocket became known world-wide, giving the Germans an idea of a new rocket. In the 20th century, the Germans created the V-2 rocket. This rocket was used against London during World War II. The rocket would hold explosives that if launched, it could devastate whole city blocks. This rocket got its thrust by liquid propellants and alcohol being burnt. The Germans were definitely amazed by the achievements of Goddard.

Rocketry became so famous and popular that it was being used all over the world. The Chinese used rockets for fireworks, the Germans would use rockets for explosives and the Russians would use rockets to send satellites into space. Many new inventions were made over time. USA was inspired by the rocketry developments happening around the world, so in October of 1958, the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. This agency had a goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of humans. NASA was soon launching many people and machines into space to explore the great unknown. Rovers explored planets and soon the first men to go to moon. After many years of rocket development, space was now open to exploration and commercial exploitation. Some could say that rocketry could be the best thing that happened to humans for great explorations.

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//Ms. Mc: Great summary of the important contributions to the science of rocketry! Drawings also are well done. Please refer to them in your text (i.e., "as seen in Figure 1, . . .). good job! 10/10//

<span style="color: #8c209d; font-family: 'Palatino Linotype','Book Antiqua',Palatino,serif;">Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation
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Instructions to Run Simulation:


 * Turn on sound
 * Click the Green Flag on the top right hand corner to play.
 * If simulation doesn't appear, click on the "Learn More about this Project" link above.
 * Sit back, relax and enjoy!

Abigail- Wow, this was great! One thing that you might want to work on is making the animation a little bit smoother. Overall though, it was really good. The pineapple rocket was a nice touch :P

Kaelin- you know that's right.... loved the pineapple rocket! :) i also think that the rocket could have gone a little bit smother, but besides that it was great!

Parts of the Rocket


Every part of a rocket is crucial at some point. At the top of Figure 1, there is the nose cone, which is pointed so that it can cut through the air. It is also connected to the recovery system, and when pressure builds up, the nose cone pops out and the recovery system comes out. The recovery system is there so that parts of the rocket that fly out can be recovered again, and the rocket can be launched again. Then, there is the recovery wadding, which makes sure that when the motor lights up, the recovery system doesn't light up and burn. On the outside of Figure 1, there is the launch lug. This is there so that when the rocket launches, it guides the rocket straight up into air. Then, there is the motor mount in the inside. The motor mount lights up and gives the rocket thrust so that it can go up. Right underneath the motor mount, there is the rocket motor, which is the fuel to the rocket. Finally, as seen in Figure 1, the fins are on the outside again. These are there to let the rocket go up and be aero dynamic. The fin also guides the rocket up.

// Ms. Mc: great definitions and labels - love the color coding! The motor mount just holds the motor in place. 9.5/10 //

The Atlas V 541
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order to make a rocket, many tools and people are needed. It takes the effort of teams of people doing different jobs over many months, just to create one rocket. A fairly recent rocket, called the Atlas V 541 rocket is a rocket which will lift the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft into space and to Mars. The rocket is made up of various things which all give the rocket the power that it needs to be able to launch and go to Mars. In the first stage, there are the fuel and oxygen tanks that give the rocket an engine for the ascent. These two tanks put together give the rocket power to get into the Earth’s orbit. It also has 4 solid rocket motors which are used to increase engine thrust. In the second stage which is called the Centaur, there are the fuel and oxidizers. These give the rocket thrust to let it lift off. In the second stage, there is also the vehicle’s “brains” which are fired twice. The first time is to insert the rocket stack into low Earth orbit. The second time is to accelerate the spacecraft out of the Earth’s orbit and off to Mars. Finally, also in the second stage, there is the Payload Fairing. This is a thin composite or nose cone to protect the spacecraft during the ascent through the Earth’s atmosphere. The Atlas V 541 is a very special rocket because of its mission. This rocket was chosen for this mission because it had the right capacity for liftoff for the heavy weight objects that it is required to hold. Rockets similar to the Atlas V 541 have been on similar missions as this, and they have all come out successful. The rocket must have the right weight and height in order to be able to carry these heavy objects. The Atlas V 541 has a mass of 1.17 million pounds. It is as tall as a 19 story building, or 191 feet tall. This is very large for a rocket, but just right for the Atlas V 541 to perform this mission.

