Christian+S+SFLOM

Electricity and the Search for Life on Mars Electricity Electricity is easily definable through recognition of negative and positive charges in atoms and particles. Electricity occurs between these opposite charges to cause an electrical force of attraction or repulsion. An atom is negatively charged if it has more electrons than protons, and it is positively charged if it has more protons than electrons. That means electrically charged atoms are ions. If the atom is positively charged it is an anion, if the atom is negatively charged it is a cation. There are three main types of electricity, all display the attraction of opposite charges or the repulsion of like charges. Static Electricity is a form of non moving electricity. Static electricity is electrons grouping on a surface it cannot move on and making the surface negatively charged. However this can easily become the next type of electricity because a negatively charged area can attract to a positively charged area and create Electric Discharge. Electric Discharge is an uncontrolled burst of negatively charged particles attracting to positively charged particles. We can observe this as a strike of electricity because when the negative ions attract they are given a path to follow towards the positive ions and that path is what we see as they move among it. The final type of Electricity is Electrical Current. Unlike Discharge, Electrical Current is a controlled flow of electrons moving towards an anion. Often current is used in electrical devices because it is controlled and easy to use safely. In electrical devices current is used in the form of a circuit, a loop of electricity that connects electrons to a positive anion and allows the electrons to flow through another device towards the anion, giving that device power. Electrical uses on the Search for life on mars While electricity itself may not be helpful for finding life on mars seeing as if there is life on Mars it might not know what it is and become scared or confused when they see us shoot beams of discharge into the sky, but electrically powered devices and other things can be very helpful. Things such as LED lights to illuminate the dark side of the planet for searching, motion sensors that allow you to know if any life or other moving things are stirring, or rovers and other search machines. Electricity can be very useful on a search for life on mars because there is many machines and robots you can make to help you search, without electricity you would be completely useless. Electricity can also help us record or take pictures of the first sightings of life on mars.

Magnetism

Magnetism is the force of attraction or repulsion between magnetic fields. Magnetic fields are created by the acceleration of electric charges. When any magnetic field is created it has two main points in its field, the north and south poles. These poles are the sources of attraction and repulsion in a magnetic field. Each pole, like electric charges, correspond to each other. Like poles repel and poles attract.Each atom has a magnetic field because of the orbiting of electrons around the nucleus. What makes the difference between any substance and a magnetic one is the amount of these magnetic fields that line up in the object. These fields that line up are called domains. In a magnetic object that isn't a magnet, a magnet can make these abundance of domains line up to the magnet's north and south poles. A magnet is a substance that has all of its domains lining up. This can occur in nature through great temperatures and high pressure, but mostly is man made. Magnetism can attract objects that are magnetic or attract other magnetic fields. Magnetism can also repel objects that are magnetic or repel other magnetic fields. And another use of magnetism is that you can create an electric charge using a magnetic field.

How can magnetism be applied on Mars? Magnetism can be used for many of the same things we use it for on earth during an expedition on mars. Since mars has a magnetosphere such as earth does, we can use it for navigation. First we must find where the north/south pole of Mars is in relation to our shuttle or wherever we are trying to find. Then we can use a compass similar to the compasses we use on earth and find where the north/south pole is and then find our destination. We can also radiate a magnetic field and record all the tugs/pulls that occur in the field, if there are any, to find where deposits of magnetic material can be found. Another use could be in our rovers. We can use magnetic fields to search right below ground level for any metals or unknown objects that are magnetic.

