Lauren


 * 3/23/11 **
 * Search for Life on Mars Mission – Entry 1 **

Electrical signals can be analog or digital. Analog signals are signals that have smooth variations over time. When an electrical signal increases or decreases in an analog signal it runs smoothly. Digital signals do not vary smoothly but change in jumps and steps. Each of the jumps is represented by numbers. Analog signals can be converted to digital signals by digitalization. Semiconductors are useful in electronic devices. Semiconductors are metalloids that do not conduct electricity as well as metals but conduct electricity better than non-metals. The electrical conductivity of semiconductors can be controlled by adding impurities. Adding impurities creates two types of semiconductors – n-type and p-type. These two types of semiconductors are put together to control the flow of electrical current in a circuit. They can form components that can turn on or off the flow or they can amplify the flow. Diodes, transistors and integrated circuits are used in electrical circuits. Diodes are used to convert alternating current to direct current. Transistors are used to either amplify signals in an electrical circuit or used as a switch to turn on or off the flow of current. Integrated circuits contain thousands of diodes and transistors are used in personal computers.

Electronic devices would be very important in a space mission where the goal is to travel to Mars in search of life. Computers would be needed to measures the distance to travel, to determine your path, to keep track of data and to communicate between the device or person in the spacecraft and the people on Earth. Electronic devices would also be needed to launch the spaceship from Earth into space and towards Mars. If people where in the spaceship, electronic devices would be needed to keep the environment healthy in the spaceship and keep the people alive. They would also need electronic devices to conduct research on Mars because they would need to know things like the temperature and oxygen level on Mars. A robot might be used to search for life, which also would require electronic devices.

Ms. Mc - Excellent overview of electronic devices and how they might be used on a mission to search for life on Mars! 10/10

4/5/11

Click Green Flag to play rocket simulation To stop playing rocket simulation click on the red button media type="custom" key="8970162"
 * Rocket Simulation - Entry 2 **

** 4/5/11 ** An aeolipile was the first rocket-like device. It was invented by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek inventor who lived around 100 BC. The aeolipile was a sphere mounted on top of a water kettle. When the kettle was heated by a fire below it, steam went through the pipes in the sphere making the sphere rotate. There are stories of early rockets throughout history and no one really knows exactly when the first real rockets were invented although it was probably the Chinese who did it. In the first century, the Chinese filled bamboo tubes with gun powder and threw them onto fires to create explosions during religious festivals. Some of these tubes may have skittered out of the fires, which led the Chinese to experiment with these tubes. Eventually, they attached these bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. The first true rockets were made when they started launching these gunpowder filled bamboo tubes on their own. For these, the power to launch the rocket was gotten from the escaping gasses. In 1232, the Chinese used “arrows of flying fire” to repel Mongol invaders. These were actually rockets that were propelled by fire, smoke and gas produced by burning gunpowder. After this, the Mongols produced rockets and probably introduced rockets to Europe. Roger Bacon, Jean Froissart, and Joanes de Fontana were people who lived in Europe who worked on different things that improved rockets. In 1898, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky from Russia suggested that rockets could be used to explore space. He suggested that liquid propellants would make the rockets go further. He is called the Father of Modern Astronautics. In 1926, an American named Robert H. Goddard made the first successful rocket flight with a liquid-propellant. Goddard is called the Father of Modern Rocketry. In the early 20th century, the Germans created the V-2 rocket which achieved great thrust by burning liquid oxygen and alcohol. The V-2 was used against London during World War II and could devastate an entire city block. The V-2 made the United States and the Soviet Union realize that rockets could be used as military weapons. They began a variety of experiments and developed medium and long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles. This started the US space program. In 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, a satellite that orbited earth. This was the first successful entry into the race for space. In 1958, the US launched its own satellite and created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Before long rockets were used to allow astronauts to orbit the Earth and land on the Moon and to allow robots to travel to the planets in spacecrafts. 
 * Rocket History - Entry 3 **

Ms. Mc - Great summary of the history of rocketry! Your drawingsare so well done that I mistakenly thought you had copied and pasted them. Thank you for bringing this to my attention and for accepting my apology. Pease be sure to include a figure # and title for your drawing/photos. Finally, please put a horizontal rule (click on the button with the blue line to the left of the link button at the top of the screen in edit mode) between your entires. 14/15

** 4/13/11 ** ** Labeled Rocket and Definitions - Entry 4 **

 The nose cone is at the top of the rocket and is for guiding airflow around the rocket. The body tube is below the nose cone and is the main structural part of the rocket. It is a tube and is usually made of strong paper. Inside the body tube is a recovery system and recovery wadding. The recovery system is needed to help get the rocket back without damage so that it can be reused.  The recovery wadding is there to protect the recovery system from being damaged by heat or ejection gasses. The Launch lug is below the body tube. This helps guide the rocket off of the launch pad. The fins help keep the rocket straight. The motor mount and rocket motor are at the bottom of the rocket. The motor mount is used to hold the rocket motor in place. The rocket motor cannot be used again. A new one is needed for each flight.

