Bryce+P

=The Search For Life on Mars= By //Bryce P//

==== This entry will summarize the three videos: From Big Bang to Galaxies, The Milky Way Galaxy, and The History of the Solar System. I will describe what happened seconds after the Big Bang and how that led to galaxies, the structure and nature of our own galaxy, and how our solar system came to be. ====

// From the Big Bang to Galaxies //

At the Big Bang, the only particles were as small as quarks, and the temperature was too high for them to become anything else. It cooled slightly, allowing the formation of protons, neutrons, and electrons. The protons and neutrons tried to bond together, but they broke up because it was too hot. When the temperature cooled a little but more, they joined together and formed nuclei. It was still to hot to bond with electrons, and they formed a haze throughout the universe. When it was cool enough, they bonded with the protons and neutrons and created atoms of hydrogen and helium. These congregated around black matter that was making gravity stronger in some areas than others. They bonded together to eventually form stars that were in orbit around the center, which continued to grow bigger and bigger until the gravity was strong enough to hold the stars in orbit.

//The Milky Way Galaxy//

The galaxy is made up of a corona of black matter that is pulling on the stars, a halo of rouge stars that are not part of the disc of stars in the galaxy, but are still orbiting it. Then there is a disc made up of stars that orbits around the center of the galaxy and clumps up into bands that make up the arms of the galaxy that we recognize. In the middle of the disc, there is a ring of dust that will form new stars. In the center of the galaxy, there are old stars that are being pulled into the black hole that is at the very center, holding the whole thing together. The stars of the galaxy all rotate on their own orbit at their own speed. There are some places in which the stars tend to group up, called the arms of the galaxy, but other than that, the stars do not orbit as a group. The stars and matter in the galaxy do not rotate in perfect circles either, because of the dark matter that is surrounding the galaxy pulling on the inside.

//The Solar System//

The solar system was formed by rocks and dust collecting and grouping into larger rocks that fell into orbit around the sun. The biggest of these, the gas giants, had strong enough gravity to pull gas into orbit around them. The other rocks eventually formed the rocky planets, but much more slowly. Anything that didn't become a planet either became a moon of a planet, or settled into the asteroid belt. The comets that we see from time to time are from objects that are in the outer asteroid belt being drawn close to the sun, melting off their ice and other objects, forming their tails. The rings of some of the larger planets were formed by these comets being brought too close to a gas giant, and being ripped apart by the gravity. The debris eventually settled into rings.


 * Wiki Entry 2 **

//Rocket History//

The rocket was invented by the Chinese trying to make explosives at festivals. Sometimes they skittered along the ground on the power of the escaping gas. The idea was translated into powering arrows from bows. Eventually, they discovered that the arrows could propel themselves through the air on their own. Goddard then was convinced that liquid fuel would work better. He achieved his first flight in 1926. Eventually, the rockets were big enough and high enough that they needed a parachute to recover them.

The invention of space agencies eventually produced even better rockets like the V-2. This was used to blow up entire city blocks during WWII. When Germany fell, the V-2s were captured. The concept was developed in the US and the intercontinental ballistic missile was born. Eventually, these were turned into the rockets that brought people and animals into space.


 * Rocket Stages**

media type="custom" key="13889732"


 * History of the Exploration of Mars**

The exploration of Mars began when the Soviet union sent two probes in the direction of Mars, but both were unable to escape Earth's gravity and fell back to earth. There were follow up missions as well, but they all failed as well. Eventually the Soviet Union sent a probe outside the Earth's gravity and received 61 transmissions back, but the antennae failed before the probe reached Mars. The Soviets tried a few more programs to make an attempt to beat the United States to Mars, all resulting in failures.

The United State's first attempt at reaching Mars was the probe Mariner 3. It failed to reach Mars. Four weeks later, Mariner 4 was launched and was the first successful flyby of Mars. It provided the first close up pictures of Mars ever produced. The United States flew by Mars again with the Probes Mariner 6 and 7. The first orbit of Mars was achieved by the United States with Mariner 9 after the launch failure of Mariner 8, the twin mission. When the probe arrived at Mars, there was a planet wide dust storm obstructing the view of the planet. During the storm, the probe completed a rendezvous with a Soviet orbiter and photographed it. After the storm, Mariner 9 returned the highest quality pictures of Mars yet.

Around the same time, the Soviet Union began a program called the Mars Probe Program. The program sent seven probes to Mars, with Mars 2 and 3 providing the first landing on Mars. The probes malfunctioned and the landers sent back no useful scientific data. Mars 5 was the most successful probe of the campaign sending back 60 images of the surface of Mars before a transmitter de-pressurized and failed, which ended the mission. All of the probes from the program successfully sent back data with the exception of the last one, Mars 7 which had an onboard rocket failure and missed the planet by 1300km.

The Viking probes sent in 1975 were both successful and revealed compelling evidence that there was once water on Mars and perhaps even rain. In 1997, Mars pathfinder landed the first moving rover along with a base station on the surface of mars and explored some land.

The Mars global surveyor was launched one year earlier and was the first completely successful mission to Mars, and sent back even more data than all other previous missions combined. It provided evidence that suggests that in certain conditions on Mars that liquid water can surface and erode part of the surface, before evaporating or freezing. The probe also surveyed the ground, and gave back evidence that the ground is a powdery sand that was generated by asteroid impacts on the surface. Eventually the probe lost contact with Earth, and it could not be restored.