//Ms. Mc: Good overview! The Centaur engine doesn't provide thrust at lift-off - just to get the rocket into Earth's orbit and to send the cruise vehicle off to Mars. (-1/2). Please refer to your figure in your text. (-1/2). 9/10//

Rocket Lab Paper
This purpose of this experiment was to find out if when building a rocket, the mass of the vehicle would affect the apogee. The apogee is the highest point of a rocket’s flight, or the peak flying spot. When in the air, many forces act on the rocket, so it is very important to keep the mass of the rocket at a steady amount. When the rocket is on the launch bad, the forces acting on it are equal. These forces are the force of the launch pad, which is acting up, and the force of gravity, which is pulling the rocket down. When on the launch pad, the rocket is not moving. This means that none of the forces are greater than the other. At lift off, the forces acting on the rocket are gravity, the force of air resistance and the force of the thrust. In this case, the rocket is moving upwards, so the force of the thrust is greater than the force of the gravity. When the air resistance is pushing down on the rocket, the gravity pulling down on the rocket and the thrust having to “work” harder on the heavier rocket, the apogee will definitely not be high. During powered flight, the rocket still has the same forces acting on it. The force of the thrust is still greater than the force of the gravity. If the rocket’s mass is greater, then it takes more fuel push the rocket up. This will waste the fuel, not allowing the rocket to go as high. When the powered flight turns off, the rocket is coasting. The only force that is acting on the rocket is gravity, because the rocket is moving upwards due to inertia. If the rocket’s thrust and fuel usage is very high during takeoff, then the apogee will not be high because the rocket had not gained enough speed for coasting. During apogee, the only force acting on the rocket is again, gravity. This is pulling down the rocket. Finally, during the decent, the forces acting on the rocket were the force of gravity and the force of the air. In the case, the force of the air was smaller than the force of the gravity. All of these forces, such as gravity, would have a harder time pulling down on an object that has a lower mass. It was hypothesized that the greater the mass of the rocket, the lower it would fly because there is more “stuff” for the rocket to carry up. Also, if the rocket has more mass, then much of the fuel would be wasted in just trying to get the vehicle up and off the launch pad. Also, the gravity would be greater because it has to take over the rocket to pull it down. If the weight is lower, then there is less mass, or “stuff” for the rocket to carry up. This means that the fuel would not have to be wasted during takeoff, and it could be saved for powered flight.

As seen in Graph 1, most of the rocket’s apogees were “clumped” together. The one outlier in the group had a mass of around 43 grams, went only 18.5 meters high. At first, it was thought that this meant that the higher the mass of the rocket, the lower it flies. The hypothesis turned out correct because one of the lightest rockets flew the highest, 107.2 meters up. This rocket was only 42.8 grams. The heaviest rocket was 46 grams, and it only went up about 53 meters. This is excluding the outlier. After this was observed, it was thought that the rocket that flew the shortest distance might have had some mistakes in the angle gun measurements. The range of the grams of the rockets was about 3.1 grams. The heaviest rocket was 45.9 grams and the lightest rocket was 42.8 grams. There were two rockets that were 42.8 grams, but only one of them flew the highest. The range of the meters flown by the rockets, or the apogee height is 88.7 meters. The highest apogee height is 107.2 meters, and the lowest is 18.5 meters. This information was surprising because the rocket that went up 18.5 meters high was not very heavy. As seen in Graph 1, the rocket was the outlier of the group because of its apogee. The relationship between the variables indirect relationship because some of the data proved the hypothesis correct. One of the lightest rockets flew the highest, and the heaviest rocket was the rocket that flew the shortest height. Again, this is excluding the outlier. The rocket or the outlier that didn’t fly very high may have had some error in the results. The error might have come from the angle gun measurers who didn’t do the job correctly. These errors may have caused some mistakes in the data and the rockets to not fly as high. The variables that were tried to be controlled were the weather and the timing of the rocket launch. All of the rockets that were launched on the same day with a 5 second count down. The building of the rockets was also controlled, and the engines were as well.



