Stuart

= Electricity is a Snap = = 3/25/2011 = **Electronics on Mars** Electronics would be very important on a mission to mars. Without electronic devices, a rover would not be able to determine if it has found life or not. Without electronics, a rover on mars would not impossible. First of all, it takes a lot of carefully crafted electronics to actually put the rover into space. Numerous devices would have to be made for many reasons, to calculate the path of the rover (so it doesn't run into an asteroid), and to calculate the physics of launching the rover (so that it doesn't come flying back towards earth). Once the rover actually makes it to mars, it has to land using complex devices that calculate the gravity, how much upward thrust to use when landing, and more. Once it lands, they need to make it so that the rover can be remotely controlled, sends pictures, and has an active video feed. Complex electronics are needed, and each electronic device is made out of many individual parts. **Understanding Electronics** In an electric device, there are both analog, and digital signals. An analog signal is an electric signal the slowly and smoothly varies in strength. A digital signal is the opposite and is very jumpy. For example, comparing an analog thermometer to a digital thermometer. An analog one slowly will increase the height of the red liquid inside, while a digital one will go "30 o -31 o -32 o -33 o -34 o " And skips all the data in between the numbers. Another key component of electronic devices include semi conductors. Semi conductors are very valuable in electronic devices because their conductivity can be controlled. By adding impurities, the semi conductors can conduct more electricity or less. Impurities add extra electrons, or less electrons to the semi conductor, messing up it's flow and causing it to conduct less. Transistors, another component of an electronic device, can be used to amplify electronic signals, or to make them stronger. It can also be used as an electronic switch, so if electricity is provided to the switch, it can turn on or off. Diodes can be used to make an electric current only go one way. This is helpful for converting AC to DC. It converts it because AC is constantly switching the direction of it's travel, and with a diode, it only goes one way to become DC. This uses a series of semi conductors, one that has less electrons then normal, and one that has normal. This way electricity can only travel from the more side to the less side. Using all these components and more, a rover on mars is very much possible.

Dear Stuart, Great job! I absolutely positively adore your work. You have done an extravagant job explaining electronic devieces in a short, simple, and straight to the point matter. I totally agree wit your reasoning on how important electrons are on this life changing innovational exploration. Great job! Arash

Very good. Semiconductors is one word and you didn't put in anything about integrated circuits. You have a lot of great information and I learned a lot just from reading your article. Great job. -Jaren

Ms. Mc - Excellent overview of electronics and how we might use electronic devices on our mission to search for life on Mars. As Jaren said, you did leave out the one point about what ICs are. Please be sure to follow up with your reviewer's suggestions. 9.5/10

=Rockets fly through history = 5…4…3…2…1...Liftoff!, a rocket lights up the sky as it soars to a place only few have been lucky enough to travel too, the moon. These rockets, although seeming modern, date back as far as 100 B.C. The first rocket like device used propelled gasses to accelerate itself. just like a rocket. The exception is this device used the propelled gas (boiled water) to simply spin. Later, explosives were used to attempt rocketry. The first real rocket-like device (not a spinning ball) was created by accident. When attempting to make a colorful explosive during a religious festival, t he bamboo tubes filled with gun powder propelljed themselves a few feet. Rocketry was born. Many attempts to build rockets now took place. One of them was a small piece of bamboo filled with more gunpowder. The top of the bamboo was sealed for more pressure, and the whole rocket was put on a stick so that it would fly off straight. The rocket was a success, and a weapon created. Although you don't think of a rocket that takes a man to the moon a weapon, but think of a missile. They were attempting to launch an explosive into enemy lines. They were somewhat unsuccessful because most of the explosive was used to propel instead of to detonate. Rockets were improved until it was thought that rockets could be used to travel into space. The "race to space" started. The U.S. and Soviet Union had a battle of wits to try and get into space first. Russia launched a satellite into space, and later a dog. The dog died. Sad, but it was expected because they did not supply that much oxygen. It was not their intention to bring the dog back safely. The U.S. beat the Russians and put the first man on the moon. 

Ms. Mc - I love your writing! Very good summary of the history of rocketry but a few more details (names of scientists and dates) would have been helpful. Your drawings were well done too. Please be sure to include a figure # and title for all photos and drawings. 14/15



4/13/2011 Entry #4 Rocket Parts



The nose cone is used to cut into the air. This makes the rocket more aerodynamic.The body tube contains, and protects the recovery system. The recovery system is a parachute attached to the rocket that it will deploy at the apogee. The recovery wading is crumpled up paper that protects the parachute from the blast that deploys it. The engine's final act makes a blast that pushes the parachute up and out. The launch lug is a small tube that guides the rocket straight up. When it's on the ground, a metal rod is threaded through the launch lug, so that when it launches it follows the rod and flies straight up. The fins also help to guide the rocket. They help with the aerodynamics and make it go straight. The motor mount inside the body tube holds the engine and secures it so it doesn't fall out or burn the body tube. The rocket motor is the engine, it propels the rocket by burning gun powder.