Astronomical Origins From Big Bang to Galaxies The Universe began as an incredibly dense point in space. This dense particle that holds all matter and energy starts to explode, expanding rapidly. The universe starts with exotic particles of Matter, Antimatter, and Energy. As the Universe expands it cools down. These exotic particles can come together to create Neutrons and Protons. When matter particles such as Neutrons or Protons collide with antimatter particles they create energy, similarly, when energy collides with other energy it makes anti matter and matter particles. When the universe cools down smaller particles like electrons, positrons, and muons can be created, and eventually the strong nuclear force can pull together nuclei without the force of the overwhelming heat pulling them apart. The two main atoms created are Hydrogen and Helium Gravity starts pulling together these atoms to create galaxies, these galaxies are classified as either elliptical, spiral, or an irregular galaxy. Galaxies get their odd look because the two atoms that they are made of are Hydrogen and Helium, both gasses, so galaxies are mainly clouds with stars sprinkled throughout them. The Milky Way Galaxy Our Galaxy, the Milky Way Galaxy, is a spiral galaxy made from millions of stars. Also there are some star clusters that include thousands of starts together. Because of our earth being inside of the galaxy, we can see through our atmosphere the stars spreading across the sky. The center of the galaxy is a bulge much like an atom's nucleus. Spreading from the bulge are the four spiral arms. The Milky way Galaxy is made from blue young stars and purple Hydrogen clouds mainly. Astronomers have also observed strange occurences in stars around the galaxy which leads them to think there is dark matter surrounding the galaxy and tugging on stars with its gravity. Because of this our galaxy could be much bigger, up to five times the size. The Lives of Stars The star birth process begins in a cold cloud of gas and dust. A wave of energy from a another star or any other source can start changes in these clouds, beginning the forming of cores. Gravity pulls these cores together in the center of the cloud. The star-to-be starts rotating as matter starts to collapser on it and pressure it, this pressure begins to heat the star. As the new star is made it is surrounded by many clouds, as the temperature in the core gets hot enough for nuclear reaction the star can create more energy and more rotation speed. As it spins it releases gasses at its north and south poles that clears away the remaining wind/clouds/dust surrounding it. For stars to burn they have to convert Hydrogen into Helium, a form of nuclear fusion, to create an immense amount of energy. The mass of a star determines everything about it, the heat, how bright it is, the color, and everything else. The hottest stars are blue and the least hot are brown and red. As a star runs out of hydrogen gas its outer layers expand greatly over time, its color darkens, it shines brighter, and blows off a substantial amount of its material. After pulsating between a normal star and this bloated larger star, the star begins to blow off all of its material but its core, the last layer that is blown off becomes a planetary nebulae for the star. The core settles into a retired white dwarf star. Larger stars go out differently. They expand becoming more dark and enter the unstable pulsating phase too, however the nuclear processes that go on during this phase cause the star to collapse upon itself and it results in an explosion called a supernova. The Sun The sun a normal star, just like many others in the sky, however it seems bigger because it is so much closer to us than other stars. However unlike some other stars the sun has the chance to seem affected by the moon when they line up. Because the moon doesn't touch the sun it doesn't change it but we get to see the outer edge of the sun during a total eclipse, the chromosphere. The Sun's surface is subject to bursts of incandescent gas from the surface, solar flares, and sun spots appearing. Sun spots happen because of one spot on the sun being much cooler than everywhere else, making it seem darker. Sun spots have an unusual circle of life called the sun spot cycle. At the start of the cycle, individual spots can last about a week or so, as the cycle goes on the number of spots and their location change, then at the peak of the cycle many spots are found 20 degrees north and south of the suns equator. After the cycle hits the peak the cycle declines until it hits the beginning again. History of the Solar System When the Sun was created, the disk of clouds and dust around the new star picked up lots of shards of discarded materials. These materials clumped like much other matter due to gravity and made shards called planetesimals. When the Sun blew away these planetesimals they were able to be found all across out solar system, but they still were trying to clump together due to gravity and these caused a lot of collisions. Although most of these shards shattered when they collided, some were able to clump and morph with soft collisions and were able to make large objects such as planets. All the other planetesimals settled in the asteroid belt. In the outer Solar System the gravity from the sun was less powerful so less fast and strong collisions happened, making larger planets possible. These planets such as Jupiter, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus were able to pull in materials to make their own disks and also pulled some gasses from nearby nebulae into their atmosphere. However in the inner solar system these planetesimals had many more collisions and many more shattered pieces. Eventually the smaller planets formed though. These smaller planets were heated by the constant barrage of smaller planetesimals and also had a radioactive core heating the planet more. Eventually the metals sunk down to the core and soft rock rose to the surface. After this the planets cooled and became what we know today as Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

