Rosie

Facts You Need to Know in Order to Send a Rover to Mars
Based on the power point presentation about Mars that we discussed in class and the following resources, please make a fact sheet about what you would need to know about Mars in order to send a rover there. You may use bullets.
 * Mars is smaller than Earth
 * It has 2 polar ice caps
 * It has a lot of craters, so need to pick a smooth landing site
 * It has dust storms, so make it as resistant as possible to dust
 * It gets cold, very, very cold (can get down to -250 Celsius)
 * Need to launch when Earth and mars are aligned so the distance between planets is as short as possible, so the least amount of rocket fuel can be used.
 * Mars has seasons, so it needs to be able to withstand weather conditions, and they need to get energy from the sun when it can
 * Takes 7-8 months to travel to Mars
 * Temperature varies greatly within a few feet of the surface
 * Rover needs good traction as surface is rocky and has loose soil.

//Ms. Mc: Good general overview about Mars and its conditions based on our class discussion but don't see much original work (-2). Need to relate all facts to what impact they would have for getting a rover to Mars or for working on Mars (-1/2). 7.5/10//

Rocket History
Read the document entitled “Rocket History.” This document can be found in the calendar section of your instructor's class website. In two or more paragraphs, summarize the history of rockets. Additionally, include at least 2 pictures that you have__drawn__and uploaded to supplement your written work. __Fire, Metal and Man__ When we think of “rockets” we don’t think of a giant kettle of water and steam used for power, or Chinese firecrackers thrown in a fire. Yet that’s what it all was started by. The Hero Engine was one of the first devices to apply rocketry basics to it’s function. Developed around 100 B.C., the Hero Engine used a fire to convert water into steam. That steam traveled up from the water into tubes that when passed into the L-shaped tubes on the side of the sphere allowed the sphere to spin. Now, when exactly the first real rocket was created is unkown. However, it is said that the early Chinese had accidental rockets, made from a simple mixture, in which the filled tubes with and tossed them into fires to explode during religious festivities. Maybe some didn’t explode, but instead skidded out of the fire, propelled by the gases and sparks from the fire and mixture. They then began to experiment with these rockets by attaching the bamboo tubes to arrows and launching them with bows. When they discovered the rocket could launch itself by the energy produced by the gases and sparks, the true rocket was born. They used it in war as weapons against the Mongols by sending them flying through the air. It’s predicted that they had more of a phycological effect on the Mongols then physical, as they weren’t very destructive. Skipping forward to 1898, A Russian schoolteacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of applying rocketry to space travel. He also suggested the use of liquid fuel, which was different and unusual from the solid fuel that had been being used. It would be harder to accomplish, but much more beneficial as the rocket would achieve greater range. He tried and failed over and over, but in 1926 he made the first succesful flight. The rocket didn’t go far, but it launched a new era in rocketry. On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union announced it had just launched Sputnick 1, an artificial satellite that orbits Earth. The United States and Russia were locked in some sort of Star War (ha.), or the Race for Space. As soon as they launched Sputnick, we freaked and sent up Explorer 1 to go “HA, IN YOUR //FACE//!”. To formally organize our Space program, the United States formed NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) that same year. From water kettles to a Race for Space, rocketry has evolved from thousands of years and will continue to do so in the future.

//Ms. Mc: very good overview of the history of rocketry and drawings. Goddard was the scientist who flew the first liquied propellant rocket (-1/2). Please use formal language only in your postings and refer to your figures in your writing (i.e., "As seen in Figure 1, ...) (-1). Also, you do not need to includ the prompt in your post//. 8.5/10

Mars Mission Simulation
media type="custom" key="14053964" Instructions: 1.) Make sure you have the volume on. There are sounds.   2.) Click the green flag to start. 3.) Click the red stop sign to stop.   4.) That’s about it. 5.) Congratulate yourself. Fiona- Great Job Explaining the six stages of flight! Make sure that the apogee is when the rocket arches over the entire 90 degrees. I especially enjoyed your ending. :)

Cate- I loved the way your rocket didn't just say stuff, you made it pretty. I personally didn't have enough time to read the definitions, though. I also loved Marvin the marsian at the end, really funny!

