Andrew+L

**List of facts about Mars needed to send a rover there:**
 * 4/9/12-Log Entry 1**
 * Mars atmosphere contains trace amounts of oxygen which will oxidize iron
 * Craters from meteoroids
 * Mars has huge dust storms rover has to be able to withstand lots of dust
 * Mars has season due to its tilt, must be pointed at sun to collect solar energy
 * Energy needs to be stored for winter
 * Mars is cold (-125 to 25 degrees C) so rover needs to withstand cold temperatures
 * Takes 214 days to get to Mars
 * Need to launch when planets are closest so we don’t use as much fuel
 * Steer clear of moons
 * Rover must steer around the terrain because of rocky and sandy terrain
 * Launch window occurs every 2 years when earth is closest to Mars

**4/9/12- Log Entry 2** **History of rockets:**

Rockets have been around ever since gunpowder was invented in China, but there were things that have the same principals of rocket flight like the Hero Engine this was an engine that harnessed the power of steam.

The Chinese used rockets against the Mongol, they used sticks for more accurate flight. The rockets spread throughout Europe and was improved a lot, including the idea of putting the rocket in a tube, like a bazooka. The first thoughts of space travel were thought of by a Russian school teacher Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. He realized that to make the rocket fly further it would need more escaping gas. The American Robert H. Goddard thought that liquid fuel would propel the rocket further. During World War II Germany created the first missiles which were a rocket with a war head attached to the front. The missiles were captured at the end of the war by the allies and USA and Russia both began improving the missile technology, this started the space program, NASA. The Soviet Union launched the first satellite called Sputnik starting the great space race. USA retaliated with a satellite, called Explorer. Soon hundreds of things were being sent into space.



//Ms. Mc: Good general overview of the history of rocketry. NASA wasn't created for missile technology, however. (-1). I particularly like your diagram of the Hero Engine. You were to make 2 drawings instead of using a picture of Sputnik (-1). Please refer to your images in your text (i.e., "as seen in Figure 1"). Good job, overall. 8/10//

4/9/12- Log Entry 3 Scratch Rocket Launch

media type="custom" key="14055536"

Instructions to Run Simulation: Please turn on your volume, go to full screen, and click the green flag to watch my video, If simulation doesn't appear click on the "Learn More about this Project"

Pranay - Great job, Andrew! Your animation clearly showed the highest point in the rocket's travel. I thought the rocket's speed changed a bit often. But overall, you had very clear definitions and your sprites all moved very smoothly!

Mac- Your presentation was very good, but I thought that you could have made it a little smoother. Great Job in general, it looked nice!

4/17/12- Log Entry 4 Labeled Rocket Photo: As shown in figure one, the parts of the rocket and the uses of each part are: the nose cone makes the rocket more arrow dynamic making the rocket fly straighter, this makes the rocket have a higher apogee. The recovery system is inside of the body tube, the recovery system makes sure that the rocket has a safe landing, by opening a parachute. The body tube stores the recovery system and engine. The launch luge keeps the rocket on the launch pad and makes sure it flies of the launch pad straight. The recovery wadding protects the recovery system from the engine. The fins make the rocket fly straighter, this makes the rocket have a higher apogee. The rocke'ts motor provides the thrust needed to over come Earth's gravity, its is a solid propellant. The motor mount holds the engine in place.

// Ms. Mc: great definitions and labels! -1 pt. (10%) for being late with the paragraph. 9/10 //

4/18/12- Log Entry 5 Atlas V 541

The Atlas V 541 is a rocket in the Atlas V category. It has a 5 meter in diameter nose cone this keeps the rocket flying straight and makes it more arrow dynamic, 4 solid rocket motors these help thrust the rocket through earth’s atmosphere, and one engine in the Centaur that protects the spacecraft and once out of Earth’s atmosphere it propels the spacecraft toward Mars after orbiting earth, (541). The rocket also has a main rocket which powers the rocket through Earth’s orbit. The payload or space craft of this rocket is a 2000 pound Mars rover. The total mass of the rocket is 1,170,250lbs and it was 191.2ft, the rover is a huge rover so it needs to have a large rocket to launch from so the Atlas V 541 was chosen.