__** The History of Rockets **__

Throughout History rockets and propelled bodies similar to rockets were found widely spread across Europe and Asia. Many rocket-like devices and propulsion designs arouse and were experimented on, however the history of rockets really doesn't start until the very first invention that can be defined as an actual rocket, the Chinese fireworks. However before Fireworks and Rockets can happen you require a form of propulsion. Far before this, 100 B.C, Greek inventor Hero began all this with his invention of the aeolipile, an engine that used steam as a propulsive gas to power it. As the water in the basin is heated up by the fire it begins to evaporate and the steam goes into the tubes in the pool. These tubes connect to the central sphere and the gas is pushed there. Since there are two openings via the L shaped tubes the gas pushes through that, pushing the sphere in a circle. Although this may seem like it would be useless for a rocket it began experimentation with propulsion and other ways to create engines. Now fast forward again to Chinese Fireworks. Using a solid such as sulfur or charcoal dust as a fuel, these fireworks were originally just meant for explosion, not movement. However eventually the Chinese saw that they could attach the firework to a straight pole to guide it through the air, they used arrows. As the Chinese fought the Mongols they exposed this new technology to them, and as the Mongols had such a massive empire they were able to expose it to most of Asia and even Europe. Many experiments with rockets ensued. An English monk named Roger Bacon experimented with improving usable forms of gunpowder, the French Jean Froissart found that more accurate firing and flight could be obtained by firing the rocket through a tube, Italian Joanes de Fontana created surface-running rockets that would later become the basis for torpedoes. Up until recently rockets have been used for Warfare and for Ceremonial use in the form of Fireworks, however Konstantin Tsiolkovsky's idea changed the use of rockets forever.

Tsiolkovsky proposed space exploration by use of Rocket. In a paper he published in 1903, he suggested to use liquid propellants as opposed to the solids we've been using before. Also he stated that the speed and range of a rocket were only limited by the velocity of escaping gasses, meaning if we are able to correct the exhaust velocity of these gasses we could increase the speed and range of our rockets greatly. Due to his observation and research Tsiolkovsky was named the Father of modern Aeronautics. In the early 20th century, an American scientist became interested in rocketry and Tsiolkovskly's work. He began experimenting with and testing the exhaust velocity of gases in solid-propellant rockets. However through his experimentation he became certain that using liquids as rocket propellants would create better rockets. Through his constant working he finally created a rocket that would be propelled by liquid oxygen and gasoline. On March 16, 1926 his rocket took flight for 2 and a half seconds, and rose12.5 meters. Although this wasn't impressive based on modern accomplishments, this event was the basis of all modern accomplishments and this rocket began a new era in rocketry using rockets propelled by a liquid. Goddard continued experimenting on rockets, creating parachutes to retrieve rockets and a payload for scientific instruments. Because of his work and research he was named the Father of modern rocketry. With advancements in rocketry, many rocket societies sprung up around the world such as the German Verein für Raumschiffahrt. This Society made the V-2 Rocket, used agaisnt England in WW2. This was a devastating rocket at the time, consuming one ton of liquid oxygen and alcohol every 7 seconds. Once collision occurred, the rocket could blow out a full block. These rockets came too late to save the Germans, and when the American overtook them they took many of these rockets and brought some German Rocket scientists with them. Although the V-2 was still a rocket used for warfare, it inspired the US to create long and medium ranged inter continental ballistic missiles, ICBMs, which would hatch into the early stages of USA's Space Program.

October 4, 1957. Stunning news of the first satellite to orbit earth through space i s heard, this is the news of Sputnik 1, launched by the Soviet Union. This was the first shot in the space-race between the two global superpowers, USA and the Soviets. A few months after Sputnik, the Russians also launched a satellite with a live dog aboard. This dog survived for 7 days. At about the same time, USA fires back at Russia with their own satellite. On January 31, 1958 Explorer 1 was launched into orbit for the Americans. The October 1958 the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was created in the USA, signaling the beginning of Space Exploration. Satellites were used to predict weather and instantly communicate around the world via cellphones. Rockets had finally evolved from primarily used in Ceremonies and Warfare to Space Exploration and Transportation to Space.