Ms. Mc: Very good definitions and labels. The motor mount also is inside the rocket (-1/2). Needed to say what the motor does (i.e., powers the flight) -1/2. Good job! 19/20



 ** 4/25/11 ** ** Rocket Launch Lab Report - Entry 5 ** <span style="color: #1818a0; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">When a rocket is launched in the air, the force generated by the rocket motor and the mass of the rocket are two factors that determine how high the rocket has the potential to reach. Lift off is when the rocket is pushed into the air by the power of the engine that has been ignited. Thrust is the force that moves the rocket through the air after liftoff and is generated by the engine. Gravity and air resistance are forces that pull against the rocket and decrease the maximal height. The greater the mass of an object, the stronger the pull of gravity on that object will be. When the mass of a rocket is larger, the more gun powder will be needed to power the flight. The sum of these forces determines the apogee, which is the highest point the rocket goes during powered flight before turning back towards Earth. Trigonometry, which uses the tangent of angles and known distances, is used to calculate the height of the rocket. The purpose of this experiment was to build a rocket and launch it and to examine if there was a relationship between a rocket’s mass and the apogee. Trigonometry was used to determine the height of the rockets flight. It was hypothesized that the lighter the rocket, the higher the apogee would be because gravity would have less of an effect during the powered flight.

<span style="color: #aa00ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 120%;">Rocket mass did not vary much between the different rockets (41.5g, 44.2g, 44.4g, 45.2g, 45.4g, 45.5g, and 46.9g) (Figure 1). The average rocket mass was 44.7g. The apogee of the 7 different launches ranged from 62 to 119 m (62 m, 69m, 82m, 85m, 90m, 93m, and 119m). The average apogee was 85.7m. There was an inverse relationship between rocket mass and apogee in 7 different rocket launches. The hypothesis was correct because the lighter the rocket, the higher the apogee. For example, the third rocket that weighed 44.5g had the highest apogee of 119m while the heaviest rocket that weighed 47g had the lowest apogee at 62m. There was one outlier in this experiment. This rocket weighed 41.5g but had an apogee of only 69m. This apogee was hypothesized to have occurred because of error in measurement or possibly because wind affected the flight of the rocket. Only 7 rocket launches were performed and the difference between the heaviest and lightest rocket was only 5.5g. It is possible that if more launches were done over a greater range of weights that different results would have been seen. Environmental factors could also have changed the data. For example wind may have altered the path of the rockets from any launch and could have been a source of error in this experiment by affecting the rockets’ apogees. However, the hypothesis was logical and the results of this experiment supported the hypothesis.

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; text-align: left;">** 4/25/11 **

<span style="color: #000000; display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">** Galaxy and Moon Questions - Entry 6 **

<span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0in;">**What is a galaxy? How did they form?** <span style="color: #0095ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0in;">A galaxy is a group of millions of stars mixed with gas and dust. This is all held together by gravity. Our galaxy formed after Big Bang. At first there was a mixture of matter, antimatter and light. It started very hot and small but expanded rapidly. The temperature then cooled enough that protons and neutrons were formed. For 300,000 years, the temperature continued to cool and the Universe continued to expand. Atoms eventually formed when it cooled more. Matter clumped together as the Universe expanded. <span style="color: #ff6800; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0in;">**How did our Moon come to revolve around the Earth?** <span style="color: #0095ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%; margin: 0in;">A few hundred million years after the Earth was formed, a proto-planet ran into Earth and blew a large amount of the Earth's crust into space. This debris formed together in a ball. The Earth's gravity holds the moon in its orbit and inertia keeps the moon moving in its orbit.

Ms. Mc: Good answers, pictures, and captions! The debris formed together in a ball that became the moon (-1/2). 9.5/10

==== <span style="display: block; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">** 5/5/11 ** ** Robot Programming - Challenge 3 – Entry 8 ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Description of Challenge ** <span style="color: #e70419; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">When the robot hears “Go” being said it moves forward an unlimited distance until it detects distance with the Ultrasonic sensor. The robot stops when it detects the edge of the table at less than 50 inches and plays the sound file, Watch Out. ====

**<span style="color: #e26912; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 1 **<span style="color: #e26912; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – A sensor block that is set to the sound sensor that is plugged into port 2 tells the robot to start when it hears “Go” being said. **<span style="color: #8714b8; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 2 **<span style="color: #8714b8; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – A block that controls the movement of the robot when the B and C servomotors are activated so the robot moves forward an unlimited distance at 75% power until the Ultrasonic sensor (Block 3) is activated. **<span style="color: #c31db7; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 3 **<span style="color: #c31db7; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – A block that detects distance with the Ultrasonic sensor when connected to port 1 and set to the distance less than 50 inches. **<span style="color: #4228af; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 4 **<span style="color: #4228af; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – A movement block that tells the robot to stop moving and brake with servomotors B and C.  **<span style="color: #1296e2; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 5 **<span style="color: #1296e2; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – A sound block that tells the robot to play the sound file, Watch Out at the volume level 75 after the completion of the previous movement block (Block 4).

**<span style="color: #e26912; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;">Block 1 **<span style="color: #e26912; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt;"> – Robot starts when it hears “Go” being said. <span style="color: #8714b8; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Block 2 – Moves forward an unlimited amount until sensors are activated. <span style="color: #c31db7; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Block 3 – Robot sensors the edge of the table. <span style="color: #4228af; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Block 4 – The robot stops. <span style="color: #1296e2; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10.5pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Block 5 – Robot says Watch Out.

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