Lily+L

=The Search for Life on Mars= From Big Bang to Galaxies About 15 billion years ago, the universe exploded out of nothing. It is said that the universe was started in about 3 minutes, although it still continues to grow and drop in temperature. This explosion is known as the big bag. After the big bang, particles were created. Before the universe was even a tenth of a second old, protons and neutrons started to form. The universe is dominated by radiant energy and lighter particles, such as electrons. After about 2 billion years later, galaxies were created. Galaxies are classified into three different types: elliptical, spiral, and irregular.

The Milky Way Galaxy
The Milky Way galaxy is home to our solar system, and many others. If you were to look at the galaxy from the side, you would see a flat disk of stars about 100,000 light years across on either side of a center bulge. There is a thin layer of gas and dust that also lies across the disk. Stars lie in a spherical halo across the disk and further out from it. The sun lies in the disk. Inside the bulge, the stars are a lot older and more compact than the stars in the disk. At the center of the bulge lies the nucleus. It is thought to be a black hole. If you were to look at the Milky Way from a bird’s eye view, you would see 4 spiral arms coming out of the bulge. Therefore, the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. Our whole galaxy rotates; each star and gas star has its own orbit though. From this rotation, we can tell there is a huge corona surrounding us. But beyond that is a mystery.

Lives of the Stars
The lives of stars are a very interesting and fascinating cycle. Stars form in cold dark clouds of gas and dust. Disturbances in the gas cause clumps or cores to form. Each core contracts from gravity and at the same time rotates. Near the center of the core the collapse accelerates and then the core gets so hot that nuclear reactions take place. The star spins faster as it shrinks, and the surrounding ball of gas flattens into a disk and gas starts to stream out from the poles. The wind of the gas gets rid of the surrounding cocoon. Thus, the star is created and has a certain life cycle depending on its mass. Stars are classified by their mass on the stellar mass scale. Everything about a star is fixed by its mass (color, size). Bigger stars form and change much faster than smaller ones do.

The Sun
Many people think that the star is different from other stars; but it is not. It is just nearer to us. The star’s mass is 76% hydrogen and most of the rest is helium. Hydrogen nuclei and single protons crash hard together. This leads to a buildup of helium nuclei. Every second 4 million tons of hydrogen vanish to become the sun’s energy. The energy radiates outward from the core. The sun’s surface is sees with hot gas bubbling up to create a model pattern called granulation. Particles from solar flares and prominences can sometimes shoot out into the rest of the solar system, but Earth’s magnetic field funnels them downward. The sun spins once a month, but its rate it spins at varies.

History of the Solar System
Everything in our solar system started with the sun. The giant planets, (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) formed form planetesimals in the sun’s outer disks. They then grew disks on their own, and moons then condensed. The gravitational pull of these planets was great enough to hold on the surrounding nebula. Then, the terrestrial planets formed (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars). Inside these planets radioactivity caused heat, which caused metal in molten metal to sink to the center while the lighter rock went to the surface. That then cooled and solidified. Our moon was created from a catastrophic collision between new Earth and another planet, probably the size of Mars. Most planetesimals had been destroyed, or either went to the remote outer area of the solar system or to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Others became moons.

=Mysteries of the Hubble Telescope=

From the Hubble telescope we have learned a lot more about our universe. It has sent us many pictures, with a lot of things we don't know. Some questions that the astronomers had in the orientation part of HAL include: how many objects are there in the HDF, how can objects be classified and identified, and how far away are the objects. My questions were fairly similar to them, both of them being non-specific and very general. Astronomers estimate that there are 3,000 objects in the image. Three objects were classified as a star, a spiral galaxy, and an elliptical galaxy. To estimate the distances in space, astronomers look at the size of the object, and how much light it emits. They can not just use size because an object can be close but can still appear to be small. From the light emitted, they can also see what color can shape the object is. For galaxies, the shape indicates what kind of galaxy it is; either elliptical, spiral, or irregular. The color of a galaxy indicates how old it is, and how old the stars are in it. Galaxies with older stars appear red, and galaxies with younger stars appear blue. Dust can also make a galaxy look red. Astronomers use a process called representative sampling to estimate the amount of galaxies in our universe. They divide the sky into equal sections, and then they take one section and count the amount of galaxies in it. Then they multiply that amount by the number of sections in the sky. Like I said, we have learned a lot more about our universe than we used from the Hubble telescope.



