Katherine+L

= __**The Search for Life on Mars**__ = By: //Katherine L//

** From the Big Bang to Galaxies **
Fifteen billions years ago, our universe began when it exploded out of nothing. In the beginning, the universe was very hot and packed into a space smaller than an atomic nucleus. Then it started expanded quickly and soon there were energy, quarks and antiquarks. As the universe continued to expand, protons and neutrons were formed when they collide into each other. Soon the temperature started to drop and electrons, positrons, and muons are formed. Atoms were created when electrons orbit around nucleus.

The formation of galaxy begins about two billion years after the big bang. The action of gravity causes clumps where there is slight unevenness in the distribution of matter. The action of gravity causes these clumps to grow. Our galaxy started when the universe was about three billion years old. It started as a huge sphere of gas. Stars formed in globular clusters scattered through the sphere. The rest of the gas settled in a disk around the central bulge and spiral arms developed. This is how our galaxy formed.

** The Milky Way Galaxy **
The milky way is a patchy band of faint light which comes from a huge number of individual stars and dark patches are clouds of opaque dust. In our galaxy, there is a flat disk of stars and a thinner layer of gas and dust which cuts across the middle of the disk. Then at the center, there is a large flattened bulge. The sun is in the disk, about half way out from the galactic center and on the other side of the galactic center there is a dwarf galaxy.

Our whole galaxy is turning, but each star and gas cloud is in it's own orbit. There is a huge invisible koruna containing 10 times more material than we see in the form of stars, gas and dust.

** History of the Solar System **
In the outer solar system, 4 large masses were formed by planetoids colliding together(but not so fast that they would break). These 4 were the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The moon was created when there was a collision between the newly formed earth and another planet. When icy planetesimals from the outer solar system reach the warm facility of the sun, they become comets. The rings around the giant planets are created by stray planetesimals and comets being torn apart by gravity when they get too close.

= __**The History of Rockets**__ = //By: Katherine L//

Around 100 B.C, Hero of Alexandria, a Greek inventor made a simple machine called the Hero Engine that was the first form of a rocket. The machine had a rotating sphere on top of a water kettle. The fire below the water kettle caused the water to turn into steam, which traveled up into the sphere through pipes. There were two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere where the gas escaped. When the gas escapes, it gave a thrust causing the sphere to rotate.

One of the earliest forms of rockets came from China in the first century A.D. It started from a simple form of gunpowder which was made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust. This was put into bamboo tubes with a mixture and tossed fires for religious festivals to make explosions. Some of these tubes did not explode, but instead propelled by gases and sparks skittered out of the fires. Soon they were experimenting with these bamboo tubes and attached them to arrows and launched them with bows. The real rocket was born when they found out that these tubes could launch themselves by the power created by the escaping gas. The rockets were first used in 1232 at the battle of Kai-Keng between the Mongols and the Chinese. It is unclear whether the rockets destroyed anything, but these fire arrows were great at terrifying their enemy. Rockets were spread to Europe after the battle of Kai-Keng and were experimented by different European scientists.



In 1898, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, a Russian schoolteacher proposed the idea of using rockets for space exploration. He was called, "The Father of Modern Astronautics" for his ideas, careful research, and great vision. Robert H. Goddard, an American in the early 20th century thought that rockets propelled better with liquid fuel. In March 16, 1926, he flew his liquid-propellant rocket which flew for two and a half seconds, but climbed 12.5 meters and landed 56 meters away. Goddard make a gyroscope system for flight control, a payload compartment for scientific instruments and a parachute recovery system. For his achievements, he was called," The Father of Modern Rocketry".

In World War II, a rocket was created by Germany to use against London. After that, United States and the Soviet Union realized how rockets could be used as a weapon and began a lot of experimental programs. Missiles were developed and were the starting point of the U.S. space program. On October 4, 1957 the Soviet Union launched an Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. A month later, they launched another satellite carrying a dog into space. The United States had a satellite of their own a few months later after the first satellite. National Aeronautics and Space Administration(NASA) was United State's space program that became a civilian agency with the goal of peaceful exploration of space.

Soon, people and machines were launched into space, astronauts orbited the Earth and landed on the moon. Satellites helped scientists investigate our world, forecast weather and helped communication become quicker. From the Hero Engine in 100 B.C. to the modern rockets that can travel through space, rockets have really improved.

= __**Rocket Stages**__ = //By: Katherine L//

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= __**Exploring Mars**__ = //By: Katherine Lin//

Over the last 40 years there have been numerous space missions with the goal of exploring Mars. Three of these missions include the Odyssey, Spirit, and Opportunity which were launched from NASA. In the past, humans can only explore mars with their naked eye, and telescopes. Now, rockets make exploration of Mars easier, and a lot more accurate.

In 2001, an orbiter called the Odyssey was developed and launched by NASA. It's purpose was to find out if life had ever existed on Mars by hunting for evidence of past or present water and volcanic activity on Mars. The Odyssey acted like a relay by transmitting data from rovers, landers and Earth. This mission was a huge success and broke the record for longest surviving spacecraft at Mars.

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Spirit and Opportunity, two rovers, launched from NASA in 2003. Their purposes was to study the surface and geology of Mars. Both rovers landed successfully, but Spirit got stuck in soft soil and stopped communicating with Earth. Opportunity is still working and sends us information about Mars. These two rovers really help us know more about the surface and geology of Mars.

Now, Curiosity, a spacecraft is on its way to Mars and is to arrive in late 2012. We have been exploring Mars for hundreds of years, and we would continue doing so.

