Rachel+G

Facts to Know in Order to Get a Rover to Mars

 * Earth and Mars are similar
 * Both the planets have around the same amount of land surface area
 * Mars is half the diameter of Earth
 * Large sustained polar caps compiled mainly of water
 * Different seasons and weather, volcanoes, and canyons
 * Atmosphere is thin, water would dry up quickly
 * No magnetic field, but crust in southern hemisphere is magnetized.
 * Seasons last longer than of earth
 * Need enough fuel to escapes Earth's gravity
 * Need to launch so the distance traveled is the least possible; can use less fuel
 * Need to determine aim for Mars where it's going to be in the future when our rockets get there
 * Launch window is favorable about every two years
 * Mars has two small moons, so need to steer clear of them
 * Dust storms, need to make rover as dust-proof as possible
 * 4th from the sun
 * Cold, average air temperature -63 ̊C so rover needs to withstand cold temp.
 * Hundreds of thousands of craters, large mountains, and a huge canyon so need to pick flat area for landing.
 * No liquid water so do not need to worry about landing in an ocean.
 * Pressure is 1/100th of that on earth so rover needs to be able to withstand this environment.
 * Less sunlight than earth, dust storms blocks sunlight.
 * Basalt rocks on its surface
 * Polar caps- frozen water +carbon dioxide

//Ms. Mc: Good facts about Mars and its conditions. Next time, just add on to your work when we discuss in class instead of repeating information. Needed to relate each fact to how it would impact either getting a rover to Mars or having it work on Mars' surface (-1). Good job! 9/10//

[[image:cascience7-2012/rmg_rocket_(2).JPG width="228" height="261" caption="Figure #2:Hero Engine"]]
From the first aeolipile to NASA space station, rocket history has been advancing since 100 B.C. Hero of Alexandra was a Greek inventor who invented the aeolipile, the first invention to convey the principles needed for rocket flight. The fire under the pot boils the water in the pot, so that the steam can go through either one of the two tubes in the pot. The steam travels to the sphere and then out the L-shaped tubes. When the steam goes through the tubes it gives a thrust, which causes the sphere to rotate. The Chinese also contributed to the creation of the first rockets. Their idea of rockets was called, “Chinese Fire arrows”. The rockets were tubes filled with gunpowder, attached to arrows that the Chinese launched at their enemies. The gas that escaped out when the arrows were lit, added a thrust to the rocket which kept it in motion. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky came up with the idea of having liquid propellants for the rockets. Tsiolkovsky thought the liquid propellants would have a greater range because the rockets were limited by the exhaust of the escaping gasses. On March 16, 1926 Robert H. Goddard created the first successful liquid propelled rocket. This achievement was the first step to many more liquid-propellant rockets Goddard would create. The V-2 rocket was created by German scientists as a destructive weapon that could destroy whole city blocks. However, this rocket came too late in the war and was not able to be used for any particular purpose. On October 4, 1957 the world was shocked to hear about an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite launched by the Soviet Union. The satellite was called Sputnik 1 and it was the first entry of the race for space between the nations. The soviets then launched another satellite that carried a dog. A few months after Sputnik 1, the United States launched Explorer 1. That year, in October, the United States formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA was organized so that there would be a peaceful exploration in space.

// Ms. Mc: Good general overview of the history or rocketry. Please include a figure # in your captions (-1/2) and refer to your diagrams in your text (i.e. "as seen in Figure 1"). 9.5/10 //

Scratch Rocket Flight Simulation
Instructions for How to Run Simulation media type="custom" key="14060760" align="center"


 * 1) Turn on sound
 * 2) Click the green flag to start simulation
 * 3) Click on the red stop sign to stop simulation
 * 4) If you cannot view the simulation click the learn more about this project link above.
 * 5) Watch and enjoy :)

Mackenzie G- I liked how your background zoomed in on mars. I thought that when your rocket turned it could of been a little slower. I liked the creativity you put into it.

Anna G: I like how you zoomed in on Mars. Nice visual effect! When your speech bubble says coasting we don't really get that the rocket is coasting until it starts moving. I love the speech bubble that says, "Let's get some protection!"