Rocket Fin Re-design
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We think that this new design would work because the smaller fins would lead the rocket up higher and the fins would help with the aero- dynamic part of the flight. The larger fins below would help with the aero- dynamic part of the flight as well. These small fins are very light, so they wouldn't add much mass on the rocket. Finally, one of the fins was taken off, and a new fin was added so it would be more stable.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt;">When we launched the second rocket, it didn't go as planned. The first rocket went fairly high. It went up 70 meters. The second one however went up only 10.5 meters because of the new fins. This was a disappointment because the rocket wasn't that heavy. The new rocket was 43.6 grams whereas the first rocket was only 42.8 grams. I think that the thing that affected the height of our rocket probably were the extra fins. There was one fin right over the launch lug, so that could have also affected the flight of the rocket. I believe that because the launch lug had something in its way, it didn’t allow the rocket to fly up straight. The extra fins had a new design as well. Instead of the regular design, these fins were much smaller and they were triangles. I feel like this gave the air more surface area to “grasp” on, so it brought the rocket down. Otherwise, the reasons of why the rocket didn’t fly high is still a mystery.



History of Robots
A History of Robotics

One might think that robotics is just about a machine doing their homework for them. They might also think that robotics started just recently. Well, they are wrong in both ways. Robotics started way back around 350 B.C. when a very smart Greek mathematician named Archytas built a mechanical bird. This bird was called “the Pigeon” and was propelled by steam. This can also be qualified as robotics. Later on in the years, around 322 B.C., a known philosopher, Aristotle wrote “if every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that benefits it… then there would be no need either od apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.” He is saying that it would be a very pleasant to have robots around to ease up the life of the humans. Reaching 1495, a very famous person named Leonardo DaVinci designs a device that looks like an armored knight. The robot is designed very carefully by DaVinci to move as if a real person was wearing the suit. As seen in Figure 1, DaVinci’s robot is attatched to a motor in the back. The suit is powered by these commands coming from the motor box. This brave knight’s suit looks prepared to go save the lost princess! Many more robots were being built, even if they were things like Swiss watches and engines. In 1898, a man named Nikola Tesla built a remote controlled robot boat that could move around in the ocean. This boat was demonstrated by Tesla at Madison Square Garden.

In the mid 1900’s robotics moves on and makes some laws about robots. In 1940, the Threee Laws of Robotics are formed. The first law is that “a robot may not injust a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.” The second law is that “a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.” Finally, the third law is that “a robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.” One could say that robots were used for safe yet useful things. I would think that it robots took over the world; they would definitely make the humans lazy because of all that they are capable of doing. Robotics moves along greatly with many more scientists and geniuses finding new secrets about the robots. In 1996, a new robot called a RoboTuna was designed. This is a very unique design and was used to study the way fish swim. As seen in Figure 2, the RoboTuna had all of the mechanisms of a fish, like the fins and the tail shapes. The scientists really wanted to focus on what parts allowed the fish to maneuver its way around in the ocean. A couple of years later, a popular company called Lego started to get into robotics. They released their first software for robots called Mindstorms. This allowed people to build a robot and give it commands from the computer. The new generations of Lego Mindstorms advance, and so do the robot technology. Who knows, robots may soon take over the world!