= __**Rocket Parts**__ = //By: Katherine L.//

= __**Rocket Experiment**__ = //By: Katherine L.//

This rocket experiment was to find out if the mass of the rocket affected the maximum altitude. Everybody used the same kit to make the rocket, but we painted the rocket differently so that the weight would be different. On the day that we launched the rocket, we used a trundle wheel to measure the distance away from the rocket and used an angle gun to measure the angle of the rocket when it hit apogee. The results were pretty successful, but according the averages, the masses that were more in the middle flew the highest.



My rocket launched pretty successfully in this experiment. First it blasted off and when it hit apogee, the started tipping off to one side. Then when the parachute came of at ejection, the string broke off so the rocket came down without a parachute. The nosecone came down with the parachute. We lost a fin in this experiment.

= __**Rocket Fin Experiment**__ = //By: Katherine L.//

The purpose of our experiment is to find out if the amount of fins and the mass of the rocket would affect rocket's flight. In the first graph below, it shows if the number of fins on the rocket affect the maximum altitude of the rocket. This graph has no relationship because every point is scattered and different. In the second graph below it shows if the mass of the rocket affect the maximum altitude of the rocket. This graph has an inverse relationship and shows that the heavier the rocket, the lower it would fly.



For my rocket, it started out flying in a straight line going up. The rocket went pretty high and flew up to 48.8 meters. Then at the apogee, it started leaning one way and attempted to eject the parachute. The parachute failed to come out so my rocket was a dart and crashed into the ground. When I got the rocket back, the parachute was half out of the rocket and the body tube was twisted and broken since it crashed into the ground. This flight was pretty successful except at the end when our rocket crashed.

= __**History of Robots**__ = //By: Katherine L.//

Robots have been used around the world as helpers, or entertainment. Robots have been around for a long time dating back to 350 B.C. The first form of robots was a mechanical bird built by a Greek mathematician, Archytas in 350 B.C. The creation was called "the Pigeon" and was propelled by steam. This serves as one of the earliest studies of flight and maybe the first model airplane. In 1738, Jacques de Vaucanson built three automata in Grenoble, France. His first automaton was a flute player that could play twelve songs, his second automaton could play a flute, a drum, or a tambourine, but his third automaton was best of all. The duck was an example of his attempt to create a "moving anatomy". This duck could move, quack, flap its wings, ate and even digested food. In 1992, Marc Thorpe has the idea to start a robot combat event when he attempted to build a ratio controlled vacuum cleaner. In 1994, he started the Robot Wars at Fort Mason center in San Francisco, California. Robot wars was an event where competitors could build their own robot to compete with other robots.



The idea of robots being used for space exploration started in the late 1900's. In 1997, the pathfinder mission landed on mars and the robotic rover inside rolled onto Martian soil in early July. In 2003, two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity were built to explore mars. They were both landed successfully and Opportunity is still working and sending us information today.



= __Programming Robots__ = //By: Katherine L.//

Motors are very important in robots because they make the robot move in different ways. It can make a robot go forward, reverse, make a curve turn, or make a point turn. To go forward and backward, both motors work together and rotate at the same speed to move. To make a curve turn going left or right, both motors have to turn the same way, except one has to turn more than the other. To make a point turn going left or right, one motor turns while the other stays put. This is how motors help move a robot to move in different ways.

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= Geology on Mars = // By: Katherine L. //

There are many ways a mineral can be identified. A mineral can be identified by luster, hardness, streak, magnetism, light refraction, taste, and acid. A geologist on Earth would identify a mineral by looking at the mineral's color and luster. Other ways a geologist on Earth would identify a mineral includes by testing the hardness by scratching two minerals, scratching the mineral across a white surface and looking at its streak, testing if it is magnetic by using a magnet, testing its light refraction, tasting it, and testing what happens when acid is poured on it. This is how geologists on earth identifies minerals.



Curiosity copies what the geologists on Earth do. Geologists on Earth looks at a map, drive there, and then hike to a hard to reach spot. When Curiosity reaches a rock, it would drill a hole into that rock and take the powder that comes out of that. Then it would go into the instruments that would analyze the powder and then give us the information. While geologists on Earth carries simple things like hand glasses and rock hammers, Curiosity carries a whole laboratory with it. Curiosity even has a laser and shoots it at places where it can't reach and look at the light that is reflected to get a sense of the chemical composition in the rock. This is how Curiosity will perform geological experiments on Mars.



=** Characteristics of Living Things and Life on other Planets **= By: Katherine L.

There are eight characteristics that things have to have in order to be living. The first characteristic is that you need to be made of cells. The second characteristic is that you need materials and take what you need from the environment. Then, you need to be homeostatic which means you stay about the same despite changes in the environment. Next, you have to respond to stimuli either positively or negatively. Also, you have to reproduce and grow to be a living thing. A living thing has to become adapted and used to wear it lives and its surroundings. Lastly, all living things have to respire. These are the eight characteristics that living things have to have.

There are many ways of how life can be detected on other planets, and Mars. For example, Curiosity, the robot can find out if there is life on mars by drilling a rock and using its powder to determine if there was life on Mars. This can be determined by using the many instruments that Curiosity has to test the powder and confirm if there was life on Mars. Another way life can be detected on Mars is that Curiosity can shoot a laser at places and look at the light that reflects off it to get a sense of the chemical composition in the rock. These are some ways life can be detected on Mars, another planet.