//Ms. Mc: God job! Don't forget a caption for your figures, tables, etc. (-1). Also, please put a line between your entries (button to the left of the link button at the top of the page when you edit. I did it for you this time.) 19/20//

4/17/2011 Entry #5, Analysis write up

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether mass affects the height of the rocket or not. Mass does affect the rocket, but the purpose was to determine whether it’s a great difference or not. The mass makes the force of gravity stronger on the rocket. When the rocket was on the ground, only gravity (pulling down), and the launch (pad pushing up), were acting on the rocket. These were balanced forces so the rocket is at rest. At the moment of lift off, gravity, air resistance, and the thrust of the rocket were acting on the rocket. These forces are unbalanced, causing the rocket to propel. Once it reached the apogee, the engine stopped and only gravity was acting on the rocket. This causes it’s momentum to be undermined to the point that the rocket started to fall down instead of propelling up. Once it hit the ground the only forces acting on it were the ground (pushing up) and gravity (pulling down). These forces are balanced causing the object to be at rest. It was hypothesized that if a rocket has more mass, then it will have a lower apogee because more mass will cause the force of gravity acting on the rocket to become stronger. This will make the force of gravity more equal to the force of the thrust from the engine. If the gravity is closer to the thrust, the rocket will not propel as much.

As seen in figure 1, One of the rocke t’s mass was an outlier compared to the rest of the data. With a mass of 41.5, it stands out of the general 44-47 gram span. The other non-outliers consist of 44.2, 44.4, 45.2, 45.4, 45.5, and 46.9 grams. The various heights all consisted of 62, 69, 82, 85, 90, 93, and 119 meters. There seems to be an inverse relationship between the mass and height. The more mass a rocket has, the lower it flies. The lowest flying rocket, 62 meters, also had the most mass of 46.9 grams. The highest flying rocket flew 119 meters high, and was 2.5 grams less in mass. This proves my hypothesis, that more mass makes the effects of gravity stronger weakening the rocket’s thrust, causing it to have a lower apogee. The few data points that do not fall in the inverse relationship could have been caused by many different reasons. That includes the fact that the data was recorded by all sorts of different people, and that the rockets were made by all sorts of different people. Because the rockets were made by different people, all the fins were placed on the rocket slightly different. This could have affected the flight of the rocket. Also, the angle guns used to figure out the height of the rocket (trigonometry) weren’t entirely accurate. They wobbled and swayed and were never in the correct position. Overall, the conclusion is still accurate.

4/21/2011 Entry #6, Questions

What are quarks?

Quarks are the bits that make up protons and neutrons. There are 6 types or quarks, but two of them are up quarks, and down quarks. Up quarks have a positive 2/3 charge, while down quarks have a negative 1/3 charge. As seen in figure 2, there are three quarks in a proton or neutron. There are two ups and a down in a proton, equaling a charge of positive 1. There are also two downs and an up in a neutron, equaling a charge of 0. How did the moon form? At some early age, the moon was bombarded by a small asteroid the size of mars. As seen in figure 3, It broke the earth apart, which eventually settled into two masses, the earth, and the smaller moon. It was simple coincidence it was put in the right point to orbit the earth.

Ms. Mc: Good answers and nice pictures! The earth actually was hit and not the moon (I know you meant that.). Please make your entry titles a little more descriptive and don't forget the line separating your entries. 9.5/10

Entry #8, 5/5/2011, Stuart Hunt

As seen in figure 4, the first block is a wait block. This specific one makes the robot wait until a sound is louder than 81%. Once a sound is louder than 81%, it will move on to the next block. The next block is movement block that makes servo motors B and C go forward at 75% power for an infinite amount of time. While that block makes the robot go forward forever, the next wait block detects light. It waits until the light reading is less than 50, then moves on to the next block. The next block is a movement clock that makes servo motors B and C stop there current movement. This ends the previous infinite movement. This series of blocks is designed so that on a voice command “Go”, or some other sound louder than 81%, the robot will start moving on a table. When it reaches the end of the table and it detects that the light is less than 50, it will then stop. For the second half of the program, the robot frowns while saying “Watch out!” It then turns itself off because it finished the program. As seen in figure 1, ending frown, watch out, and stop, starts with a display block. This will display a frowning face on the robot’s screen’s coordinates of 12, 8. This will but the face in approximately the middle of the screen. It will display this until the program is finished. Next, a sound block makes the sound “Watch out!” This plays the watch out sound file at 100% volume once. Upon completion of the sound, the program will move on to the next block. The next block is a time wait block. This wait block holds up the program for 1.0 second. It will wait this time so that the viewers can see the smiley face still being displayed by the robot. Finally, after the one second, the program ends. With a stop block, the program comes to a halt and the display screen returns to the program selection screen shown before the program was started. This allows the robot to make his finish, after being told to go, going forward until almost falling off a table, and then saying watch out with a frown on his face.