Rocket Photo


The nose cone, located at the very top of the rocket on figure #1, allows the rocket to cut through the air and the airflow to go around the rocket. The body tube holds at the materials needed for the flight of the rocket. It its the main structural support. The recovery system is most commonly a parachute or some sort of device for landing that helps the rocket descend safely to the ground. The recovery wadding is in between the recovery system and the motor mount, and it prevents the recovery system from getting destroyed by the hot ejection charge gases. The Launch Lug allows the rocket to guide of the launch pad, and below it is the motor mount. The motor mount is what keeps the rocket's motor in place. The rocket motor is a non-reusable device that is part of the cause of the thrust when the rocket lifts off. Lastly, the fins keep the rocket traveling straight and not off course.

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

Atlas V 541
In order for the rocket to have the right liftoff ability for the immense weights, the Atlas V 541 was chosen for this mission. Rockets in the same kind of family have been known to lift off successfully for different missions. The rocket weighs 1.17 million pounds, and it is 191 feet tall. The V rockets are ELV’s (expendable launch vehicles), meaning they are only able to be used once. The rockets are made up of fuel and oxygen tanks, solid rocket motors, centaurs, and payload fairing. As shown in the diagram, the payload fairing, a thin nose cone, covers and protects the payload on its way towards mars. Under that are the centaur, the common core booster, the solid rocket boosters, and the main engine. The fuel and oxygen tanks are what provide the thrust that causes the rocket to go into the Earth’s orbit, while the 4 solid rocket motors increase the thrust. The RD-180 main engine is what burns the liquid oxygen and RP-1 propellant. In order for the centaur to come out, the fuel and oxidizer, and the vehicles “brains” fire twice. The first time it is fired, the vehicle space craft is inserted into Earth’s low orbit. The second time it’s fired is to accelerate the speed of the spacecraft, so it heads to Mars.



// Ms. Mc: good overvies and descriptions. Refer specifically to the figure #1 (i.e, "As seen in Figure 1"). 10/10 //

Rocket launch lab analysis write up
The purpose of this experiment was to see how high rockets flew depending on the mass. When the rocket was on the launch pad, the force of gravity was pushing down and the force of the launch pad was equal so the rocket did not move. During liftoff, the rocket rose and the force of thrust pushing up was greater than the force of air resistance and gravity pushing down on the rocket. The rocket reached the powered flight and then the force of thrust increased, so it was greater than the force of gravity and air resistance. When the rocket coasted it continues to rise because of the inertia, and then continued towards apogee where the rocket stopped in the air momentarily. It was hypothesized that the mass of the rocket would affect how high the apogee is because a lighter rocket might have lots of fuel but less paint so the paint would not add weight to the rocket.



The masses of the rocket were all similar in size, and the average of all the rockets’ masses was 44.55 grams. The weights of all the parts needed for the construction of the rocket were similar, but the coats of paint or glue added extra weight to the rocket. The distances that the rockets flew were 47.7, 63.7, 71.3, 83.9, 90, and 107.2 meters. The distance from the launch pad to the angle measurement area was 100 meters. The rockets flew straight up, but had some landing troubles which therefor must have affected the apogee.

On graph 1, the scatter plot markers are jumbled irregularly which is why it is believed that the scatter plot graph shows no relation between the mass of the rockets and the apogee. The hypothesis stated was proved to be incorrect; the mass did not affect the apogee. The heaviest rocket was 47.1 grams but flew 63.7 meters, rather than the rocket that was 44 grams and flew 107.2 meters. The apogee had no relation to the mass of the rockets as seen in graph 1 above. Some errors that could’ve been made is that the launch angles were different, the placement of the glue, or the fins being unstable and affecting the distance for apogee. However, distances from the launch pad, thrust, type of rocket, location, launch pad, angle, and the angle guns were all the same.

Rocket Fin Re-design


The fins on the top are believed to out through the air earlier, because as seen in Figure #1, the fins are on the top. We believe that if we cut of the ends off the bottom fins and add the ends of those fins to the top, the air will flow off the fins on the top to provide more thrust. The the aerodynamics are improving and the top fins will allow the rocket to go on track and be more stable.

