Sam+M

=**The Search for Life on Mars**= By //Sam M//

//From the Big Bang to Galaxies//

** //From Big Bang to Galaxies// **
According to the leading theory our universe formed about 15 billion years ago exploding out of nothing. Everybody now calls this event the Big Bang. In a brief flash our Universe expanding from around the size of an atom to the size of our earth in about one second. The Universe's temperature began to fall at a steady pace after the Big Bang. After one second the temperature has fallen to from unimaginably hot to ten billion __degrees__. The Universe is dominated by smaller particles like electrons. After 3 minutes a quarter of the protons and neutrons are combining to create Helium nucleus. After 300,000 years, when the temperature drops to 3,000 __degrees__ Kelvin electrons can __start__ orbiting protons and Hydrogen nucleus to __start__ creating atoms without them being torn apart. About 2 billion years after the Big Bang galaxies begin to form. In the early Universe galaxies were closer together than now and collisions and merges were common. These could cause spiral arms of galaxies to grow. When galaxies collide head on it creates one larger galaxy.

**//The Milky Way Galaxy//**
The Milky Way is an insiders view of our galaxy. There is a flat disk of stars about 1,000 light years across and 1,000-2,000 light years thick. A thinner layer of gas and dust cut across the middle of the disk. The central bulge is about 20,000 light years across. The sun is in the disk, halfway out from the galactic center. On the other side of the galactic center another dwarf galaxy is merging with the Milky Way. Four spiral arms wind out from the bulge. Closing in on the bulge stars are mainly red & orange, showing they are old stars. At the heart of the bulge (central 15 light years) lies the nucleus of the galaxy. It's probably a massive __black hole__, surrounded by a lumpy __ring__ of gas clouds and a disk of dust. The whole galaxy is turning but in it's own orbit. The way our galaxy rotates tells us it's surrounded by a large invisible corona. It's possible the galaxy is five times bigger than it appears.

**//History of the Solar System//**
The sun formed like all stars, but the rotating ball collapsed to a thin disk with a sun in the center about 4.5 billion years ago. In the disk smaller materials started to collect into larger particles. Far from the sun where it was coldest icy planet-tesimals survived. In the warmer region closer to the sun they made only of rock and metal. In what is now the outer solar system four very large masses formed. These became the giant planets: Jupiter Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. These planets grew disks of their own, which moons condensed. Being too close to the sun the four terrestrial planets: Earth, __Mercury__, Venus, and Mars wouldn't very large because of the amount of collisions happening. The surfaces were heated by constant bombardment and on the inside activity also created heat. The metal in the molten planets sank to the middle while the rock rose to the surface and cooled off. The four terrestrial planets acquired their atmospheres in a later stage.

=//** Rocket History **//=

**//A Brief History//**
The history of rockets dates all the way back to around 100 B.C. in Ancient Greece, when a inventor named //Hero of Alexandria// used steam as a kind of propulsive gas. Next, he placed a sphere over top of water kettle. A small __fire__ below the kettle turned the water into steam and then the gas moved up into the pipes creating a thrust and causing the wheel to turn. This machine is called the **//Hero Engine.//**

During the first century A.D. the Chinese began experimenting with tubes full of gunpowder and discovered that these tubes could launch themselves by power produced by escaping gas, //**thus a true rocket was born.**// These fire arrows became crucial in the war between the Chinese and the Mongols during 1232.

**//Modern Rocketry//**
In 1903 //Konstantin Tsiolkovsky// suggesting the use of liquid propellants in order to achieve greater range for rockets. Tsiolkovsky is called the //father of modern astronautics// for his ideas, careful research, and great vision. //Robert H. Goddard// followed up of Tsiolkovsky's __work__ and eventually achieved the first successful flight with liquid - propellant rocket on //March 16, 1926//. Of course by today's standards the flight was pathetic flying for two and half seconds climbing 12.5 meters and flying only 56 meters to land in cabbage patch. It was forerunner of a new era rocket flight.

The arising of rocket societies led to the first liquid-propellant rocket being used in war. German scientists created the //V-2 rocket// which was used against London in __WWII__, but sadly it was used to late in war to be incredibly effective. After the fall of Germany in WWII, many German scientists went to the U.S.A. and some went to the Soviet Union. Soon the United States and the Soviet Union realized that rockets could be used as a major military, thus creating the U.S.A. space program.

On //October 4, 1957// the Soviet Union launched //Sputnik I//, which became the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. A few months the United States did the same thing launching //Explorer I// into orbit on //January 31, 1958// and in October of that year the United States created //NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)// its space program.

//As you can see rockets have opened our minds, hearts and imaginations to so many possibilities. We've come so far since the earlier days of rocketry.// //**Hero of Alexandria would be proud.**//

= Rocket Stages =

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= Exploration of Mars =

The exploration of mars has been going on for hundreds of years. It has been an important part of the Russian, Soviet Union, United States, European, and Japanese space programs, since the 1960's and 1970's. The first programs launched to Mars by NASA were Viking 1 and Viking 2 in 1975. The program consisted of two orbiters and two landers. The picture below is first image Viking Lander 1 sent back to earth. For a while after there was a run a failed missions until 2001 when the Mars Odyssey was launched ending the run of failure. In fact Mars Odyssey is still transmitting data and images back to NASA. A few months ago, NASA launched another rover slightly bigger than Odyssey, called Curiosity that is currently in the coasting stage. These are the main events for NASA's exploration of Mars.

