Sarah

3/24/2011 Entry #1: Electricity and The Importance For It On Mars
Analog signals are different than digital signals, because analog signals changes smoothly with time. Digitals signals jump and they don’t run smoothly. Analog signals are also precise and exact while a digital signal isn’t so much. Semiconductors are useful in electronic devices, because their electrical conductivity can be controlled by adding atoms of a certain element. When doing this there are two semiconductors that are created, a p-type and an n-type. These two types are put together they control the flow of the circuit. Some combinations of semiconductors can increase, or amplify, the change of the electric current or voltage which can be very useful. Semiconductors make electrical devices use less power and more reliable than electrical devices in earlier times. Diodes are used to convert alternating current to a direct current. Transistors are used to make signals increase in a circuit. Integrated circuits are used to contain many joined solid-state components into one tiny silicon chip.

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The importance of electronic devices in a space mission is big. Electronic devices play a big role, because how would the spaceship even take off if it didn’t have electronic devices to start it up. Also, when you are in space and you have to navigate around meteorites you will need to have electronic devices to help avoid collisions. You will need a rover to be able to search for life on Mars which is an electronic device. Electronic devices are very important on a mission to Mars, because without them we wouldn’t really be able to get to Mars and search for life there. =====

//Ms. Mc: good// overview //of electronics and initial ideas of how we could use electronic devices on our mission to Mars. The only sugestion for improvement I have would be to add a few more examples of specific electronic devices: cameras, computers, soil analyzers, etc. 9/10//

4/5/11, Entry #2, Rocket History

History of Rockets In 100 B.C., a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria made a device that used steam as a power source and also shows Newton's 3rd Law. His invention had some of the essentials to making rockets. The Hero Engine (Aeolipile) has a pot of water and then tubes coming out of the water into a little circle object that then had little tubes on its sides. Under the pot, was a fire that turned the water into steam. The steam traveled through the tubes into the circle object causing it to move, because of the pressure of the steam. Then, the steam ran out the tubes on the side into the air.

Picture 1: Hero Engine

The real start of rockets is unknown, but we do know that the Chinese, in the century A.D., had a gunpowder mix that they would stuff into bamboo tubes and then throw into a fire to create explosions on festivals or special days. When the bamboo tubes were thrown into the fire some of them would fly out of the flames, because of the burning gunpowder inside of the tubes caused by the sparks which created an interesting idea. Later the Chinese began to experiment with these gunpowder bamboo tubes and attached them to an arrow and launched them just with an arrow. Later on, they realized that they could just have the bamboo stick and light it, because it would fly just by the power of the gas inside.

In 1232, the Chinese made these rockets that had a cap on one side which had gunpowder in it and then the other side was left open. The rocket was attached to a long stick that helped guide the rocket. When the rocket was ignited and the gunpowder was on fire it produced gas, smoke and fire into the air causing the rocket and the stick to fly, because of its thrust. The Chinese used these rockets to defeat the Mongols in the Kai-Keng War. After the war, the Mongols started to make rockets of their own and might have been the cause of spreading rockets to Europe. In the 13th to the 15th century, there were so many experiments and different versions of rockets from many people. A Monk from England, Roger Bacon was inventing a new kind of gunpowder that helped the rockets go farther. Jean Froissart from France realized that firing rockets through tubes made the rocket more accurate. In Italy, Joanes de Fontana made a rocket-torpedo that was useful for setting enemies ships on fire.

In 1898, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian schoolteacher, had the idea of exploring space with rockets if we used liquid fuel instead of solid. Tsiolkovsky notices that the speed and range of the rock are limited from the speed of the gases coming out of the rocket. In the 20th century, Robert H. Goddard an American invented and experimented many ways to make the rockets better and he was interested in make lighter than air balloons that could go much higher. In 1915 he started to work with solid fuels and as he was experimenting he figured out that liquid fuels could make the rockets achieve more height than solid fuels. On March 16, 1926 Goddard launched the very first liquid fuel rocket that was powered by liquid oxygen and gasoline. The rocket flew for only two and a half seconds and traveled 56 meters. Goddard’s rocket was the first step to a greater device.

