Tommy+Br

Facts We Need to Know in Order to Get a Rover to Mars

 * Mars is also largely made of water and ice ( //Do you mean the polar caps?) -1 //
 * Both planets have a similar tilt in their rotational axis
 * You have to make sure you trajectory is right
 * You have to wait 2 years for it come back to the shortest distance between the two planets
 * It takes 7-8 months to get to mars if your trajectory is right
 * You need a lot of rocket fuel to escape Earth’s gravitational pull
 * Launch window to determine aim for Mars where it’s going to be in the future when out rockets get there.
 * Launch window is favorable about every 2 years
 * Mars has 2 small moons so need to steer clear of them
 * Mars has huge dust storms so need to make rovers as dust-proof as possible.
 * Mars is the 4th planet from the sun
 * At its closes point, Mars
 * Mars has polar caps made of frozen carbon dioxide and water
 * Mars has seasons so we need to store energy for the winter when we won’t be able to collect as much solar energy.
 * Mars is cold; average air temperature is -63 ˚C so rover needs to be able to withstand cold temperatures
 * Mar’s has hundreds of thousands of craters, large mountains, and a huge canyon so need to pick flat area for landing
 * No liquid water so don’t need to about that in picking a landing site.
 * Pressure is 1/100th of that on Earth so rover needs to be able to operate in this environment

Ms. Mc: good facts about Mars and its conditions. Please capitalize Mars as it's a proper noun. Good additions from our class discussion. 9/10

[[image:cascience7-2012/teb_rocket.JPG caption="Figure #1 - USA's First Satellite, Explorer"]][[image:cascience7-2012/tebrocket.JPG caption="Figure #2- The Hero Engine"]]
The Hero Engine was a sphere on a water bowl and then fire under the bowl turned the water into steam and the gas traveled through pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere allowed the gas to come out which made the sphere rotate. The Chinese used rockets in war by firing them at their enemy. They also used rockets for fireworks in ceremonies or special events. Konstantin Tsiolvosky proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. He also suggested the use of liquid propellants for rockets in order to achieve greater range. On March 16th, 1926 Goddard created the first successful flight with a liquid-propellant rocket.

Veein fur Raumschiffahrt developed the V-2 rocket to serve as a weapon that could devastate whole city blocks. United States followed the Soviet Union with a satellite of its own. Explorer I was launched by the U.S. Army on January 31, 1958. In October of that year, the United States formally organized its space program by creating the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). NASA became a civilian agency with the goal of peaceful exploration of space for the benefit of all humankind.

//Ms. Mc: good overview of the history of rocketry, however, you were to expand upon your reading review questions (-2). Please don't highlight all of your text as it makes it hard to read. Please refer to your diagrams in your writing (i.e., "as seen in Figure"). 8/10 //

Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation
media type="custom" key="14079466" Instructions for How to Run Simulation
 * 1) Press the green flag in the top right corner of the simulation screen
 * 2) Watch and Enjoy
 * 3) Press the red stop sign (with out "stop" written on it)
 * 4) If simulation doesn't appear, click on the "learn more about this project link" above.

Comments on video:

TommyBa

Haha, this is awesome. the football field was a nice touch. One thing you probably could have changed is maybe make sure it takes off before you say liftoff. Danny S- It is a very smooth rocket, and not very choppy. You may want to have your rocket lift off before you say "We have liftoff." I was also a very well organized EDL.

**4/16/12** **Log Entry #4** **Labeled Rocket Photo**

As you can see in figure 1 the nose cone is at the top of rocket and directs where the rocket will end up. The body tube is the main part of the rocket and holds most of the rocket together. The recovery system is like a parachute the returns the rocket back for further use. The recovery wadding keeps the fire or the spark created on liftoff from the recovery system. The launch lug is the small and skinny cylinder on the side of the rocket which points the rocket in the right direction from liftoff. The fins help direct the rocket when it's in the air. The motor mount keeps the motor from moving around. The rocket motor pushes out fuels and gas to send the rocket into the air.

// Ms. Mc: great definitions and labels! 10/10 //

4/18/12 Log Prompt #5 Atlas V-541 rocket

 The Atlas 541 is made up of different parts (seen in Figure #1) such as the fuel and oxygen tanks that help the engine for ascent. There are 4 solid rocket motors that increace the engine thrust. Then there is the Centaur which acts as the vehicle's "brains." Last but not least there is the payload fairing or the nose cone that protects the spacecraft during the rocket's ascent. The Atlas V 541 was chosen for this mission because it had the right liftoff capability, and other rockets in its family were successful for NASA. The Atlas V-541 is 58 meters tall and is about 531,000 kilograms.