The mass of the rocket before was 44.7 grams, and the mass of the rocket after the fins were re-designed was 45.2 grams. The apogee for the first launch was 47.7 meters, but the apogee for the 2nd flight was 24.9 meters. Their was no similarity or relation between these two measurements.The top fins 3 fins altered the center of gravity by adding more surface area to the top. The center of gravity is normally supposed to be above the center of pressure, but the fins we added to the top caused an imbalance, bringing the center of gravity below the center of pressure.

History of Robotics
One of the earliest robots was designed between 1023-957 BC by a Chinese inventor, Yan Shi. He presented a human sized robot to the King Mu of Zhou. This robot human was so lifelike it could have been mistaken for a human being. The king saw it was made out of leather, wood, glue and lacquer, but when examining it closely, he saw there were internal organs, liver, gall, lungs, heart, kidneys, stomach, muscles, bones, limbs etc. However, these body parts were all artificial. Water clocks began in China in the 6th century BC and then came to the Greco—Roman society in the 4th century BC.

One of the early mathematicians, Archytas of Tarentum, built a mechanical bird propelled by steam in the 4th Century BC. This was one of the first model “airplanes”, but also was the first study of flight. In 1495, Leonardo DaVinci designed an armored knight that would move as if it were a real person. It was called Vitruvian Man, but it is not known it DaVinci actually built the robot knight. There were lots of inventions that came up during the medieval times. Al-Jazari was an Arab Muslim who invented automatic machines, kitchen appliances, musical powered by water, and also the first humanoid robot in 1206. He used the automatic musicians to entertain guest at drinking parties.





In 1770, Swiss clock inventors start making automata, robotic dolls. They presented the dolls to the European royalty and one could write, one played music, and the third drew pictures. Nikola Tesla, in 1898, demonstrated his invention of a remote controlled robot boat at Madison Square Garden. By 1999, humans have already invented the cyber knife, tiger electronics, and the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention System. Now, in 2012

//Ms. Mc - good general overview. You 2nd figure is not Davinci's armored knight, -1/2. If you include a figure, you need to discuss it in your text (didn't discuss Fig. 3). How are robots primarily used today? (-1). 8.5/10// ==

==

media type="file" key="rmgvideo.AVI" width="300" height="300"
Video #1: Rover Video Challenge



Block 1- Sound block for sound sensor to sense the world "Go" great than a volume of 50. What port? Block 2- A movement block that tells the robot to move forward unlimited rotations at 30% power. Ports? Block 3- The wait for light block detects a dark color less than 40 brightness. Port? Block 4- The movement block is used to stop after the dark color is detected by the light sensor. Ports?

Block 5- The sound block plays the, "Watch out" sound after completion at a volume of 75.

// Ms. Mc - good job overall. You were to include a short description of what the challenge was about (-3). Also needed to describe what ports were used for each block (-1). 16/20 //

Life on Mars?


In November of 1971, Mariner 9 (as shown above) was placed in orbit, and sent back around 7,400 pictures that showed nearly 80% of Mars' surface. These pictures showed signs of ancient erosion of water by water and widespread volcanism. The Mars Odyssey was a spacecraft that measured the chemical composition of the surface, the properties of the near surface materials, and distributions of the ice near the surface. However, the European lander, Beagle 2, measured the rocks and soil, looking for signs of past life. This lander was unfortunately unsuccessful.



Ever since the Mariner 9’s and other expeditions' negative results for the signs of life, there was a pessimistic view of life on Mars. This soon changed when people realized that life could survive in a wider range of conditions. People also realized that life starts only if the right conditions are present and if the organism is in the right environment. Over 30 pieces from Mars have been found on Earth (Figure 2 shown above), an indication that in the past, rocks from Earth could’ve been transported to Mars. This also shows that life could’ve been seeded from planet Earth.

In order for something to be considered living, it must have all 8 characteristics of life. A microbe from Mars adapts to its surroundings, responds to stimuli, it is made of cells, reproduces, and grows, but it does not need materials in order to survive. (It would need materials but maybe not the same ones that microbes on Earth need. It also would use respiration to make energy and maintain homeostasis. -1/2). Microbes consist of bacteria, fungi, and other non-living things. (But these are living things? -1/2) Therefore, I think that microbes are non-living. (Nonliving means that it never was alive and never will be. -1/2)

//Ms. Mc - good figures and overview of the findings of the spacecraft explorations of Mars. You were a little confused about microbes. 8.5/10//