The Rocket Experiment

Our Rocket flew straight upwards into the air. After a few seconds, the parachute deployed and slowed the Rocket's velocity greatly, making it float down slower. The wind pushed the Rocket a lot, moving it eastward. As it got lower it began to move faster as the wind pushed on the sides of the parachute instead of underneath it. The Rocket never did land as we caught it about half a meter above the ground.

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether or not the mass of a rocket would affect the maximum altitude it flew. We began with the creation of the rocket. First we glued together the motor container, then we glued on the fins and launch lugs, and finished by gluing the shock cord into the rocket and attaching it to the nose cone and parachute. After this assembly, the parachute was covered in baby powder to prevent it getting wet. We put fire resistant gauze and the parachute into the body of the rocket and capped it with the nose cone. After this was done, we painted our rockets. The masses differentiated depending on how much glue/baby powder the groups used and how much paint they used. In all, we made 8 rockets. The next step was to launch the rockets, we put the rockets on a stand and pointed it straight into the air. One hundred meters away(measured with a trundle wheel), 2 people stood ready to measure the angle of the rocket's flight. They used angle measurement guns. We were going to determine the Apogee of the rockets using trigonometry, so we had to record the angle. The Rockets had an A8-3 motor in them that was to be ignited by giving an electric charge to the igniter. Once launched, the angle of its maximum altitude was measured and recorded. Then, we used trigonometry (100*tan(angle)= x ) to find the apogee. We the compared these heights to all the other rockets. The rocket that flew the highest went 101.8 meters high and weighed 44.2 grams. The rocket that flew the lowest went 60.1 meters and weighed 44.5 grams. In the end my hypothesis was in some ways correct. The lightest of the rockets went 30 meters lower than the highest which was an average weight and the heaviest rocket went 20 meters lower than the highest rocket.

Mars Rover Drop

The design of our Mars Rover Drop vehicle was built to protect the jar of applesauce in three ways. The first is to use parachutes and balloons to slow down the fall of our device. The parachutes slow down the fall by making the surface area of the vehicle larger so that the wind/air would have more surface to push against. If there is more surface to push against then there is more air resistance which would help slow or even prevent the vehicle's fall. If the fall was slowed, then the time of impact would be much longer, making the collision less destructive. I know this because physics states that the longer the time until the collision the less the force. If there is less force there is a much greater chance of the jar not breaking because the jar requires a force stronger than the glass to break. The second protection for our vehicle was padding. The idea of this padding is to create a layer/sheet of material that will soften the landing by absorbing some of the force. Hopefully the padding would absorb enough force to ensure that the remaining force wasn’t strong enough to break the jar. We used Bubble Wrap and Paper Towels to pad the vehicle. In order to make sure that the padding stayed together and protected what it needed to protect, we taped them to a frame. The frame was made out of popsicle sticks that were taped together as well. The third protection for our jar was a capsule that encased the jar of applesauce itself. We created the capsule out of two cups taped together at the lids. The capsule used padding itself, but that the main job for it was to hold the jar still so it didn’t fall over the edge of the vehicle during the descent. The capsule that encased the jar could have been an obstacle in the recovery of the jar, however we only used one piece of tape to tie together the cups, making it fairly easy to break the seal or pull the cups apart to retrieve it. This easy retrieval was required because we were only given 45 seconds to recover the jar from our vehicle. In the end our vehicle was designed, as you may see in Figure 7, that there is padding on the bottom, a frame, more padding, the capsule, and the parachutes/balloons floating above. Our team designed the vehicle like this because the first point of impact would be the bottom of the vehicle so we used padding there and also padding where the capsule and the frame met, just incase the shock got through the vehicle to the capsule. We had our parachutes attached to the top of the frame because we wanted to give them plenty of space to float and to protect them from anything that might pop the balloons. After the drop, we noticed how the padding and the cups worked as they should've, however the parachute didn’t work too well. The parachute and balloons mainly kept the vehicle upright and didn’t do much to slow it, whereas the padding worked well to absorb the shock and protect the jar from the impact. Next time I would try to optimize the usage of the paper bag as a parachute and find out how to make it so that it works better.



