Anneka


 * 4/9/12 **
 * Log Entry #1 **
 * Facts We Need to Know to Get to **** Mars **


 * Mars is very cold(-125 to -250 degrees C) so rover would need to withstand these temperatures.
 * Lots of hills and very rocky with thousands of craters makes it difficult to land a rover
 * Mars and earth are 35 million miles away at its closest
 * On both poles there are large ice caps
 * Dust storms and sand are very common and can block the sun so it may be difficult to always use solar panels to get energy
 * Make sure you have enough fuel to get enough thrust to leave earth gravity
 * Takes 7-8 months or 214 days to get to Mars at its closest
 * Launch window happens every 2 years
 * Mars' gravity is about 1/3 of earths
 * Make rover sturdy to minimize need for repairs
 * Mars polar caps are made out of frozencarbon dioxide and water so need to land away from these.
 * Rover needs high traction wheels in order to move across the rocky, sandy terrain.
 * Mars has 2 moons so steer clear of them while landing.

// Ms. Mc: Good facts about Mars and its conditions, however, they all came from our class discussion. Where is your original work? (-3). 7/10. //


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

The water turns into steam because of fire. Once it turns to steam it travels through the pipes which causes the sphere to rotate. This Engine strengthened the Rocket’s ability to travel farther. The early Chinese began by using fire and gun powder to shoot off their rockets. This gave the rockets a significantly larger thrust. The next idea came from Konstantin. He put forth the idea of using liquid // propellant // to shoot off the rockets so they would go a greater distance. He said the speed and range of a rocket were only challenged by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. Goddard flew his first liquid propellant rocket and flew for only a few seconds, went up 12.5 meters, and landed 56 meters away. NASA was then formed because they wanted a space agency to send up rockets like Russia. NASA began shooting up rockets very shortly after it was founded with the goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind.



//Ms. Mc. Good general summary but lacking in some detail (-1). Missing first man-made satellite, Sputnik (-1). Good drawings. Please refer to your diagrams in your writing (i.e., "as seen in Figure 2"). 8/10//

**4/9/12** **Log Entry 3** **Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation**

media type="custom" key="14045226" Instructions to Run Simulation: 1) Turn Sound on 2) Press the Green Flag to Begin Simulation 3) Press the Red Stop button to pause the simulation. 4) If the Simulation does not appear, press the link above that says Learn more about this project

Baez- I liked your count down. Say what lift off is. I liked that you used Eve as your rover.

Emma - I really liked your beginning back ground, really pretty. My favorite part was how you used eve as your rover! My one criticism was that you could have described lift off better. Over all really good job J.


 * 4/16/12 **
 * Log Entry 4 **
 * Rocket Labeling **

The Nosecone was designed to be at the tip of the rocket to create a more aerodynamic rocket.Body Tube is to protect the inisde of the rocket, which includes the recovery system, recovery wadding, motor mount, and the motor. The recovery system is a way for the rocket to have a safe landing. Recovery wadding is meant to protect the recovery system during launching. Motor mount helps hold the motor in place which is what gives the rocket its initial thrust. The fins keep the rocket traveling straight while in the air and the launch lug gives the rocket a straight path off the launch pad.



// Ms. Mc: Great diagram and definitions! Please include a caption for your uploaded files and refer to them in your text. 10/10 //

**4/19/12** **Log Entry 5** **Atlas V 541**

As seen in figure 1 there are many stages of a rockets' flight. The rocket boosters first lift the rocket off the ground and last for only 1 and a half minutes. The common core boosters then keep burning. After only 5 minutes the rocket has used over 623,000 pounds of propellant. Once it has coasted for a short amount of time, the second stage centaur separates from the rocket. The two centaur burns, lasting 7-8 minutes, allows the rocket to leave Earth's orbit. The rocket is now heading for Mars. An important thing is to have a good rocket. The rocket the MSL mission crew chose to use with Curiosity was the Atlas V-541. This rocket is 191 feet tall and 1.17 million pounds. In Figure 2 you can see that the rocket has many parts to it. The rocket has four solid rocket boosters that help with the initial thrust of the rocket. Each sold rocket booster is around 64 feet tall. The engine uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen and can give up to 22,300 pounds of thrust. The Atlas V 541 was first launched in August of 2002.





//Ms. Mc: Very good overview and diagrams! You don't need the word "diagram" in the caption as it already says "figure." Also, you didn't include a caption for your second uploaded file. 10/10//

**Log Entry #6** **4/24/12** **Rocket Lab Intro and Summary**

The purpose of this experiment was to see if the mass of the rocket affected the height of its apogee. The rockets initial thrust of the rocket carries it up. The thrust is the force of the engine that first lifts the rocket off the ground. Once the rocket has used its boosters it is then rising on simply inertia, which is the law of motion saying an object in motion will stay in motion until acted on by another force. The air resistance and force of gravity eventually overcomes the force of the rockets thrust and begins to come down to the ground. It was hypothesized that the heavier the rocket, the shorter distance it will be able to go and the apogee would be lower. This was hypothesized because all rockets had the same engine so because the force of gravity would be higher, the rocket would run out of fuel quicker.