=Rocket Mechanics=

=Altitude vs. Mass Rocket Experiment= This experiment was to see how the mass would effect the altitude of the rocket. The experiment was performed by building a model, painting it, weighing it, and then launching it. It was hypothesized that the mass would not effect the rocket because some rockets had different difficulties fins weren't on correctly, some fins fell off, And some engines didn't work as well as they should have. In the end the rocket that weighed the most launched the highest, but then a group with an average weight launched the second highest, and also another rocket that weighed slightly more than average launched the lowest.

=Rocket Fin Experiment= The purpose of this experiment was to see if each group changed the amount of fins on their rocket, effected the height of the rocket. My hypothesis of more fins would make the rockets go higher was not confirmed, because a rocket with only three fairly basic fins, dominated the field, and most of the rockets failed. The rocket with most fins, count them 18, failed completely, and one with nine, went about 3 meters in the air. The rocket with 3 smaller fins soared 72 meters into the air. Nothing went as planned as you can see in the graphs below. My group's rocket weighed 48.5 grams. Our rocket went 23.1 meters into the in about 0.5 seconds and then flipped onto it's side and started it's 10 second trip downward. The rocket floated away in about 10 seconds or so, and went 25 feet away from the launch pad. When the rocket was about 5 feet off the ground, the parachute came and the rocket peacefully floated downward to the ground. In other words, our launch was a complete disaster.

=**Robotics History**=

It all started in 350 B.C. in, you guessed, where everything cool comes from, Greece. A mathematician named Archytas of Tomentum created a small metal bird called "The Pigeon" (oh, creativity) that is propelled by steam. But sadly it wasn't until 1495, when our friend Leonardo Da Vinci created a device that looks like an armored knight that is designed to make movements as if a real person were inside of it. But sadly again, his work wasn't followed up for another 250 years or so until 1738 when a man in Grenoble, France Jacques de Vaucanson invented the Automaton, which are human-like figures that can do certain human abilities. He created three, one could play the flute, one could play the flute, drum, or tambourine, and his most famous could make human-sounds and animals sounds. Another man in France created Automaton about 30 year later, again making three, one that could write, one that play music, and another that drew pictures. The next big improved came over a hundred years later in 1898, when Nickola Tesla built a remote controlled boat and demonstrated it at Madison Square Garden. But the word robot never came around 1921 when a Czech writer named Karel Capek wrote the play R.U.R. (Rassum's Universal Robots). 30 years later the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still premiered in theaters, the movie an alien and his robot. And 8 years later MIT was founded by John McCarthy and Marvin Minsky. In 1977 Star Wars was released by George Lucas which included many different forms of robots. In 2000 LEGO released LEGO Mindstorms. In 2004 both Mars rovers from NASA Spirit and Opportunity safely land on the red planet.



=Programming Robots=

media type="file" key="sem_driveinsquare.AVI" width="300" height="300" For the robot to move forward in a LEGO Mind-storms robot both motors on the robot have to be spinning forward. For the robot to move backwards, both motors on the robot have to be spinning backwards. For the robot to do a point turn, only on of motors can spin. For the robot to do a curve turn to the left, the left motor must spin slower than the right motor. For the robot to do a curve turn to the right, the right motor must spin slower than the left motor. These are the five basic movement that a LEGO Mind-storms robot can do.

=Geology on Mars=

There are many different ways for a geologist to identify different minerals. They can observe the physical properties such as the color, the hardness, and the luster. They can also observe some chemical properties by doing a streak test, an acid test, or even testing for magnetism. All of the things are methods that geologist can use to identify different minerals.



The rover Curiosity will, when landed, be able to do some geology on Mars. One way the rover will be able to do geology on Mars is with a drill. The rover will release a drill into the ground and powder, from the rock, should emerge. The rover will then collect the powder and analyze it. Curiosity is about the size of a car, so it has many high-tech tools including, oh yeah, a laser. Curiosity will shoot this laser at rocks on a canyon wall or rocks that it can't get to and from the light reflection, be able to have a good sense of the chemical composition. These are just some of the things Curiosity will be able on Mars, while doing Geology.



=Life=

There are 8 things that a living thing must do sometime in it's lifetime to be considered alive. They must be made of cells, they must need materials, they must be homeostatic, they must be able to respond to stimuli, they must be able to reproduce, they must be able to grow, they're adapted to their way of life, they be able to perform the process of respiration. Now let's break this down. To be made of cells means that you must have all of fundamentals of living. To need materials, means that the living thing must need things like water, food, and air to breathe. To be homeostatic means that you must internally stay the same despite environmental changes. To be able to respond to stimuli means that you must be subject to respond to positive stimulus, where you move towards the stimulus, and negative stimulus, where you move away from the stimulus. To be able to reproduce means that you must be able to reproduce offspring of your own species. To be able to grow means that you must be able to develop from a lower, simpler form to a higher, more complex form. To be adapted to your way of life means that you must be modified to make yourself suited to your way of life. And finally, to be able to perform the process of respiration means that you must be able to release energy stored in chemical bonds of sugars (food).

Also there is a possibility for life on Mars, and we may already have the proof. In 1976 NASA sent two probes, Viking 1 and Viking 2 to search for life. The probes were sent with three experiments, one of them was called the Labeled Release or LR apparatus. The LR experiment worked by scooping up a bit of Martian soil and mixing it with a drop of water that contained nutrients and radioactive carbon atoms. Many biologists were thrilled at the time, because the experiment tested positive. This is one way that we can test for life on Mars and other planets.