//Ms. Mc: good over view and diagram. Don't forget to refer to your figure in your text (9.5/10)//

4/25/12- Log Entry 6 Rocket launch analysis:

The purpose of the experiment was to determine if the rockets mass affected the rocket apogee, making it higher or shorter. Apogee is the highest point in the development of something, like flight. It was hypothesized that the mass of a rocket will effects its apogee, because the more mass it has the more thrust was needed to overcome the gravity, also the more mass the more gravity effects it making it need more thrust. The more thrust needed to overcome earth’s gravity will reduce the rocket apogee because then there is less fuel left for powered flight and the rocket inertia after the fuel has been burned will be reduced because earth’s gravity will overcome the inertia faster because gravity effects more massive things. Newton’s first law explains inertia, the law says that things are “lazy” and want to continue doing what they are doing until acted upon by another force. For example if a ball is throw it will eventually hit the ground, this is because gravity is pulling the ball down and, and once rolling friction stops the ball, if there was no gravity than the ball would continue flying until it hit another object. When the rocket is on the launch pad there is no thrust and gravity and floor push are equal. When powered flight begins the rockets thrust has overcome the force of gravity and air resistance. When powered flight is over the rocket will continue to coast up because the inertia from the thrust is still over coming earth’s gravity. When the rockets inertia is equal with gravity and air resistance, the rocket stops for a moment is the air before descending, that points is called the apogee. While descending before the recovery system is activated, the gravity is pulling the rocket back to the ground.



As shown in Graph 1 the rockets mass ranged from 42.8 g to 45.9 g, and the rockets apogee measurements ranged from 18.5 m to 107 m. This was inverse relationship, because the more massive the rocket, the shorter the apogee was, in the graph there was a downward trend on the data, although there were a few outlying measurements like the apogee of 18.5 m and the apogee of 70 m. Without the outlying data points the most massive rocket (42.8 g) had the highest apogee (107.24 m). The outlying data points could be caused from different variables like human error. Human measuring error was the fault of unsteady hands losing sight of the rocket, and timing when pulling the trigger. That variable was hard to control but better measuring technique like using computers would have been more accurate. Some other variables were engine size and strength, and weather conditions like wind strength, and rocket width and height, these were all controlled. These variables were controlled in different ways. To ensure that there was an equal engine size and strength all the rocket had the same size and strength engine, but there could be engine malfunctions which could have resulted in some outliers. All of the rockets were launched on the same day, and within a 15 minute time frame, that made sure that the weather and wind conditions were the same meaning that, that variable was controlled. All of the rockets were made from the same kit meaning that they should all have the same length and width. The sample size of the experiment was 9 rockets, 9 is not a large sample size making results inconclusive. To have a more conclusive experiment the sample size much be much bigger, a good sample size would be 100, because it is large enough to cancel out chance and other variables. The hypothesis that the more massive the rocket than the lower apogee was correct, because on average the more massive the rocket the shorter the apogee although there were some outliers.

4/30/12- Log Entry 7 Fin re-design:



To make our rocket fly higher we made the fins longer as shown in figure one. We still used 3 fins at the bottom of the rocket, but we made them almost twice as long with the same width. The longer rocket fins will make the rocket more arrow aerodynamic, which will make the rocket fly straighter. When the rocket flies straighter it will have a higher apogee. That will make our rocket fly higher than launch #1. I thought in both of the launches the rocket flew straight, but in the first launch there was an angle gun error and the data was counted as an outlier, so the measurement was measured as 18.5 m. In the second launch there was no error, and the measurement was measured as 55.5 m. The measured apogee on the modified fins was much higher than on regular fins. I think that the reason it went is because of angle gun error and actually it didn’t go higher than the first launch. I think the other rocket flew higher because the mass of the longer fins means that there is less powered flight and therefor a lower apogee. Also the longer fins could have made it less arrow dynamic and not more, and instead of corrected angle mistakes it could have made them worse.