The Odyssey and express missions were sent to Mars to determine if there was active volcanoes or water at the South Pole of Mars. The instruments on the craft did provide evidence of water at the South Pole and NASA had already confirmed water at the North Pole. The lander reached the surface but could not communicate with Earth and was declared lost.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter was sent to Mars to monitor the weather more closely for the landing of new probes and to experiment with new antennae that can send signals back to Earth in a much shorter amount of time than has been possible before.

Manned missions to Mars have been proposed, but there is still debate about whether or not it would be a good idea. The current probes are not consistently getting to Mars, making it very risky, and there is a chance that any existing life on Mars could be contaminated by bringing microbes from Earth to the planet.


 * Mars Rover**




 * Rocket Parts**



Nose cone: Guides airflow around the rocket to reduce drag.

Body Tube: Main structural part of the rocket, usually a strong paper tube for model rockets.

Recovery System: Device for getting the rocket back safely for repeated use.

Recovery Wadding: Protects recovery system from ejection charge gases.

Launch Lug: Guides rocket straight off the launch pad.

Fins: Keeps the rocket travelling straight.

Engine Mount: Keeps the rocket motor in place.

Rocket Motor: A safe non- reusable fuel source for propelling the rocket upward. A new motor is need for each flight.

//Rocket Launch Data//

The whole group made the rocket the same way, making all the rockets identical. Then, the entire group painted their rockets all differently, making the masses and aero different. Then, all the rockets were launched and the altitude measured with angle guns. The data was then plotted and analyzed to determine if the mass if the rocket has a relationship with the max altitude it can achieve.

This was the data table:

Our rocket was painted in a splatter style, which probably decreased its aero. The rocket did fly straight, at only a slight curve. The rocket made it to a maximum altitude of about 54 metres high. Some of the other rockets had better aero than ours, but surprisingly, ours had one the highest apogees out of the whole group.

//Rocket Fin Experiment//

The experiment was designed to see if the amount of fins on a rocket affected its maximum altitude. Everyone’s painted rocket received differently modified fins and was launched from the same pad. The angles were measured from 100 yards away and the tangent was measured so that the altitude could be determined.

Our rocket was not very successful and it was very unstable. The small fins that were meant to provide aerodynamics to the rocket ruined the stability and the rocket flew straight for a little while before spinning out of control and popping the nosecone a few meters off the ground.





// Robot History //

The history of robots began a long time ago as concepts in the myths of China and Greece. They were told to be creations of the gods, like tables that could move themselves, tools that could do their own work, and automatons, robots that look and act like people, but aren’t. Robots were never really successfully created until around the 1700s when people were able to create robots that could fly. Robots continued to prove unhelpful to workforces until the industrial revolution, which resulted in the creation of factories and robotic factory assistance. This still exists today, mainly in car factories, and the most modern robots are being sent to help explore space, as is our goal in Cary Academy Science.





media type="file" key="100_0125.AVI" width="300" height="300"

// Motors In Robots //

The robot's motors are what makes the robot run. They turn the wheels so that the robot can drive around. There are three motors on our robot. Two are for the wheels, the most important part, and there is one to run auxiliary functions. With the addition of these motors the robot can do all of the things that we require it to do. It can complete challenges, and preform tasks. To make the robot move forward, the motors at the wheels should move at the same speed. To make the robot do a curve turn, one motor moves faster than the other so the robot still goes forward, but at an angle. To do a point turn, one motor is moving while the other is not. This makes to robot rotate without going forward. Some of the challenges of using motors with a robot is that you have to program them just right. Without the right amount of knowledge, it is almost impossible to get a robot to do what you want it to.

//Geology//

On Earth:

On earth, geologists observe minerals and rocks in many ways. For example, to determine whether something is a rock or a mineral, the geologist could choose from a variety of methods. They could judge by color, texture, and shape. To narrow it down, there are a variety of methods to choose from. One of these methods is the acid test. If the object that the acid is on produces bubbles, the object is a carbonate compound. Another test is the magnetism test. If the object reacts to a magnet, it narrows it down to a much lower amount of choices. These tactics are very useful, but when you send a robot to do the job on another planet, it’s a whole different ball game.

On Mars

The MSL will be landing on Mars soon. The mission is for it to determine if there was once life on Mars. The robot is brining along many geological tools to help it identify what rocks there are on Mars. If there are certain types of rocks there, it means that there was once life. The robot will be able to use a drill to sample soil from the rocks there. It will also be able to fire a laser at rocks it can't reach, then sample the light reflection to determine what the rock is. The robot will be very useful in Mars research.

Pictures:





// What is Life: //

There are eight characteristics of life. To be qualified as life, it must, at some point in its lifetime, be made of cells, actively seek resources from the environment, be homeostatic, respond to stimuli, be able to reproduce, grow, adapt to their environment and respire. Basically, what this means is this: they have to have the basic building blocks of life: cells, and these cells require energy to work properly, which all living organisms must try to obtain things to turn into energy, which is respiration. They must also try to remain the same on the inside, which can expend much of their energy reserves. They must be able to change their habits and features when the environment changes, which is adaptation, and they have to be able to keep their species from going extinct through reproduction. They must be able to grow, which means that they begin smaller and less developed than they die as.