//Ms. Mc - very good overall summary and diagrams. How are robots primarily used today? (-1/2). I like you included Lego Mindstorms. 9.5/10//

On The Edge
This robotics project was to program the robot to go until it senses a light. This robot senses the light and immediately stops at the complete edge of the table. Finally, this robot yells out, "watch out!" How was it to start? -1/2

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Caption? -1/2

These blocks were used to control the robot’s actions. Here are all of the uses for each of the blocks.


 * Block 1:** This is the sound sensor block. It will sense sounds greater than 50 and goes in port #2.
 * Block 2:** This block is a movement block. It goes forward forever with a 75% power. This block reacts with ports C and B that tell the robot to go and do the action.
 * Block 3:** This block is a light sensor. Whenever the light sensor in port 3 senses and goes until it senses a light that is less than 35.
 * Block 4:** This is also a motion block. After the robot senses the light, it stops with this block. This reacts with ports C and B, telling the robot to do the action. Does it brake or coast? -1/2
 * Block 5:** This is a sound block, and at the end when the robot stops, it yells out “watch out!” The volume is up to its highest and it plays by itself. This block plays a sound file.



//Ms. Mc - very good! 18.5/20//

Life on Mars?
Mars is a planet where life is actually debatable. Some people might say that there are in fact no signs of life on Mars and that nothing was or ever will be living there. Others say that there is life. In order for something to be living, it must have the 8 characteristics of life. These 8 characteristics are that an organism must respond to stimuli, reproduce, be able to grow, be made up of cells, need materials, be homeostatic, take in energy, be able to adapt to its environment and it must have a genetic code. Some researchers have researched evidence that Mars has bacteria with these 8 characteristics on it. Early on, the Vikings tried to test life on Mars. They sent up a spacecraft that was built to have materials to make an experiment to detect metabolism and organic molecules. Sadly, these results came out negative, temporarily disregarding any thoughts of life. Later on, other scientists realized that life can survive in a much greater range of conditions that was earlier thought. These life organisms could survive severely hot temperature that went over around 1800 degrees F. Finally, there was some good news to carry along the journey. Going on into the later years after the discoveries that Mars and Earth could have exchanged materials, scientists found shocking information that they might have found life evidence in a Martian meteorite. Mars had been thought to be hit by a very big and hard meteorite that could have bombarded with the early lives on Mars. As seen in Figure 1, the huge meteorite (actually an asteroid) blasted away a large chunk of Mars, and some scientists believe that this meteorite “ripped apart” the Mars’ atmosphere. Others believe that this meteorite provided so much energy, that new life could have formed when they took in some of the large amounts of energy. “Taking in energy” is a characteristic of life, so there could still be a chance. Now, there is still search of life on Mars with all of the Sulfuric salts found in the Mars dirt. Let’s hope for the best! After all, there are organisms on Mars; scientists just don’t know if they are alive, dead, dormant or non-living.

There are many organisms on Mars, but some of them aren’t living. In order for an organism to be alive, it must contain all of the 8 characteristics as said above (and all 8 characteristics of life must be fully functioning, -1/2). If an organism is dormant, then it used to be alive and still can be, but it just doesn’t have all of the characteristics functioning right now. If something is non-living, then it has 1 or 2 characteristics of life, but it wasn’t ever alive and never will be. Finally, if something is dead, then it used to have all characteristics of life, but it never will be alive again. If a sample from Mars containing Microbes needs to be classified as alive, dead, dormant, or non-living, then some simple tests would be made. First of all, microbes contain microorganisms which are fungus, viruses, or bacterium. These are all alive, or were alive. As seen in Figure 2, microorganisms like fungi grow a lot in certain conditions. Some tests that would be run are things like seeing if the microbes would grow and/or reproduce and in what environments. Then, research would be made to see if these types of environments could be on Mars. Finally, scientists would duplicate the environment as seen on Mars and try to see if the microbes would be able to grow there. If they can, then there most likely can be life on Mars!





//Ms. Mc - very good overview and figures. 10/10//