Goddard started to build on his liquid-powered rockets for a long time. He has made many new inventions like parachutes that helped the rocket to the ground safely and he had many scientific instruments that helped him along the way. He was soon called the Father of Modern Rocketry. Soon in the 20th century many rocket programs sprang up in different countries. The Verein fur Raumschiffahrt, the Society for Space Travel, in Germany made the creation of the V-2 which was used in World War II, but came late and didn’t really change the effect of the war. The V-2 was small, but could abolish an entire city. Many of the unused V-2 was taken from Germany by the Allies and some of the rocketeers decided to move to the US and some of the others moved to the Soviet Union. The United States and the Soviet Union were expanding on the importance of rockets and they can be used as a military weapon. The U.S. Space Program was now beginning to start and different varieties of rockets were made.

Picture 2: A V-2 Missile

The first satellite was named Sputnik I and was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957. Laika, a dog, was the first alive being to be put into space also by the Soviet Union. Sputnik I’s name was Russian for satellite and Sputnik I was shaped like a sphere and had four antennae. Explorer I was then launched by the US into space on January 31, 1958. NASA was finally created in October of 1958. Space exploration was now made by humans and one step followed after another. There were tons of satellites that helped with many things that we have today. Rockets first started as small ones that had solid-powered gunpowder to now big metal machines that can take humans into space.

//Ms. Mc: Excellent summary of the history of rocketry and diagrams. Please use the term, "figure" instead of "picture" in your captions. Great work! 15/15 //

4/4/11, Entry #3, Rocket Stimulation

media type="custom" key="8964072"

Instructions:
 * 1) Press the red stop sign to stop the movie
 * 2) Then press the green flag to start the movie
 * 3) Turn up the Volume
 * 4) Enjoy!

4/13/2011, Entry #4, Main Parts of a Rocket Figure 1: Lexi, Sophia, and Sarah's Rocket Labeled The nose cone helps cut down the friction of the air on the rocket. The body tube is the main part of the rocket. The recovery system helps the rocket have a slow and safe landing to the ground without major damage. The recovery wadding helps keep the recovery system from catching on fire, because of the motor giving off sparks and gases. The launch lug helps keep the rocket go in the right direction when flying off the launch pad. The fins keep the rocket going in the correct direction when it's off the launch pad. The motor mount holds the motor tightly in place. The rocket motor propels the rocket into the air by igniting the end.

//Ms. Mc: Great labels, caption, and description of the rocket part functions. 20/20//

5/1/2011, Entry #5, Rocket Launch Lab

The purpose of this experiment was to learn how the mass of a rocket affected the rocket’s apogee, to build a rocket, and how to launch a rocket. When the rocket was on the launch pad, gravity and the launch pad were the equal forces that were acting against the rocket. The rocket was not moving, so there was no relation to apogee. The rocket was still on the launch pad when the engines were turned on. When the rocket was lifting off the launch pad, gravity and the air resistance were all forces acting against the rocket and the thrusting of the engines was a greater force that was helping to pull the rocket into the air and to accelerate upwards. When the rocket was in powered flight the thrust of the engines kept the rocket flying straight up while gravity and air resistance were acting against the rocket. Then the rocket went into coasting which the rocket kept on flying up into the air due to the rocket's inertia. The forces that acted against the rocket were air resistance and gravity. After the rocket coasted, the rocket reaches its highest point, apogee, before the force of gravity overcomes inertia and the rocket starts to fall to the ground. It was hypothesized that if the mass of the rocket was heavy than the apogee would be lower than a lighter rocket, because the rocket with less mass has an easier time coasting farther than a heavier mass rocket. If there was a heavy rocket that was tested, the rocket at lifting off would have to burn more of the gunpowder for the rocket to have more inertia. Since the rocket used a lot of fuel to lift off on the powered flight, the rocket would have less thrust and wouldn’t have a high apogee. Another reason why a heavier mass rocket would have a lower apogee was when the rocket went into coasting, since the rocket had less fuel because of the lift off and the rocket being heavy, the rocket would start with slow speed and would slow down faster causing the apogee to be lower.



