David+R

__** Electronics **__
====I really like electronics and I find them extremely interesting. In the reading we did I learned that the difference between analog signals and digital signals is that analog signals vary smoothly and digital signals are not as smooth and take steps or jumps. Another thing I found interesting was learning about semi-conductors. Semi-conductors are useful in electronics because they can act as a switch because there electric conductivity can be controlled. I also learned about solid state components (like diodes, transistors) and how they are used. Diodes are used to convert alternating circuits to direct currents. Transistors are used to amplify signals in electric currents. Transistors are mostly only used in personal computers, other devices use integrated circuits. Integrated circuits contain large numbers of interconnected solid state components and are made from a single chip of semi-conductor like silicon.====

=__ The use of electronics on our mission __= The reason we are learning about electronics is too be able to implement them on our mission to mars. Our goal is to find out if there is life there or if there ever was life existing there. To be able to do this electronics will be essential. Before we send humans to mars it is good to send a robot or rover to there to gain knowledge. That is where our knowledge of electronics technology is needed. Also things like a gps system a camera and a way to control it will also be needed. A rover or a robot is not where we stop there are many other electronics needed also but it is clear that they are essential to our mission.

__**History of Rockets**__

====The history of rockets is something most people don’t think about because they think there is no history and that rockets only started being invented in the past 200 years. In fact that isn’t true, there is a rich history of rockets starting around 100 B.C. with the Hero Engine created by a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria. The Hero Engine was a simple engine that used steam to propel a sphere around. Hero mounted a sphere on top of a water kettle. A fire below the kettle turned the water into steam, and the gas traveled though pipes to the sphere. Two L-shaped pipes released the gas using it to propel the sphere in a circle.====

==== The Chinese might have also created some of the first rockets and didn’t even know it. For festivals the Chinese wanted to make explosions so they used a mixture of sulfur, gunpowder, saltpeter and charcoal dust. They would fill bamboo tubes with that mixture and throw it in a fire and usually it would skitter out being propelled by gasses produced from the chemical mixture. The Chinese experimented with the gunpowder filled tubes. At some point; they attached bamboo tubes to arrows and launched them with bows. Soon they discovered that these gunpowder tubes could launch themselves just by the power produced from the escaping gas. The date reporting these first rockets was 1232. They used their new invention in the battle of Kai-Keng vs. the Mongols. After the battle of Kai-Keng the mongols try to produce their own rockets and they may have been responsible for the spread of this invention to Europe. After the rocket arrived in Europe various inventors came up with many different ideas for rockets and brought us to where we are today in the science of rocketry. ====



In 1898, a Russian schoolteacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), proposed the idea of space exploration by rocket. Early in the 20th century, an American, Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945), conducted practical experiments in rocketry. Goddard's earliest experiments were with solid-propellant rockets. In 1915, he began to try various types of solid fuels and to measure the exhaust velocities of the burning gases. He was convinced that a rocket could be propelled better by liquid fuel. All of these inventions led us to where we are today in modern rocketry.

__ Rocket Animation __

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__ Rocket Parts __



Nose cone- guides airflow around the rocket. Launch lug- guides the rocket straight off the launch pad. Fins- keep the rocket traveling straight. Body tube-main structural tube usually made out of strong paper. Rocket motor- the source of propulsion needed for flight. Recovery system- device for getting the rocket back safely intact for multiple times of use. Recovery wadding- protects the recovery system from harmful heat and gasses.

**__Rocket Flight__**

The purpose of the experiment was to see if the mass of the rocket affected how high it could fly which would eventually help us in our main mission which is to get to mars. To test this we used model rockets, we built the rockets then painted them differently so the would have different masses. We went outside and launched them. First we set our launch pad down in a corner of the field. Then we had two students walk 100 yards away using a trundel wheel. When they were ready they used angle guns to measure the angle of the rocket when it was shot up. To figure out the height the rockets flew we used the trigonometry. This way we could find how high each rocket flew. My rocket weighed 43 grams and the angle was 43 degrees so the height was about 93 meters in the air. It turns out that my hypotheses was true and the weight of the rocket affects how high it flies.

We put the rocket on the launch pad and put the key in the ignition. We held down both buttons four five seconds and it flew of really fast. There was a loud woosh sound and smoke came out of the bottom. It flew up and then got carried by the wind. It hit apogee and I heard a pop and some smoke pop out and I could see the parachute fly out. The parachute didn’t work so it plummeted to the ground. When I picked it up nothing was broken but the parachute was burned and I think that’s why it didn’t open.



__** The Importance of Astronomy in the Search for Life on Mars **__

Astronomy is very important in the search for life on mars. The people who need to know the most about astronomy have to be the astronauts because they are the ones who are actually going. We are going out to explore space and mars and astronomy is the study of space. Space can be extremely dangerous so we also need to make sure that we can safely go to mars. It is obvious that the knowledge of astronomy is essential to our journey to mars.

more aboot astronomy

__**History of Robotics**__ Robotics is a branch of technology that deals with design, construction and operation. I think the correct definition for a robot is a machine that helps humans with everyday means. The history of robots dates back to A.D. times. The word //robot// was introduced to the public by the Czech writer Karel Capek in his play “rossums universal robots”, published in 1920. The play begins in a factory that makes artificial people called // robots // creatures who can be mistaken for humans - though they are closer to the modern ideas of androids. After that many different machines and so called “robots” started being developed all leading up to the next big step in this technology: the first industrial robot in factories invented by George Devol.

That brings us to where we are today in modern robotics and my personal favorite humanoid robots. These days the robotics industry is flourishing, there is almost a robot for anything and everything you can think of. People actually use a lot of robots in their daily routine and they don’t even know they did. For example your toaster oven in the morning, it toasts your bread for you. over the years robotics have developed a lot.

__**How motors can be programed to move a robot **__

In our experiments we have been using Lego mindstorms robots and mindstorms NXT programming language to program it. There is something called the “brick” on the robot which is basically the brain and the computer that is the thing getting programmed. Once that is programmed it tells the motors what to do so it is the middle agent so to say. Everything is connected through phone cable and USB cables. That is how you program the robot to move.



__**importance of sensors on our mission**__

Using sensors on our robots for our search for life on mars are essential. Sensors help the robot operate by themselves and send data back to its main control. Sensors are mainly used for gathering data. There are many different types of sensors for all kinds of things. We have only used a couple sensors like the touch, ultra sonic and light sensors. All kinds of robots use all kinds of different sensors. If we didn’t have sensors our robots on mars would be pointless.



__**Alive or not??**__

Everything that humans have discovered so far has been classified. One of those big categories is if something simply is alive or not. As complicated as this might sound you can easily tell if something is alive or not if it has these six characteristics: made of cells, needs materials, homeostatic, respond to stimuli, reproduce, grow, adapted and respire. All of these characteristics will work for all living things ( with a couple of weird exceptions). Something is either living, non-living or product of a living thing.



I believe the best way to detect life on mars is to take samples from mars using robots or most likely a mars rover to see if there ever was or is something living on mars. For example living things need water, minerals and air. If there are any of those on mars then it leads us to believe there is something living on mars. the mars rover would have to take pictures and rock and ground samples to detect these. Using our eight characteristics we should be able to tell if there is or ever was life on mars.