 * 5/2/12-Log Entry 8**
 * History of Robots:**

There were many thoughts and fictional stories about metal men. Some of these stories were about the metal men were about them taking over the world like the movie terminator. Also some of the stories were about the robots helping people, like they do now in life. In Greek mythology there was a Greek god named Hephaestus, he had created human-size bronze men, that were his servants called Talos. The Greek mathematician Archytas postulated a "The Pigeon" which was a mechanical bird powered by steam. The earliest robots were decoration on clocks and other things, they were manikins that danced. The first productive robot was one who operated through the telephone. Robots began to be built to do stunts, for entertainment. Other robots were made to spray-paint, but this was mostly a display of technology. The first programmable robot was named Universal Automation, it was designed by George Devol. He later shortened the name to Unimation, which then becomes the name of the first robot company. General Motors was the first car company to buy a robotic arm from Unimation.



Today robots are used everyday, in everyday life. There are now robots that vacuum the floor, act as a lifeguard at pools, some robots in Japan are now working as chefs. Other everyday uses for robots are in the military and police force. In the military there are robotic vehicles that can go in without risking lives. On the police force robots can detect when criminals are and go in to detect bobby traps. Nano robots are being used that can go inside of people to detect and diagnosis cancer and other illnesses. Robots are being used everyday sometimes we don’t even realize that we are using them and take it for granted. The technology that we use everyday, would have amazed people from Greek mythology, to them we would have been like Hephaestus.



// Ms. Mc: Excellent summary and figures! Don't forget to specifically refer to your figures in your text (i.e., "As seen in Figure 1, ...). (-1). 9/10 //


 * // 5/17/12- Log Entry 9 //**
 * // On the Edge Challange //**

media type="file" key="Arl- video.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video #1: On the Edge Challenge



The On the Edge Challenge is challenging the programmer to be able to get their robot to wait for them to tell it to go, move towards the edge of the table and than be able to detect, and stop before falling of the edge. Then the robot must say "Watch out." The first block is a wait for time block, this block tells the robot to wait, not doing anything until it hears a sound. The sound was set to 50 decibel, so when we said "go" at a volume higher than 50 decibel it would continue with the program. The second block is a move forward for unlimited, using both motors C, B. At a speed of 75%, this will move the robot towards the edge of the table. The third block is a wait for reflected light, this block tells the robot to continue to move forward until under 30 was measured by the reflected light meter. The tables measured reflected light was 35 and the tapes was 27 so the robot would know to go to the next block once it reached a reflected light of under 30 or the tape. The forth block is a stop block, this tells both motors C, B to stop. This block is after the wait for reflected light so now the robot has stopped on the edge of the table. The final block is a sound block. The sound block is set to say "watch out" after the robot has stopped on the edge of the table. (How loud? -1/2).

Ms. Mc - Excellent work! 19.5/20


 * 6/5/12- Log Entry #11:**
 * Life:**

We still don’t know if there is life on Mars as there has been evidence to support both sides of the argument. There have been many different tactics to detect concrete evidence, they have sent up probes and rovers to try to discover if there is life or not. They have seen some evidence that liquid water which is essential for life, flows or once flowed on Mars' surface. One thing in the Great Trench of Mars (Valles Marineris?), that’s is a huge trench that seems to be made from flowing liquid eroding on the rock. More evidence of liquid water on Mars is the finding of, "Martian blueberries" which are spherical rocks made of hematite as shown in Figure 1. Hematite can only be made from liquid water. (Actually, the hematite isn't made in liquid water but the softer rock around the harder "blueberries" would be eroded by water.) A microorganism is single cell or small cluster of cells as shown in Figure 2. Some microorganisms have not yet been determined whether or not it is classified as living, dead, or dormant. To be living the thing must have these characteristics: 1. Cells 2. Reproduction 3. Homeostatic 4. Respiration-use E and make waste 5. Grow and develop 6. Adapt/evolve 7. Use materials 8. Respond to stimuli The Microorganism must have all 8 characteristics to be classified as a living thing. If they do not have all 8 than they cannot be classified as living. When things are dormant than not all of the characteristics could be in use at the time. (What about if the specimen is dead or non-living? -1/2)



//Ms. Mc - good discussion but need specific evidence to support your claims. -1/2. Also needed to discuss how to classify a specimen as dead or non-living. -1/2. -1 pt. late = 8/10.//