Graph 1: The Mass of the Rockets and the Rocket's Apogee Height

In this graph, it shows the rocket's mass and the rocket's apogee. Apogee is the highest flying point of a rocket. The average of all the rocket’s masses was 44 grams, because there were many rockets that were around 40 to 44 grams for their mass. The average of all the rockets’ apogee was 80 meters, because a lot of the rockets flew from 80 to 90 meters. Graph One showed that the apogee of the rocket depended on the mass of the rocket which means that the graph was showing a direct relationship. Graph one show a direct relationship because the apogee and the mass were increasing together and the graph shows an upward trend. On Graph One, it shows that point 68, 84, and 93 are all on the line that is ascending upwards and the point 61 is close to the line. The hypothesis wasn't correct, because the lightest rocket had the lowest apogee. There were errors in this experiment, because the wind might have affected the rocket's flight pattern and apogee. One of the errors in this experiment that might have affected was that there were seven rockets and all of the rockets were close to the same mass and because of this, the experiment might not have been accurate. Some of the errors in this experiment that might have affected the rocket’s apogee were the launch pad angle and paint in Launch Lug causing the rocket to have a slow lift off caused by friction. The way that the rockets were built affected the rocket's apogee and flight. The angle measurers also could have affected the rocket's apogee, because the measurers might measure differently than other angle measurers.

4/25/2011, Entry # 6, Astronomy

A quark is the building matter for a proton and neutron. The quarks are tightly bound into the protons and neutrons. There are six types of quarks. Two out of the six are in protons and neutrons and they are called, up and down quarks. Figure one shows a picture of a Proton with two up quarks and one down quark.





Figure 1: A Proton that has two up quarks and one down quark       <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 0px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden;">

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">A galaxy is made up of stars, dust, and gas. A galaxy is a disk of dust, stars, and gas that makes a certain shape like a spiral or irregular. They formed two billion years ago after the Big Bang. As shown in figure two, the galaxy is spiral shaped. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">Figure 2: A Galaxy that is spiral shaped

//Ms. Mc: Good answers and pictures. What are the other 4 quarks called and what was important about the discovery of quarks? (-1). Good job! 9/10//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">5/3/2011, Entry #7, Robotic History

The first thought and concept of making robots or machines was in the Industrial Revolution. In the 10th century BC there was a Chinese man named Yan Shi that made a form of a human robot that does one specific task. After to 1920s, people believed that there could be robots made to look like humans and to act like humans. Modern robots were first made in factories as industrial machines that worked without a human’s help. After and in the 1960s, industrial robots were digitally controlled and also showed intelligence. The latest technologies of robots today are Roomba, Spirit, and I-sobot. Roomba is a vacuum cleaner that cleans the room by itself with no human help. The Roomba has a bumper that can detect when it has bumped into something. Figure 1: A roomba that is a vacuum cleaner <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">Spirit is one of the land rovers that have gone to Mars. Spirit will gather information about Mars, like take pictures of soil and samples. I-sobot is a <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">robot that is controlled by a controller and can speak hundreds or words and phrases. The I-sobot can walk like a human being and can also do tricks. As shown below, the I-sobot is a small robot that can do many things. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;"> 2: An I-sobot that entertains //Ms. Mc: Good overview and pictures. +8 extra credit points.// <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in;">

5/9/2011, Entry #8, Challenge oneThe purpose of this challenge was to program the robot to follow a driving course that made the robot turn different directions, spin, display a smiley face, and to make a sound. This Challenge would help the rovers on Mars because they would need to follow and complete a certain driving path that was programmed into the rover. Figure 1: Challenge one sequence with different blocks.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tabstops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify;">Block 1- Move block that tells the robot to go straight at 75% power for 3.5 rotations. The Robot goes straight.

Block 2- Move block that tells the robot to turn left on 75% power at a 175 degree angle. The Robot turns to the left.

Block 3- Move Block that tells the robot to go straight at 75% power for 1.8 rotations. The Robot goes straight.

Block 4- Move Block that tells the robot to turn right on 75% power at 175 degrees. The Robot turns right.

Block 5- Move Block that tells the robot to go straight at 75% power for 1.5 rotations. The Robot goes straight.

Block 6- Move Block that tells the robot to go straight at 75% power for 1.5 rotations. The Robot goes straight.

Block 7- Move Block that tells the robot to turn left at 75% power at a 1440 degree. The Robot turns to the left

Block 8- Sound Block that tells the robot to play the sound file, applause at 100%. The robot plays the applause file.

Block 9- Display block that tells the robot to display a smiley face on the screen at the coordinates X: 23 and Y: 4. The Robot shows a smiley face on the display screen.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-align: left;">Block 10: Wait block tells the robot to wait for 2 seconds. The Robot is not moving.