//Ms. Mc: good general overview and diagram. What does the Centaur engine do? (-1/2) You do not need to include "diagram" in your caption as "figure" already is part of it. 9.5/10//

4/26/12 Log Entry #6 Rocket Launch Write Up

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the mass of the rocket affected the rocket’s apogee height. Many forces act on the rocket at different times during its mission from liftoff to descent change a lot and have different impacts on the rocket. The only forces acting on the rocket on the launch pad are the launch pad and the force of gravity, however when it lifts off it doesn’t have the launch pad’s force; It has force from the thrusters and force from air resistance and gravity. When the rocket is coasting it has no force of thrust it only has air resistance and gravity acting as forces on it. When the rocket finally gets to its apogee it has no air resistance or thrust, and only has the force of gravity acting upon it. When the rocket begins its descent it has the force of gravity acting on it pushing it down, but then it also has air resistance pushing the rocket back up. However, the force of gravity overcomes the air resistance and the rocket goes down. It was hypothesized that heavier rockets will fly higher because of inertia; therefore if it is heavy it will take more gravity and air resistance to slow the rocket down to a stop at apogee.



In graph #1 the average apogee of all the six rockets was 77.3 meters and the average weight of the rockets was, and the masses range was 43.5 to 47.1 grams. It is thought that there is an inverse relationship. This was thought because it seemed as the mass increase, the height decreased.

The hypothesis was concluded to be incorrect because the relationship was an inverse relationship, yet it was hypothesized that it would have a direct relationship. This data might have changed due to uncontrollable variables or maybe the launch jug could have been plugged with paint, or there could have been different wind speeds or weather conditions. The final results are not accurate due to the small amount of rockets giving inaccurate results and average. To have proper and accurate results you would need more rockets or multiple amount or lift-off trials.

4/30/2012 Prompt #7 Rocket Fin Re-Design paper



It was thought that the rocket would have a higher apogee since the fins are titled, it will provide more spin, which will provide stability, which will make the rocket fly higher.

The original rocket's mass was 47.1 g, and the new rocket with the the new fin design had a mass of only 45.4 g. Although the first rocket's mass was more it had the higher apogee of 63.7 meters, and the new apogee was 21.3 meters. The rocket didn't go straight up, however it had a very short arc and almost flew horizontally for a little bit. The fins were also not exactly the same distances apart from each other and they weren't all the same size fins either. Another factor might have been that we couldn't find a center of gravity because of the height of the fins.

5/6/12 Prompt #8 History of Robots



One of the first recordings ever of robots was in 270 BC by a Greek engineer named Ctesbus who made organs and water clocks with movable figures. The next recording of Robots was in 1818 when Mary Shelley wrote “Frankenstein” which was about an artificial life form created by Dr. Frankenstein (Figure #1 shown above). 1921 was the first time the term “robot” was first used in a play called “Rossum’s Universal Robots.” In 1942 a man named Asimov wrote “Runaround”, a story about robots which contained three laws. 1. A robot may not injure a human. 2. A robot must obey the orders it by human beings. 3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. In 1963 the first artificial robotic arm to be controlled by a computer was designed.

Now continuing to more modern times and dates, in 1999 Lego names their new robotic invention system Mindstorms which we currently use today is created. In 2000 the first ever battle bots event is held in Las Vegas Nevada. Then in 2003 NASA launches “Spirit” and “Opportunity.” A year later both these robots that were sent to Mars to land. And finally the most recent major robot recorded is Robonaut 2. Robonaut 2 (Picture shown in Figure #2), the latest generation of the astronaut helpers, launched to the space station aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on theSTS-133 mission. It is the first humanoid robot in space, and although its primary job for now is teaching engineers how dexterous robots behave in space.

