Michael

Facts You Need to Know in Order to Send a Rover to Mars

 * Mars has many cold deserts
 * Mars doesn’t have a magnetic field any more
 * Mars is covered by hundreds of thousands of craters, need to pick a smooth landing site
 * Mars has dust storms so need to construct rover so it is as resistant as possible to dust
 * Need to launch when Earth and Mars are it line, so distance is as short as possible, to save rocket fuel. (Shortest distance 36 million miles)
 * There are polar ices caps, so need to be able to roam on ice
 * Mars is about half the size of Earth for your path
 * Mars has seasons, for winter you need energy from the Sun
 * Mars only gets 44% sunlight so need a back-up power
 * Mars is very cold (250 degrees C) rover needs to be able to withstand cold.
 * Dusty, rocky with little soil surface, wheels need good traction

// Ms. Mc: good facts overall. Needed to relate fact to how it might impact getting a rover there (-1). Good additions from class discussion. 9/10 //

=4/9/12= =Log Entry #2= =History of Rocketry=

The idea of rockets started around 100 B.C. with the Hero Engine. Though the engine didn't fly or travel anywhere, it used the basic ideas of rocketry to power rotation. On the top of the engine, a kettle with two wind pipes used steam produced by boiled water, to spin around. This idea was not converted into a rocket until almost 1000 years later when historians believe the first actually rocket was invented. During a war against the Mongols, the Chinese used gunpowder in tubed which then were attached to a bamboo stick to be launched at the invaders. These ideas then lead to fire arrows. Fire arrows are basically the same thing but instead of being launched, they are shot out of a bow.

In the year 1898, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a school teacher, came up with the idea to use rockets to travel into space, and his ideas were sum up in a book. He thought that by using liquid fuel the rockets could travel farther distances. In the year 1926, an American named Robert Goddard used Tsiolkovsky’s ideas to build a liquid powered rocket. Goddard did many experiments and soon created the rocket that would lead to the creation of today's rocket. During WWII, the Germans used a liquid powered rocket to attack London, but the rockets were not enough for them to win the war. After the defeat, the Germans scientist mostly went to the United States or Russia, which give both countries the knowledge on military rocketry. On October 4th, 1957 Russia launched the first rocket into space. America then followed the next year. To advance space travel, NASA was created by civilians to help everyone learn about space.





//Ms. Mc: good summary of rocket history. In 1957, USSR launched the first successful satellite (not rocket) named Sputnik. In the future, please refer to your figures in your writing. Good job! 9.5/10//

Rocket Flight Simulation Scratch
media type="custom" key="14075494"

Instructions for running Scratch Simulation- Click on the Green Flag to start from the beginning, turn up sound and enjoy the show. If the simulation does not appear, click on learn more about this project link.

Patrick S: Nice Flight Simulation. The music was a great addition. ( don't know if you arranged the coding do sync with the music, but it worked!!!) Great definitions. Overall, a great simulation!!!

Jimmy: This was a good simulation. I like the settings and the music, as they blended quite well. I think that on some parts the rocket is a little big in proportion to the background. I think this is a very good simulation. Jacob: Ha, great music! Definitions were great and there was lots of time to read them. I thought that the rocket might have moved a little too fast though. Great Job!

Parts of the Rocket and Paragraph
As shown in figure 3, all of the parts of the rocket are labeled and are exampled in this paragraph. The nose cone is the top of the rocket that gives the rocket more aerodynamics during flight. To protect the insides of the rocket such the recovery system and motor, the body tube is a cylinder of cardboard around the rocket. When apogee is reached, the recovery system, a parachute attached to the nose cone and body allow you to use the rocket multiple times. The recovery wadding is fire resistant paper that prevents the recovery system from catching on fire. To make sure the rocket launches straight a metal rod on the launch pad goes through the launch lug. The wooden fins of the rocket stabilize the rocket during flight to maximize apogee. Motor mount holds the motor in place, and the motor burns solid and liquid fuel to power the rocket.

//Ms. Mc: Good description of the rocket part functions and diagram! 10/10//

Atlas V-541 Rocket
The Atlas V-541 is a 191 feet long rocket weighing almost 1.17 million pounds. The Atlas V-541 was chosen for this mission because was big enough to carry the rover and it could produce enough velocity to escape Earth’s atmosphere. The rocket is made up of a nose cone, four solid-rocket engines, a core booster and a Centaur engine. The nose cone goes on the top of the rocket and it gives it more aerodynamics. All four of the solid-rocket engines burn solid fuel, to increase the thrust of the rocket out of Earth’s gravitational pull. To power the spacecraft into orbit, the core booster burns oxygen to allow the rocket to ascent. The Centaur engine is fired twice during the flight; the first is to bring the rocket into Earth’s low orbit and then used again to escape it.

[[image:cascience7-2012/mjc_atlas.JPG]]
//Ms. Mc: Good description of the Atlas 541 and its parts. Don't forget to add a caption and refer to your figure in your text. 9/10//