Log Entry #4

Labeled Rocket Photos


Our rocket may look simple, but there are a lot of parts to it that require a lot of patience (and glue) to fit together. We may as well start with the outside. It looks like the average rocket, with the fins and the cone at the top. Everything (except for the paint) has a fundamental purpose. The fins, for example, keep the rocket from blasting off straight, then sideways, wobbling a little before just spinning back down. In other words, they keep the course of the rocket straight. Even the nose cone has an aerodynamic purpose, it guides the rocket's path as well. Think of a swimmer having a good streamline by making his hands in a point. If you don't have a streamline, you don't have a swimmer. The same concept applies with the rocket. The launch lug doesn't look like much, and it's kind of hard to think of a purpose that a small piece of plastic glued onto the outside would have, if any. Well, it doesn’t have much of a job to do, although it is important. Once on the launch pad, the rocket is held in place by this little piece of plastic when the wire is threaded through. Then body tube is really just what our skeleton is to our organs: support. The structure. If you were ever bored enough to dissect a simple rocket, you'd find a bunch of mess that’s just kinda stuffed all in it. Each of these things has a purpose, too. First, you have the motor. The motor is obviously the fuel, just a tube with gunpowder in it. It makes it go. Simple as that. The motor mount just holds that motor in place. Again, easy. The recovery wadding is a bunch of toilet paper wadded up and stuffed inside. Well, what on Earth (or Mars, heh) does that solve? It basically keeps your motor from igniting your rocket. Making it go boom. Boom is not good. Last but oh, certainly not least is the recovery system. Sounds important, huh. Yeah, well, it is. It's the parachute that brings the rocket back down all neatly and stuff. And that, all together, is a result of patience, teamwork, and yes, glue.

//Ms. Mc: Great photos and definitions. I appreciate your humor :). The launch lug not only hold the rocket on the launch pad but also, helps it fly up the guide wire so it takes off straight (-1/2). Don't forget to refer to your figure in your text. 9.5/10//

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Log Entry #5
The Atlas V Rocket is made up for four essential parts; There's the fuel tanks, the solid rocket motors (which are used to increase rocket thrust), the Centaur, which is fuel and oxidizer and fires twice to get the rocket on it's way to Mars, and the payload fairing, which contains the payload (the rover). Being 58 meters tall and weighing 1.17 million pounds, it was chosen because it had success in the past with heavy lifting. It needed to have a greater mass and liftoff capability in order to carry an especially heavy rover.

 The Atlas V Rocket is made up for four essential parts; There's the fuel tanks, the solid rocket motors (which are used to increase rocket thrust), the Centaur, which is fuel and oxidizer and fires twice to get the rocket on it's way to Mars, and the payload fairing, which contains the payload (the rover). Being 58 meters tall and weighing 1.17 million pounds, it was chosen because it had success in the past with heavy lifting. It needed to have a greater mass and liftoff capability in order to carry an especially heavy rover. //Ms Mc: Good general summary. Please be a little more specific in your titles for your captions and refer to your figures in your text. 9/10//

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Modified Report
The purpose of the experiment was to test how mass affects the rocket's apogee. While the rocket is on the launch pad, it is not moving since the forces of gravity and the thrust from the launch pad are balanced. Once the engine is lit, the thrust from the engine overpowers the force of gravity and the rocket is shot up into the air. While it is traveling during the powered flight, the force from the engine is still enough to overcome the forces of gravity and air resistance pulling it down. Once the rocket is coasting, the inertia is briefly able to keep the rocket in motion against the forces of gravity and air resistance. Once the rocket reaches its apogee, the rocket is temporarily stopped in midair because the forces pushing the rocket up and down are balanced. It was hypothesized that the greater mass a rocket has, the apogee will be at a lower point because there would be a greater force of gravity acting on the rocket, meaning it will have to overcome a greater inertia. Since the engine was not specifically designed for the rocket, the apogee will be lower when the powered flight ends.

The rocket masses ranged from 43.5 grams to 47.2 grams. The rocket apogees ranged from 71.3 meters to 142.8 meters. As seen in Graph 1, there is an inverse relationship between the rocket mass and the rocket apogee. As the rocket mass increased, the apogee decreased. For example, a rocket with a mass of 43.5 grams had an apogee of 142.8 meters. A rocket with a mass of 47.2 grams had an apogee of 100 meters. It had previously been hypothesized that the greater mass a rocket has, the apogee will be at a lower point because there would be a greater force of gravity acting on the rocket, meaning it will have to overcome a greater inertia. Since the engine was not specifically designed for the rocket, the apogee with be lower when the powered flight ends. This hypothesis was confirmed because as Graph 1 shows, the rockets that had a greater mass generally had a lower apogee. However, there were a few errors that entered the experiment and effected results. Although the same kit was used to build all of the rockets, the way the instructions were followed may have varied between groups. Any fault in building affected the way the rocket flew. Weather may have affected the course of the rocket, either by blowing it up, down or in another direction and the fact that the rockets’ launch days were divided into two different days was another unstable variable. There were only eight rockets to be launched, so the sample size was almost too small. The angle gun measurers varied, and that also may have affected the data if there was an error in measurement. ==

