Conner

=The Use of Electronics:Log Entry #1= = 3/24/2011 =

==== The difference between analog signal and a digital is that one moves smoothly. An analog signal moves smoothly with time and digital signals move suddenly and in flashes. An example is a digital and an analog clock. The analog clock moves slowly with time and the digital jumps and flashes to different numbers suddenly. Semiconductors are a certain type of element that conducts worse than conductors and better than insulators. One thing that is different about a semi-conductor s that if you add another element like arsenic to it you can control its conductivity. This is one thing that can be very useful in electronic devises. A semiconductor is good if you not want to overpower a device or if you want to slow the current of electrons for any reason. Diodes are a mixture of two types of solid state components P-type and N-type. When these are mixed it can make an easy switch or helps to control the amount of electricity that is flowing through a circuit.==== ==== Electronic devises would be very important for going to Mars for many reasons. One of the most important is communication. They need satellites to transmit analog signals to the earth so that the people at earth can communicate and tell the astronauts where they are and where they need to go. Also if they get rovers to mars they need be able to control them in order to get the rovers in the best position to get sun. Another reason is for the rocket to be controlled. The people controlling the rocket need to be able to make the rocket ship turn and cut on and off its engines which are all transmitted through electric devices and semiconductors. Without electronic devices getting to and getting rovers to mars would be nearly impossible. ====

//Ms. Mc: Good overview of electronics but you left out the definition of integrated circuits. Very good ideas about how we would use electronic devices for our mission to Mars. One suggestion I have for improvement, would be to name the specific devices (i.e., computers, navigation systems, radios, cameras, solar pannels, etc. 8.5/10//

A Brief History of Rocketry: Log entry #2 4/5/2011

The first time a rocket like device was built was around 100 B.C by a person named Hero of Alexandria. It was called the aeolipile, which was ran by steam and it spun a sphere is a circle. It is unclear when the first true rocket was made but it is thought that it could of been the Chinese who made an accidental rocket out of bamboo and a version of gun powder. The first purposeful rocket was made by the Chinese, they attached rockets to arrows and shot them off bows, but they later discovered that you did not need a bow. The first use of the rocket was in the battle of Kai-Keng in 1232 by the Chinese against the Mongols. The Mongols caught on and they created their own rocket. the Mongols then spread this idea of a rocket around Europe. soon a Monk named Rodger Bacon perfected the gun powder which was a real improvement on the rocket. In France, Jean Froissart discovered that a rocket could be shot more accurate if you shoot it out of a tube. This lead to the bazooka.

The first liquid powered rocket was create by Robert Goddard in 1926. This was a huge accomplishment considering that liquid powered rockets needed turbines and gas chambers. Goddard slowly developed the rocket and then he created the recovery parachute which named him the Father of Modern Rocketry. Small rocketry associations started to develop in the early 20th century such as the Society for Space Travel in Germany. The Germans then used it against the French. Later, some German rocket scientists moved to the U.S and helped to develop ballistic missiles that can travel over continents. In 1957 the soviets sent the first satellite into space which ended the race to space between the U.S and the soviets. soon after they sent a dog into space for 7 days.In 1958 the U.S went their own satellite into space and later that year they created NASA.

Chinese Military Rocket



Hero Alexandria's steam powered aeolipile.

Ms. Mc: Great summary of the history of rocketry and interesting drawings. Please include "Figure #_" in your captions. The only thing I would add woudl be to mention some of the achievement of NASA. 14.5/15

Rocket Video: Log entry #3 4/5/2011

media type="custom" key="8986676"

Directions: 1. Turn on your volume 2. Click the stop sign to stop 3. Click the green flag to start



**4/13/2011**
The first step is ignition which is when the motor turns on. Then it is lift off, which is when the engine provides enough thrust to overcome gravity and lift the rocket off the launch pad. Next it is coasting which is when the inertia of the rocket is enough for engines thrust to turn off and the rocket can just coast. Then it is apogee when gravity overcomes the rockets inertia and the rocket stops coasting. Then it is the ejection phase. This is the part when pressure builds up in the rocket and the top blows off and the recovery system is deployed. The final step is recovery. This when the recovery system (parachute) slowly brings the rocket back down to the ground, safely.

//Ms. Mc: Good job. Missing title for entry; -1 pt. Also, -1 pt. late. 18/20.//

Log Entry #5

4/18/2011

In the experiment a rocket was built and shot off. The mass of the rocket was recorded and the apogee was too. Then the relationship between the two were examined. It was hypothesized that If the mass of the rocket is greater than a greater force is needed to get it in the air. If it is lighter than it will go higher and the apogee will be higher. This was believed because it was thought that if the rocket was lighter than the thrust of the engines would launch the rocket faster and it would overcome gravity and air resistance better than a heavier rocket. The hypothesis was true and the lighter the rocket the higher the apogee. The hypothesis was mostly wrong and the higher the mass the higher the rockets apogee was. The reason for this was because the higher the mass the more inertia it had so that once it got moving it would be harder to stop. Even though it was harder to get it going it still had more inertia and it overcame gravity and air resistance better than the lighter rockets. Although the thrust from the lighter rockets engines launched them faster air resistance and gravity overcame their inertia and slowed them down which reduced their apogee.

The rockets were launched and the apogees were recorded. The apogees were recorded with an angle gun from exactly 100m away from the launch sight. The rockets’ masses were 44.8g, 44.0g, 44.5g, 45.4g, 43.2g, 44.6g, and 42.5g (as seen in table #1). The data in general was pretty consistent and the heavier it got the higher up the rockets apogee was. The only major outlier would be the heaviest rocket and this could have been caused by the people shooting the angle gun. The data proved the hypothesis wrong and it really the higher the mass the higher the apogee.



Table #1: The apogees of the different rockets

Log Entry #6: Question's about astronomy Which is older, our universe or our solar system? The universe is older than our solar system because galaxies started to form many years after universe formed. And solar systems formed many years after galaxies formed. Making our solar system much older. What is a quark and what types are there?

A quark is what makes up protons and electrons. They are the most elementary particle that is known by humans. There are two types of quarks. One is negative called an up quark and one is positive and is called a down quark. A proton has two positives and one negative. And electrons have two negatives and one positive. Since an atom is neutral than that makes sense.

// Ms. Mc: Your answers need to be more detailed and have facts from the reading. When were the Universe, galaxies, and our solar system formed? (-1) What are the other 4 types of quards? (-1). You also were to have 2 pictures/graphs/tables and refer to them in your text (-4). Please be sure you have a date for each entry as well. 4/10 //

Log entry #8: Describing Block Programming



The purpose of the experiment was to stop the robot from falling off the table. It would sense a change in light and it should stop. This relates to Mars rovers because a rover might need to sense a hole and it wants to stop before it falls in. The first block is a sound sensor block. It tells the robot to listen for a sudden sound more than 40. It also tells the robot that the sound sensor is plugged into port #4. the next block is a motion block. This tells the robot to move forward. It also tells the robot to move forward for infinity unless commanded otherwise. Lastly it tells the robot to run servomotors B and C. This makes the robot move forwards for infinity. The next block is a sound block. This block tells the robot to make noise. In this case it is telling the robot to say, "watch out". It also commands the robot to make a noise a 75% of its possible loudness. This code makes the robot make a somewhat loud watch out. The next block is a light sensor block. This block tells the robot to use the attached light sensor to sense a change in light that is less than 43. It also tells the robot that the light sensor is plugged into port #1. The last block is a movement block. This block tells the robot to stop progressing forward. It tells it to use servomotors B and C. this makes the robot stop dead when it senses light.