History of Robotics

Ancient Robots Throughout History the idea of a animated body to work underneath humans has always fascinated us. Across many texts and religions there are references of robots, statues that come to life, giants made from clay, and metal automatons. Whether or not any of this is true, we do not know, however since there is no record of the assembly or creation of these 'Robots' and they are only mentioned in lore and Mythology, we have reason to believe they were not real. However near to 250 BC these ideas came closer to reality as physicist and engineers set their sights once more to robots. This time however they did just think of just human figures but of more complex machines that work on their own. Though one of the earliest Robots were Automata from Egyptian and Chinese inventors, eventually people looked to more promising devices. In 1088 Su Song created the Cosmic Engine, a 10 meter tall device that used mechanical mannequins to chime the hours for clock by hitting gongs and bells. Al-Jazari, a muslim inventor invented many things during the Artuqid Dynasty (12-13th century) including Automatic kitchen devices and musical automata, however his most important invention was programmable automata. Now this wasn’t programmable like they are today, but it created the concept of programming a robot then letting it do the work you want it. Al-Jazari did this by connecting the drum to pegs and set the pegs into a system of levers so that as the boat they were attached to moved the pegs would hit the levers and play the drum. The way this was programmable is that he could change the configuration of the pegs to make the drums play different rhythms. However soon people became more interested in automata and humanoid robots than creating devices such as kitchen appliances and other things. In the 1300's people such as Robert II had made gardens with humanoid robots and automated animals. However designs of these humanoid robots weren't recorded until late 1400's early 1500's- the time of Leonardo Da Vinci. Other inventors at the time made flying machines such as iron eagles (Johannes Müller von Königsberg) and wooden flying beetles (John Dee). By the 1700's people were beginning to make more complex robots that could play instruments, draw, fly, or act. One of the most famous works was made by Jacques de Vaucanson, 'The Digesting Duck'. This was a robot powered by weights that imitated a duck by flapping its wings, eating grain, digesting it, and defecating it.

Modern Robots

The first ever electronic autonomous robots were created by William Grey Walter in Bristol, England 1948 and 1949. The point of these robots were to demonstrate how human brain cells worked, they could operate complex tasks with only a few cells working at it, essentially it worked in how it was wired up not how many brain cell s were assigned to a task. Although these robots didn’t take shape of humans they were still designed after humans as they have been for years. Although Walter emphasized using analogue electronics to create brain processes in robots other creators such as Alan Turning and John von Neumann were turning to creating mental processes through Digital Computation. Since robotics of the time were based off of making the robot perform tasks through computing and based giving commands off of inserting mental tasks, the questions aroused in the Turing Test of : Can machines think? Ensuing this was a rush or even a race to get further in Artificial intelligence. This field was created by the Logic Theory Machine made in 1956 and the General Problem Solver made in 1957. In 1958 the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab was created. That same year John McCarthy made LISP, a programming language still used today. In the 70's all this Artificial Intelligence work was put to the test as machines were built in factories programmed to do work. Robots using touch sensors were able to do more fine movements such as hands would. In the 80's the first direct drive arm was created, having the motors within the base of the arm. This made completely automated assembly lines more possible. In the late 90's Honda began researching with humanoid robots capable of interacting with humans. In 1989 MIT revealed their simple built and cheap robot Genghis. This was a big step in the world of robots because at the time Space Exploration was the big thing to be happening, so being able to compress and make robots more simple was a great achievement and made us closer to creating robots capable of space travel. In the 90's Much happened in the world of Robotics. The Mars Rover Sojourner shut down after 83 days, although expected to only operate 7 days. Along with the Space Exploration race everyone was working on, other studies were happening such as the RoboTuna created by David Barrett at MIT to demonstrate how fish move in water. Much how early robots were designed after and inspired by humans those with other curiosities looked to create robots inspire by other animals. Honda continued it's humanoid Robot and Human interactions studies by revealing the P2 and P3 robots before releasing the perfected ASIMO, a robot that could run, walk, communicate with humans, compatible with voice and facial recognition, and posture/environmental recognition. SONY turned to a more entertaining viewpoint, releasing AIBO, a robot dog that could interact with humans, and SONY Dream Robots, small humanoid robots used for entertainment. In the 2000's more Rovers and orbiters have been launched, including attachments to the International Space Station. This decade robots capable of multiplying themselves were released by Cornell University, a set of cubes that can attach and detach themselves. This could lead to future work with self multiplying robots which we should keep an eye out for. Self-driving cars were introduced however they left a great margin for improvement over the years. Now Robots designed to help in Surgery and other Medical Practices are being made. Throughout modern Robotics the world has been working on practical robots that work to help our society or advance ourselves in robotics, and I believe we can say we've advanced very much from our simple automatons in ancient history. Lego MindStorms Robot Programming

