Jack+M

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After the big bang, there was not instantly matter. The universe was too hot for any matter to be created. Hundreds of thousands of years later, it had cooled off enough for protons and neutrons to be created, and then come together with electrons to create hydrogen and helium, which are the most abundant forms of matter in the universe because they only require one proton, one neutron, and one electron for Hydrogen, and two of each for Helium. Galaxies were created when gravity pulled matter from space together, and stars started forming, then stars were pulled in by the gravity from the center of a galaxy and began to orbit it. There are three classifications of galaxies: Irregular, spherical , and elliptical. ======

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The Milky Way galaxy has four separate arms coming off the center, which bulges out. It is a flat disk, containing many stars , and a large cluster of stars at the center bulge. At the center bulge of the galaxy, there is a large black hole. The galaxy rotates, but the arms are not rotating with it. The arms rotate freely. The sun, which is in the Milky Way galaxy, is estimated to take 250,000,000 years to go around the galaxy once.======

The History of our Solar System

The planets were not created during the big bang. When the sun formed, it had a large disk of matter surrounding it, rotating, being held in by its gravitational pull. Small pieces of matter, called planetesimals, collided to make larger pieces of matter , usually rock or metal , but some collided and were destroyed. This happened until there were very large pieces of matter, still called planetesimals rotated around the sun, colliding and getting bigger, or colliding at high speeds and being destroyed. This kept happening until there were big planets far from the sun, but very large planets could not form near the sun as it was too hot and they were moving too fast. After all the planets were created, there were still some planetesimals in space, and some of them collided with a planet , and created moons , or some of them broke up when near planets, due to their gravitational pull , and began to rotate as disks, or settled in the asteroid belt , a ring of planetesimals orbiting the sun between Mars and Jupiter. When an icy planetesimal from outside or inside our solar system gets too close to the sun, it becomes what we know as a comet.

=The History of Rockets= By Jack M

The History of Rockets - Hero Engine

Back around 100 BC, a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria created the first machine to use the concept of rockets. His engine boiled water to create thrust from the steam. His engine was called the aeolipile. The steam was forced out from two L shaped tubes facing different directions, making the sphere spin. Although it was not a true rocket, it was the first device to utilized the concept of a rocket with its L shaped tubes.



The History of Rockets - Chinese Fire Arrows

The first time devices closest to rockets were seen was around 100 A.D, around the time the Chinese created a simple form of gunpowder with saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal. They started experimenting with gunpowder filled tubes, and eventually started mounting gunpowder filled bamboo shoots to their arrows. When the gunpowder was lit, smoke and sparks were forced out of the closed tube, and because of Newton's 3rd Law, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction", the arrow/rocket moved forward.



= Rocket Stages = media type="custom" key="15474280"

= Exploration of Mars =

For years scientists have been sending rovers and orbiters to Mars, to collect samples and search for life. They had been sending orbiters and rovers from around the 1970's, but the first rover to successfully land and operate was Sojourner in 1997. Mariner 9 was the first successful spacecraft to orbit Mars, and mapped a large portion of Mars at a high resolution. Although life has not __yet__ been discovered on Mars, scientists have found water ice, and some evidence that Mars was warm at wet at a time , which meets the requirements for life to form, but it is not known if it was warm for a long enough amount of time for life. Mars' atmosphere consists mostly of carbon dioxide, with Nitrogen, Argon, and very small amounts of Oxygen.


 * A non-color-enhanced picture from the Mariner 9 orbiter showing how there could have been water flowing along Mars.**

=Rocket Diagram=



=Rocket Masses and Max Altitude=

The heavier the rocket, the higher it flew. On the scatterplot, the heaviest rocket which weighed 4.5 g went 78.1 m high. There was a parabolic arc from the lighter rockets (43.1 g) to the heavier ones (48.5 g). The heaviest one was an outlier, and the measurements were probably not accurate. There was a perfect zone for height (about 46 g), and the heights were lower above and below that much. The experiment was to determine if the mass of a rocket affects the height it flies. To test this, we all made rockets the same way, but the different part was the way we painted them. Some people used a lot more paint, and some people used less. My hypothesis was correct, as the average amounts of rockets that were about 46 g went the highest, and rockets above and below that went lower. As I said above, I do not think the measurement on the rocket that went 78.1 m high is accurate, and could have had several differences from the other rockets.

Our rocket weighed 46.1 g (about the perfect amount) and flew 57.7 m high. The first time we launched it, the igniter failed and there was just some smoke. The rocket didn't move at all. The second time the igniter worked properly and the rocket flew up to its apogee, and coasted for 3 second, the the parachute deployed correctly and it recovered correctly.