// Ms. Mc - good general overview and figures. I like how you included robots that are used to explore space. How are robots primarily used today? (-1/2). 9.5/10 //

5/7/12 Prompt #10 Video and program for Mindstorm

media type="file" key="100_0293.AVI" width="300" height="300"

In this challenge the robot stars moving forward at the sound of GO. The robot stops when the light detector detects the darker color of the tape on the table. (and then says "watch out!" -1/2)



Caption? -1/2

In the first slide the picture is of a timer over a microphone meaning that the next action won't start with out a noise. (What port is the sound sensor connected to? What volume of sound is needed? -1/2). The second slide is of two little wheels which means the robot will be moving, so there is a forward button on the bottom left which the means the robot will move forward. The bottom right has a picture of an infinity sign meaning it will keep moving unless the next slide stops it. (What power? What ports? -1) The picture in the next slide is of a sun with a timer, and that means that the robot will do something when it detects a light of a shade of darkness. (What amount of light? -1/2). The fourth slide is of wheels, and the bottom right has a picture of a - sign meaning that the robot stops moving and stays still. (What ports?). The next slide is of a timer with a sand timer picture meaning that the robot will wait for the amount of time set on the bottom of the slide. The final slide is of a speaker playing music meaning that the robot will play a sound chosen. (What sound file did it play and what volume? -1) The numbers and letters at the top right of slides just mean that it's connected to that port number or letter.

//Ms. Mc - right idea overall but needed more details. 17/20//

6/4/12 Prompt #11

__ 1) The mariner was placed around Mars in the November of 1971 and operated until the October of 1972. It returned a wide variety of spectroscopic, radio-propagation, and photographic data. Some 7,330 pictures covering 80 percent of the surface demonstrated a history of widespread volcanism, ancient erosion by water, and reshaping of extensive areas of the surface by internal forces. The Viking missions were to search for extraterrestrial life however no biological activity was found. However, the two orbiters and landers returned data about information concerning Martian geology, meteorology, and the physics and chemistry of the upper atmosphere. The Mars Odyssey safely entered Mars orbit in October 2001 and started mapping other properties including the chemical composition of the surface. The Mars Odyssey also discovered caves on a volcano by using its infrared cameras. A wave of spacecraft coverage on Mars in late 2003 and early 2004 was very important. No table explorations made were the Nozomi launched by Japan, Europe's Mars Express, and the U.S. Mars Exploration Rover which was comprised of twin robotic landers, Spirit and Opportunity. Both of these rovers found evidence of past water; Opportunity's best discovery was that of rocks that appeared to have been laid down at the shoreline of an ancient body of salty water. In 2005 the U’s launched the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter that carried an imaging system with a high resolution. The imaging system took photographs of dark streaks that appeared to be salty water flowing downhill. In 2008 the US pore Phoenix landed in the north polar region of Mars. It carried a small chemical laboratory to study the arctic soil. It then found water ice underneath Mars' surface. __

__Early observers were concerned mostly with intelligent life, but the focus now is on life’s origin, microbial communities, and limits to their survival. In the 1960s the possibility that changes seen at the telescope could have a [|biological] cause led to[|Mariner] 9’s attempts to monitor surface changes in 1972 and to the launching of the Viking landers to Mars in 1975. The Viking spacecraft had an array of sophisticated experiments to detect [|metabolism] and organic [|molecules]. In 1996 the scientific world was shocked when a group of scientists announced that they had found evidence of life in a Martian meteorite. In support of their conclusion, they listed (1) [|bacteria]-like objects in [|electron microscope] imagery, (2) detection of [|hydrocarbons], (3) mineral assemblages that were not produced in [|chemical equilibrium], and (4) magnetic particles similar to those produced by some terrestrial bacteria. In 1996 the scientific world was shocked when a group of scientists announced that they had found evidence of life in a Martian meteorite. In support of their conclusion, they listed (1) [|bacteria]-like objects in [|electron microscope] imagery, (2) detection of [|hydrocarbons], (3) mineral assemblages that were not produced in [|chemical equilibrium], and (4) magnetic particles similar to those produced by some terrestrial bacteria. __

Please use your own words (-1/2)



__<span style="color: #1200ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">2) __ __<span style="color: #1200ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">In order for something to be considered a living thing, it must have all the 8 characteristics of life __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">and all 8 characteristics need to be fully functioning. __<span style="color: #1200ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> The 8 characteristics of life are must be made of cells, needs materials, is homeostatic, responds to stimuli, can reproduce, ability to grow, adapted to environment, and respiration. A microbe from Mars is a very small particle (as seen in figure #1) A microbe that is from Mars has to be able to adapt to its surroundings, responds to stimuli, has to be made of cells, can reproduce, and can grow, but it does not need materials in order to survive. __<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> (yes it does) __<span style="color: #1200ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;"> Microbes include bacteria, fungi, and viruses which are classified as non-living things. __

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Ms. Mc - good overview, however, you forget your 2 figures (-1) and you didn't discuss how you would classify a specimen from Mars as living, dead, dormant, or non-living (-1). 8/10