Michael+H

Electronics
==An Analog Signal increases and decreases the electrical current smoothly while as Digital Signals does not. Digital signals are stored through a large amount of numbers while analog signals are stored on magnets. Semi- Conductors are important in electronics because under certain conditions they are conductors or insulators. A diode is used to change alternating current into direct current. Integrated circuits can be used as an amplifier, an oscillator timer, a processor and a computers memory. A transistor can be used to amplify the electrical current or switch it on or off.==

March 24, 2011
==Electronics are a very key roll of taking a trip to Mars, you would need a computer to guide the way to Mars, also you would need a computer for taking off and even landing. You would need a computer to actually control where the ship is headed, also need a space for the food to be kept cold or regular temperature. Electronics would be a very key roll in taking a trip to Mars. You would also need to rockets and other key essentials such as landing gears. Also you would need a place to document the planet such as a camera. You would also need many pieces of technology for experimentation once you got the planet such as testing the crust of the planet.==

//Ms. Mc. - Good general review of electronics and how we might use electrical devices on a mission to search for life on Mars. Please be sure to read over your entries to check for spelling, grammar, and redundancy before you post. Also, please upload the pictures to the Wiki and insert them using the file icon. See me if you need help doing this. 8/10//

April 5th, 2011
Aeolipile was the first devices to successfully to fly like a rocket. There is no specific day that the rocket was invented. The Chinese were thought to have had the first rocket, as they filled bamboo tubes with gunpowder. They used the rockets originally for religion festivals, when they would explode in the air the Chinese started to introduce rockets as weapons. The Chinese realized that the bamboo tubes could launch. Soon they were shooting bamboo tubes as weapons. Soon the mongols and Europeans began using rockets. Many people including Roger Bacon improved gunpowder which led t rockets being able to launch greater distances. A Russian schoolteacher Konstantin Rsiokovsky proposed the idea of space exploration. Soon he tried to sent rockets into the sky, he tried many fuels and more. Goddard is called the father of modern rocketry. Goddard founded the idea of the having gyroscopes in rockets, to keep the rocket from wobbling as much. Goddard introduced liquid propellant rockets that could burn fuel. Some rockets were used as weapons during the war like the V-2 Developed by Germany, that was used against France during World War II. The V-2 could devastate entire city blocks. After the war the Germans were defeated and the rocket scientists went off to the US and the USSR. The US and USSR started space programs. The US and the USSR recognized the potential of rocketry as weapons. Eventually they formed missiles. On October 4, 1957 the world was shocked when they heard that the USSR had sent a satellite into space successfully. The satellite was orbiting Earth. Less than a month later the USSR sent a dog named Laika into space. Laika was the first mammal that was sent into space. A couple of months late the US Army launched a satellite into space as well. The US and USSR continued to send satellite's into space. Some of the satellite's carried astronauts. Some of the satellite's just circled earth and some landed on the moon.

//Ms. Mc - Good overview of the history of rocketry. One correction though, astronauts have not been sent up in satellites but in rockets that orbit the earth or the moon. Please be sure to label your pictures/photos with a figure # and title from now on. 12/15//

The Recovery System and the the Recovery Wadding is inside the rocket. The Nose Cone is to help the rocket be more aerodynamic. The Body Tube keeps and protects the parts inside. The Recovery System helps the land, and slow down the rocket after apogee. The Recovery Wadding helps separate the rocket motor from the recovery system. The Launch Lug helps the rocket stand up on the launch-pad, the launch lug also helps direct the rocket. The Fins help guide the rocket, and keeps the rocket balanced. The Rocket Motor moves the rocket. The Motor Mount helps keep the motor in place.

//Ms. Mc: Good overall. The motor mount also is on the inside (-1/2). The recovery wadding is a fire-proof material that protects the recovery system from being burned (-1). Don't forget your entry #, date and title (-1). 17.5/20//

=Entry #5= =April 18th, 2011= =Rocket Flight Analysis=

The Purpose of this experiment was to whether mass affects the rocket’s height of flight. Mass does affect the height of the rocket. When the rocket was on the Launchpad the forces were balanced, the forces acting on the rocket were Gravity and the Launchpad was pushing the rocket up, the forces were balanced, therefore the rocket remained at rest. However when the rocket launched into the air the forces were unbalanced which is why the rocket flew into the air instead of staying still. The forces acting on the rocket when the rocket began taking off were thrust (the push of the engine motor, also the stronger force) and Gravity and Air Resistance (the weaker forces.) The rocket moved because the forces were unbalanced the rocket flew into the air. Once the rocket reached Apogee the forces were balanced for a very short time. The forces that were balanced were Inertia and Gravity/ Air Resistance. After the rocket reached Apogee, the rocket began to fall, the rocket fell because the forces became unbalanced again. Gravity became the stronger force and the weaker force became Inertia/ Air Resistance. Once the rocket stopped falling and hit the ground, the forces became equal once again. It was hypothesized that the larger the rocket the higher the height of the flight would be. It hypothesized this because of the Law of Inertia (objects want to keep the same motion (whether it be in motion or be motionless), the larger the object the more unwilling it is to change).

As seen in Figure 1, there was a outlier in the set of data. The outlier was 69, it was an outlier because it was very different from the rest of the data. The heights of the rocket's consisted of 62, 69, 82, 85, 90, 93, 119. The highest rocket flew 119 m, which weighed in at about 44.5 g. This proves my hypothesis wrong, the heavier rockets flew the lowest, while the lighter rockets flew higher with the exception of the outlier. The heaviest rocket by far, flew the lowest. The data could be wrong, some of the reasons consist of people measuring, weather conditions, and more. A lot of different people measured the rocket's height, which means there will be a room for error.

=Entry #6= =April 25, 2011= =Astronomy Crash Course=

What is quark? What types of quarks are there? A quark is a elementary particle that makes up protons and neutrons. There are two types of quarks, up quarks and down quarks. How did our moon come to revolve around our earth? The earth and a planet about the size of mars collided. Most of the other planet became part of earth, but other parts of the planet became dust. The dust floated around and eventually formed into the moon.



//Ms. Mc: Please add a little more detail to your answers. There actually are 6 types of quarks (-1/2). Also, you were to refer to the pictures in your text and explain them (-1). Please put a line separating your entries. 8.5/10//

Entry #8 May 5, 2011 Programming Code- Challenge 3

The purpose of this challenge is to get the robot to begin to move when a sound above a certain level is detected. The robot is supposed to continue to move until the light sensor detects the blue tape at the edge of the table. This relates to robots roving mars, there needs to be a sensor to detect craters and other forms of bumps on the road.

Block 1- Block 1 is a sound block, telling the robot to start moving when it hears a sound. Block 2- Block 2 is a movement block, it tells the robot to start moving, it is also telling the robot to turn 90 degrees, and to go at ¾ speed. Block 3- Block 3 is a movement block, telling the robot to move at ½ speed and to keep going until the light sensor detects something. Block 4- block 4 is a wait block, telling the robot to continue the current operation until the light sensor detects something. Block 5- Block 5 is a movement block, telling the robot to stop after the light sensor detects something. Block 6- Block 6 is a sound block, the sound block tells the robot to play a noise.

media type="file" key="Challenge 3.MOV" width="300" height="300" Video 1- Video of Robot Completing Challenge 3

The Robot starts to move when you clap. The robot continues to move, until the light sensor detects the blue tape at the edge of the table.