Summary of the Data
**__Introduction__** The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the mass of the rocket affected its apogee. When the rocket was on the launch pad, the force of gravity (Earth's pull on objects) acted down and the force of the launch acted up so it was at rest because of equal forces. So, for the rocket to liftoff, the thrust of the rocket most have been greater than Earth’s gravity. As the rocket flew, its thrust still carried it, and Earth’s gravity was still pulling it down, but now the air pulls down the rocket. Evening though the two forces acted down on it, the rocket still increased in altitude. When all the fuel burned out, the only forces that acted on the rocket are the air and gravity which pulled down, but the rocket gained altitude because of its inertia, inertia is the word to describe that objects want to keep doing what they are doing. Eventually, air and gravity overpowered inertia and the rocket stopped moving completely for a split second, during this no forces acted on the rocket. Then it fell, because of gravity pull, but since it was falling, the air pushed up on the rocket but it was not as strong as gravity. It was hypothesized that the rocket with less mass then it will travel the highest because the force of gravity will be less, and it would take less fuel than a heavier rocket. **__Summary of Data__** The masses of the rockets used in this experiment ranged from 43.5 grams to 47.2 grams. As shown in Graph 1, the apogees ranged from 71.3 meters to 142.8 meters, with an average apogee of 109.5 meters. The data is this experiment was found to have an inverse relationship between the masses and apogee. It was determined that in general, as the masses got higher, the apogee decreased. Rocket #7 that flow the highest, and was the lightest rocket at 43.5 grams and its apogee was 142.8 meters. Rocket #1 and 6 had the two lowest apogees, and they also had the two heaviest masses. The hypothesis was proven because the lightest rocket flow the highest and the two heaviest rockets flow the lowest. Though the independent variable in this experiment was the mass, other factor could have affected apogee. Firstly, there were two different launch days for the rockets, with completing different winds and weather conditions. Rockets #3-6 launched on the second day, so on the second day, the three highest rockets were launched. Though the same angle guns were used in this experiment, different people operated them which could have differed the results. The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the mass affect apogee, but the masses only differed 3.7 grams, which would likely not affect apogee greatly.



Fin Design


====To change the design of the fins, the three fins along the bottom were kept in the same place, but that small portions on the side cut off to reduce the mass. Then, the scraps from the bottom fins were placed on the put of the rocket to increase aerodynamics. It was thought that if fins were placed on both the top and the bottom that the rocket would be stabilized. For the first launch, the mass of the rocket was 45.5 grams, and on the second launch it was 46.5 grams. The new fin design decreased the apogee of the rocket about 70 meters. The apogee was thought to have decreased because the mass increased, and when the fins at the bottom was cut down, the rocket lost stability. Our fins were not evenly placed around the robot which affected the stability of the rocket. In addition, the flight path was not straight which probably decreased the apogee.====

History of Robots
Robotics have come a long way in the last 100 hundreds, but historians believe that the first robot was invented in 270 BC. It is believed that a Greek engineer named Ctesibus was the first person to make a robot, with his water clock with moveable parts. In 1921, the term “robot” was first used in a play written by Karel Capek, talking about how man makes robots and then robots kills man. The term robotics was first used by Isaac Asimov in a book, its cover is shown in Picture 2. These ideas of the metal human were soon put into action, because the first robot making company came around in the year 1956, headed by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger.

MIT created the first computer assisted robot and this innovation lead to the first industrial robot to be made in an automobile factory in New Jersey just a few years later. The inventions of robots began to helped everyone in the year 1963, the when first robotic arm was used to help the handicapped. Stanford College invented the first electrically powered robot arm soon after 1963. The touch screen was invented with the silver arm, shown in Picture 1, the first robot to do small part assembly, in the year 1974. The Stanford Cat, the first robot to travel across a room computerized, and may have been the first push towards NASA rovers today. Robots have traveled a long way since 270 BC, and today robots are used for assembly, space discovery, surgery and the military.





//Ms. Mc - very good summary and figures. When you refer to the figures, please call them figures instead of pictures. Also, you should put them in the order in which they are discussed or in otherwords, whatever figure you mention first should be Figure #1. 10/10//

5/18/12 Log Entry #10 Challenge #3

The goal of this challenge was for the robot to drive up to the edge of the table and stop. When it stopped it was suppose to make a sound. How was it to start? -1/2

media type="file" key="Mjc_robot.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video 1. This is a video of robot doing Driver's Challenge #3, On the Edge



Caption? -1/2

Block 1- This block tells the robot to wait until it hears sound to start doing things. Port and level of sound? -1

Block 2- This is a motion block telling the robot to move forwards at 75% power, for unlimited rotations and only motors C and B should turn.

Block 3- This block is telling the robot to keep moving until its light sensor detects that the table ends. What port and how much light? -1

Block 4- When the robot sees it's on the edge, this block tells the robot to stop turning ports C and B, so the robot stops moving. (By braking or coasting? -1/2)

Block 5- The last block is a sound block, when the robot goes not fall over the edge, it says, "Watch out." Ours was programmed wrong it is says, "Good Job." (Oops! How loudly? -1/2)

Ms. Mc - good overall, just missing some details. 16/20

Life on Mars?
For the past 50 years, many fly bys, orbiters, landers and rovers have been sent to Mars trying to answer one question, is there life on Mars? The two leading countries in this mission are the United States and the Russia. The rovers’ main jobs are to study the rocks, elements and physical features of Mars trying to see if there is or were life on Mars. Today, the rover Curiosity is on its way to Mars to try to answer the questions going around for a century. The Viking Lander, shown in Figure 1, one of the first landers sent to Mars, made an important discovery in that Mars has organic molecules, essential to all life. Just recently, NASA found salts only found in the presense of flowing water, proving water once flowed on Mars. Though the evidence is not completely one way or the other, life could inhabit Mars today.

Scientists have come to a conclusion that humans are not living on Mars, but microbes are still a possibility. A microbe, shown in Figure 2, is a single cell living creature displaying all eight of the characterists of life. The family is made up of bacteria, fungi, algae etc. and they are believed to live everywhere on Earth. If a microbe was found on Mars, it would be classified as living because it would have all eight of the characterists of the life. Though there is no real evidence that life is on Mars, it is still very possible.





//Ms. Mc - good overview. What are the 8 characteristics of life? -1. Remember, that in order to considered living, an organism must possess all 8 characteristics of life and they all must be fully functioning. -1/2 8.5/10//