=Rocket Fins and Max Altitude=





The purpose of the experiment was to see if the amount of fins changes how high the rocket flies. It seemed like there was an inverse relationship between the rocket weight and the maximum altitude, but there were some outliers. There was also an inverse relationship between the amount of fins and how high it flew, but also some outliers such as the rocket with 1.5 fins that only went 13 meters high. Our rocket with 3 fins went 72.7 meters. After the launch, our rocket flew straight upwards until it hit the coasting stage. Coasted for 3 seconds, and then the parachute deployed. Unfortunately, the parachute did not open correctly and it fell hard.

= History of Robots = Robotics have been around for a century now, and many new improvements and uses have been discovered. In 1912, John Hammond and Benjamin Miessner created the Electric Dog, and they created self directing torpedo in 1915. Then, in 1929, Makoto Nishimura created Gakutensoku, a robot that could cry and change its face.

Robots are used to preform dangerous or inaccessible tasks, such as disarming a bomb, fighting enemies, preforming surgery, doing dangerous or repetitive tasks, or exploring space. Robots used for dangerous or repetitive tasks are sometimes used to assemble things, move materials, or preform repairs. Robots used to explore space need to assemble themselves once they reach their destination and transmit any data received back to Earth.



=Programming Robots=

The way our Lego Mindstorms NXT Robot moves is with motors. The motors controlled by the NXT brick. The NXT brick sends high voltage power to the motors, causing them to spin. Through a series of gears, the motor spins a dowel, which is connected to a wheel. The speed at which the wheel moves is controlled by the amount of power it gets from the NXT brick. Our robot has 2 powered wheels, one on each side. It can go forward (both wheels spinning in same direction), backwards (both wheels spinning in same direction), make a curve turn (on wheel spinning slower than the other), or a point turn (both wheels spinning in opposite directions). The main challenges with using a motor in a robot is controlling how long the motor is applying force to the dowels, which moves the robot.

=Geology on Mars=

There are several ways geologists identify minerals. They are luster, cleavage, feel, look, magnetism, acid test, streak test, and how light shines through them. Luster is how light is reflected from the mineral. Cleavage is how the rock breaks, along smooth planes or not. Geologists can sometimes feel the rock to see if it is rough or smooth. Not all minerals are magnetic. Geologists sometimes check minerals to see if they are attracted by the magnet. Another method that geologists use is an acid test. They put some kind of acid on a mineral, and if it reacts, then it is a carbonate compound. Not all minerals leave the same streak. If two minerals look alike, one can leave a black stripe while the other leaves a burgundy red stripe, which will make them easy to identify. Geologists can identify calcite by how text looks through it. Calcite is, if not the only, one of the few minerals that people have double vision while seeing through.

Curiosity will have several methods of identifying minerals. First, it has a small drill that will grind some minerals to dust, and then they will be pulled into the rover and analyzed. It will also shine a strong laser at minerals that it can not reach, and then they can identify the mineral by the way the laser reflects back.



=Life=

In order for something to be considered living, it must have all of these eight characteristics. First, they must be made of cells. Cells are the fundamental "building block" for life, can be organized into tissues, organs, organ systems, and organisms. There are several different types of cells: animal cells, plant cells, and bacteria cells. Next, it must need materials, and take what they need from the environment. For example, humans need calcium for bones, and plants need light and carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, a process used to create sugar. Next, it must be homeostatic. This means that it will, or try to be, the same, internally, at all times. For example, humans try to maintain the same body temperature at all times, even though were not thinking about it. They will also try to fix damage done to the body, to keep it the same as it was before the damage. Next, they must respond to stimuli. There are many different types of stimuli, and living this will respond to them in different ways. There are two types of stimuli; positive and negative. Positive stimuli cause the living things to move towards the source, and negative stimuli cause it to move away from the source. Plants also have stimuli, such as moving towards a light source, and some plants even move when they are touched. Next, they must be able to reproduce. There are two types of reproduction; asexual and sexual. Asexual reproduction is when small organisms or bacteria divide, and create more copies of themselves. Sexual reproduction requires two organisms, and is usually how more complex organisms reproduce. All living things must grow over their lifetime. A human goes from Embryo -> Newborn -> Child -> Adolescent -> Adult. There are several factors that can affect how the organism grows, those being moisture and temperature. Living things must be able to adapt. For example, birds have hollow bones so they can be lightweight and fly, and fish gained fins so they can swim. Living things can evolve to adapt to a change in environment or a new environment. And finally, all living things must be able to respire, which means break materials down into energy. There are two classes of respiration: consumers and producers. Producers produce the food for themselves, such as plants using photosynthesis. Consumers must take in food from an outside source, and will die if they don't get it.



If there is life on other planets, scientists are trying to find it in many ways. The main way of doing it is sending a probe into Mars, which will collect data and transmit them back to Earth. The first probes sent out were built to orbit Mars and send back pictures of the surface. Scientists could see from these that there may have been water flowing on Mars at a time, and made the scientists more hopeful. More recent probes have been able to land on Mars, drive around, and collect data. Currently, there is a probe headed for Mars called Curiosity. It has multiple ways detecting life, including finding minerals that could have been a product of life or that only could have formed in an environment where life can form.