Our Lego Mind Storms Robot moves by using its wheels. The wheels move the robot by turning, but to be able to turn the wheels we need to have motors. Also, using motors allows us to control how we move our wheels and in turn, our robot. We can do this by inserting a program to the robot's computer. The Robot can then send the task to the motor and based on the variables that we used with our program it moves the robot accordingly. The movements all are accessible from one movement tool and the variables of that tool change the motion. For example, there are variables that change the direction of motion, the power used in thrusting (speed), the degree of turn, and if the command stops the vehicle instead. With this, we are able to move forward, backward, turn in a curve (moving forward while turning), turn on a point (turning from the spot that it is already in and not moving) and stop. Some of the harder parts where that when moving, there is no way to set a certain distance for the robot to move(i.e. 2 meters) but rather the movement is relative to rotations of the wheels or seconds moving. This means we have to measure how many rotations equals, say, 2 meters if we want it to go only 2 meters.





A sensor is a device that can sense or observe its surroundings, process that and turn it into information, and put information back to the central computer. a sensor can be useful because a robot is essentially without any idea of what happens around it, it just moves forward mindlessly, as if walking through darkness. Sensors can let a robot know if it is running into a wall or is moving through a dark surface. The types of sensors we used are sound sensors, those that detect sounds in the environment, Touch sensors, which can detect if it is touching some object in the environment, Ultrasonic sensors, which can detect objects in front of it, and Light sensors which can detect light or reflections of light in the environment.

Geology- Curiosity

Scientists can identify minerals based on their appearance, but also other properties. Characteristics like color, size, and the way the crystals are aligned can help them. Other than the main 5 senses that can give you observations., scientists can also observe and identify minerals by cleavage, fracture, and streak. Cleavage and Fracture are an analysis of the way the mineral's crystals are aligned based on how the mineral breaks. The mineral tends to break along the lines the crystals make, giving the scientists information as to how the crystals are laid out based on how the mineral breaks along the crystals. Cleavage is a property of being able to break into thin, even sheets. Minerals with cleavage have evenly layered/stacked crystals. Fracture is a property of being able to break into jagged/rugged and asymmetrical pieces. Minerals with fracture have uneven and randomly grown crystals. Streaking is a process of pulling a piece of the outside of the mineral and crushing it to dust to observe the color of the powder. We do this by pulling the mineral along a porcelain tile. When this happens, a piece of the outer layer of the mineral will be pulled onto the tile and crushed into a powder between the mineral and the tile. The powder stays on the tile and can be used to identify the rock by matching it with a streak color from an existing catalog of minerals and their streak. Curiosity will be able to perform geology experiments on Mars by using the 2 analytical Chemistry labs inside the rover. These labs can determine what minerals and Chemical Elements are present in the Sample. The special thing about Curiosity is its method of obtaining a sample though. Curiosity can drill into rocks and take out a powder to transfer to the labs within itself.