The hypothesis said that the heavier the mass the lower the apogee of the rocket wouldbe. However this was not entirely the case. There was one outlier because of the gap with this one point and the rest on the graph. In Graph 1 you can see that all the points were within a pretty small difference of each other, but there was also only a 3 gram difference in the rocket's masses. The best fit line was predicted to be inverse but is actually almost no relationship. It was proved to be no relationship because 3 rockets all from different masses flew 62.5 meters and then one with 62.8 meters. There was one more apogee of 57.7 meters. The range of mass is from 42.9 grams to 46.2 grams which makes the average around 44.4 grams. The apogee's ranged from 38.4 to 78.1. However, two points were considered outliers because they were very far from the other points.

Not all the launches were successful either. These casualties may have caused the range in data in the rockets with similar masses. The dependent variables were supposed to be the weather, engine, fins, different angle measures/ guns, and the location of the launch pad. However, two rocket's engines fell out during the launch and two launches only had only one angle measure. There was also one rocket with incorrect fin placement and we had to change the location of the launch pad for one of the launches after the rocket landed on the roof. The independent variable was the mass even though there was only a 3 gram range. Overall this experiment shows that the mass doesn't do much effect with the height of the apogee.

**Log Entry #7** **Fin Redesign Lab** **5/1/12**

As seen in figure #1, it was decided to use the same number of fins but make them slightly smaller and also a different shape. The fins were longer and skinnier than the fins from the first launch. The fins were placed this way because it would give the rocket a lighter mass and also create less air resistance because the fins wouldn't be sticking out as far. For the first launch, the rocket's mass was 46.2 grams, while the mass of the rocket during its second launch was 43.8. Because the mass was lighter it was hypothesized it would go higher. However, the mass taken off from the rocket was not enough to make up for the fact that the fins made the rocket unstable. In the first launch the rocket's apogee was 62.5 meters and in the second launch only 58.9.

//Ms. Mc: good diagram and initial thoughts. Your two designs, masses, and apogees were so similar that any differences between them probably weren't significant. The redesigned rocket may not have flown as high due to the fact that the narrower fins may not have provided as much lift. 4.5/5//


 * Log Entry #8 **
 * History of Robotics **
 * 5/3/12 **

The robotics and technologies that we use today have been improved many times because of the failures of earlier attempts. The modern robotics concepts began just after the Industrial Revolution created new technology, and made it possible with the introduction to electricity. Then in the 1920’s scientists had the capability to create human like robots that could think and act like a human. The very first robots were put in factories to produce products faster and more efficient. Before the 1950’s, the technology was slowly increasing. But then, all of the sudden, the use and capability of technology and robotics began to increase rapidly.

In 1950, a man named Alan Turing proposed a test to see if robots/machines actually could think on their own. This is known as the Turing Test. In 1954, the first industrial robot was used at General Motors in an assembly line to complete repetitive and dangerous tasks. Then in the early 1960’s robotics were being used to send rockets into space. The US first sent a rocket and person into space in 1969. Since then, the technologies have been increasing and allowing for new discoveries to be made.

//Ms. Mc - good general overview, but a few more details and dates needed (-1). Don't forget to specifically refer to your figure in your text; for example, "as seen in Fig. 1 . . ." (-1/2) 8.5/10//

Log Entry #10 On the Edge Challenge 5/16/12

The purpose of this challenge was to represent the rovers ability to detect a cliff or crater so that it wont fall and get damaged. The rover drove up to the tape after someone said go and once the rover detected a different amount of light it stopped. and said? -1/2

media type="file" key="afk_ontheedgerobot.AVI" width="300" height="300" Video 1: On the Edge Challenge



The first block was put in to tell the robot to begin once it heard someone say go. (What port was the sound sensor connect to and what volume of sound was needed? -1) Then the second block said that it needed to move forward. (What ports? What percent power? Move for how long? -1.5) The third block says that once it detects a change in light (What port and how much light? -1/2) it needs to do what the next block says which was to stop. (Ports? Braking or coasting?) Finally, the last block tells the rover to say "Watch Out." (How loudly and for how many times? -1/2)

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


 * Log Entry #11 **
 * 6/3/12 **
 * Is there life on Mars? **

<span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">For many years, many countries have been searching to figure out the answer to the question, is there life on mars. Scientists have been searching for any possible signs that life could have or does exist. The life that is being searched for on mars isn’t exactly the same type of life we think is on mars when we are young like Martians and aliens. Any type of life like microbes would be amazing to find on mars because that proves that life can exist. Life is being searched for on mars because mars is the planet most like Earth in our solar system. The first step is to find evidence that Mars has the characteristics suitable for life. When scientists sent a rover into space, they found out that water most likely existed on Mars many years. They also discovered that over the years the water became saltier and saltier until it was considered poisonous.



<span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">8 characteristics of life:


 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Grows
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Uses energy
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Responds to stimuli
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Reproduces
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Has cells
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Evolve/Adapt
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Development
 * <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">Homeostasis

<span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;">A microorganism is a very tiny(microscopic) organism made of cells or a cell. To classify something as living it would need to have all 8 characteristics (and all 8 would need to be fully functioning). <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> To be dead something must have at one point had all characteristics of life but those characteristics will never work again. Non-living is when something will never have all 8 characteristics. Finally, Dormant is when something has all 8 characteristics but not all are currently functioning. <span style="color: #3333ff; font-family: 'CatholicSchoolGirls BB',sans-serif; font-size: 18pt;"> // Ms. Mc - good overview of the findings about life on Mars, however, you need to provide specific data to support your claims (-1/2). Good figures but you forgot your caption for the second one and didn't refer to them in your text (-1). 8.5/10 //