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Flight Comparison Summary
Our new and improved rocket was certainly new, but certainly not improved. The first seed of doubt that was planted in our mind started to grow when we weighed our re-designed rocket. The rocket was heavier by exactly 2 grams, it now weighing 47.4 grams. However, we knew something like this had to happen, since we added 3 more fins to the rocket's body. So we cast aside our worries and headed outside. As I carried the rocket to the field, I noticed another change that was made in my absence. The original fins were left on, but rounded at the bottom. I said nothing, as my teammates were excited and it was simply to late to notice any problems. I was certain this wasn't going to improve our aerodynamic performance. The new fins were placed in the spaces that the original fins left, so it all evened out at the bottom. I didn’t think this would have helped either, as the fins were all shaped differently and I predicted it would throw off our flight path. As we put our rocket on the launch pad and watched it shoot off in the sky, it reached an apogee about 100 meters before the original design did. We were disappointed, but not too sad as few of our classmates achieved better. I also suspect there was an error in measurement, as a rocket that clearly went lower than ours winded up getting a higher apogee. ==

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5/3/2012
Log Entry #8 History of Robotics

The history of robotics goes all the way to ancient times, with quotes and texts describing technology that would do our work for us. The early water clocks could be used to describe early robotics, taking place in the 4th century. In the early middle ages, the Chinese were inventing clock towers that featured mannequins that marked the hours passage, riging gongs and bells and such. Along with other things, the first programmable humanoid robot was invented in 1206 by a man named Al-Jazari. During 1500-1800, robotics advanced further, with people inventing things that could play music, act, draw, fly, and even some that acted as a calculator. Production was rapidly sped up with these machines replacing humans, or improving what humans had already to work with. In the years leading up to about 1950, people were becoming familiar with words like "robot" and understanding exactly what robotics was. The first American programmable computer came in 1944, used for military purposes. After 1950, robots and machines rapidly started appearing everywhere, as technology advanced and the Industrial Revolution completely left it's mark on the world. The first robot to replace a human's job came in 1961. Robotics were applied to space travel, and everything took off. Rovers were sent up, like the one in Figure #1, robots to help the astronauts with their work in space, and it seemed everything from space travel to making cars benefited from robotics. To this day, the technology advances to things no one has ever seen or imagined was possible. All we can hope for is that it doesn't turn out like The Terminator. //Ms. Mc - good summary, Rosie, however you were to include 2 figures (-2). I like your humor :). 8/10//

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Explaining the Blocks
media type="file" key="arh_robot.AVI" width="300" height="300"

Caption? -1/2



This challenge, called “On the Edge”, was to see if we could get the robot to drive to the edge of the table and stop using either the light or the ultrasonic sensor. We were to design a code in LEGO Mindstorms telling the robot exactly what to do, then download on to the robot. We chose to use the light sensor, and we measured the light difference of the table and the tape on the edge, entered it in and told the robot to stop when it senses the tape. How did it start? -1/2

These blocks all give the robot a certain set of directions. Block #1- Only when the robot hears a sound that's above a predetermined amount will it start the code sequence. What port and how loud? -1 Block #2- This is a motion block. The robot is supposed to move forward at 75% speed forever, until the next block is activated. Ports? -1/2 Block #3- This is the measurement (light sensor) block. It tells the robot that if a certain light value is detected, it's supposed to do a certain action. Port and amount of light? -1/2 Block #4- This is the certain action (in this case, STOP) that the robot is supposed to do when it detects a certain light value. Ports? Brake or coast? Block #5- After the stop motion has been activated, the robot is supposed to play a certain sound. What sound, how loud, and for how many times? -1

Ms. Mc - good overall but missing some of the details 16/20.

6/7/12
SLMM - History and Defining Life

The early spacecrafts sent to Mars came back with negative results, setting a dim mood over the scientific world for about 20 years, until a meteorite came from Mars had bacteria-like life forms and about 30 known Earth minerals. That triggered a period of heavy debate on the validity of the claims, and it was concluded that it’s likely the claims were invalid. However, the more recent crafts sent to Mars came back with more optimistic results. Our searches had been narrowed down to find water on Mars- for without liquid water, life cannot be sustained. We have found liquid water that has somehow survived Mars’ violent history under the polar ice caps. Water definitely once flowed on Mars, and the polar ice caps there have water underneath them.

A micro-organism or microbe is a single-celled or cell cluster life form. You can see a cell cluster in Figure 1 below. They were discovered by a homemade microscope in 1675. There are many characteristics something must have to be classified as living. If something is dead, it means that something had all eight characteristics of life, but not anymore. If something is nonliving, it means it does not possess all 8 characteristics of life and never will. If something is dormant, it has all 8 but one or more have been temporarily suspended. To be classified as living, an organism must: - Be able to reproduce - Be able to grow and develop - Be able to adapt and evolve - Need raw materials - Respond to stimuli - Be made up of cells - Be homeostatic - Use energy (and produce waste) To identify a sample and classify it as living, nonliving, dead or dormant, one experiment would be to put that sample in the right environment and give it the materials they may need, and see if it does grow and develop. You could put a plant in soil, give it the essential materials and it would grow and develop, therefore be classified as living as seen in Figure 2.



//Ms. Mc - well-written and detailed. Remember, if an organism is classified as "living," it not only must possess all 8 characteristics of life but all 8 must be fully functioning. 10/10//