=Rocket History=

The basic idea for rockets dates way back to ancient Greece, around 100 B.C. A Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria invented an aeolipile, in which steam was used as a propulsive gas. There was a sphere on top of the water kettle, and a fire under a kettle turned the water into steam. The gas traveled through pipes to the sphere, and two L-shaped tubes on opposite sides of the sphere, letting the gas come out. This then gave a thrust to the sphere which caused it to rotate. It is unclear of when the first rockets were made, but in the first century A.D. the Chinese were said to make a simple form of gunpowder made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust. During religious festivals, they put the gunpowder in bamboo tubes filled with a mixture and put them in fires. Some of these tubes didn’t explode, but came out of the fire from the gases and sparks that propelled them. This is believed to be when the rocket was born. Although they could not really direct where the rockets went, so they put them on a stick to make them more accurate.

Later on, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of using rockets for space exploration in 1983. In a report he published, he said that liquid propellants could be used to achieve greater range. He also said that the speed and range of a rocket were limited only by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. Tsiolkovsky has been called the father of astronautics because of his ideas, research, and vision. In the 20 th century, Robert H. Goddard achieved the first successful flight with a liquid-propellant rocket. The rocket flew for two and a half seconds, and flew up 12.5 meters. Although it does not seem that impressive, it sparked a whole new era in rocketry. Many new small rocket societies sprang up all over the world. The German society, Verein fur Raumschiffahrt, came up with a new rocket called the V-2. It was used against London in World War Two. When it was launched, it could destroy whole city blocks. At the end of World War Two, the U.S. and the Soviet Union realized what rockets in the military could really do. From this the U.S. space program was started, which made rockets that eventually launched some astronauts into space. During October, 1957, the Soviet Union launched the first Earth-orbiting satellite called Sputnik I. This somewhat sparked the space race between the two superpowers of the world. A few months after, the U.S. launched their own orbiter called Explorer I. In October that year, the U.S. formed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which became a civilian agency that wanted peaceful exploration of space for all humankind.



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=Model Rocket Labeled Parts=



Nose cone - streamlined so air can glide across the rocket with minimal drag Body Tube - main structural part; usually a strong paper tube Recovery System - device for getting the rocket back safely and intact for repeat use Recovery Wadding - protects recovery system from hot ejection gas Launch Lug - Guides rocket straight off launch pad Fins - keep rocket traveling straight Motor Mount - holds rocket motor in place Rocket Motor - safe; non-reusable device; a new motor is needed for each flight

= Rocket Launching Experiences =

The purpose of the experiment was to see if the mass of the rocket affected the altitude. We all built the rocket from a kit, but then painted them so the mass ended up being different. To perform the experiment, we took a trundle wheel and measured 100 meters away from the launch area. The Trundle wheel clicks every meter. Whoever was there also had two angle guns, which were used to measure the altitude angle. From knowing the altitude angle, and by being 100 meters away, we could then calculate the maximum altitude, using trigonometry. For example, my rocket’s altitude angle was 8.5 degrees. Then you take the tangent of that, and multiply it by 100. So my rocket’s maximum altitude was 14.9. To actually launch the rocket, we attached it to a lunch pad using the launch lug. Then we attached two alligator clips to the igniter, which when ignited (by a button) set the explosives off. That is what sent the rocket up into the air. The results of the experiment showed that the mass did affect the altitude of the rocket. If you were to take out the outliers, you can see that there is a bend. Because of this bend, it is thought that this is an example of the Goldilocks “theory”. Too much mass is bad, as well as too little mass. The data shows that it you have a medium mass you are most likely going to go higher. The farthest rocket went 91.6 meters, and weighed 45.8 grams. The heaviest rocket weighed 47.3 grams, but only went 70.0 meters. The lightest rocket weighed 44.9 grams, and went 62.5 meters.

My rocket did not go up high at all. It had a mass of 47.0, and had a max altitude of 14.9. I do not think it went that far because the launch lug got a little stuck on the launch pad. It seemed normal during ignition, but when lift-off came you could see it got a little stuck since it took a long time to get off the launch pad. Red sparks and smoke began to come out of the bottom during lift-off. The rocket went fairly fast once it was off the launch pad, but slowed down quickly and went into the coasting stage. After about two seconds, it went into apogee and started to tilt over. The ejection and recovery stages went smoothly. I thought that the rocket was going to land nose cone down because of the way it was tilted, but the parachute saved that from happening. By painting the rockets, we changed their masses. The paint affected our rocket negatively, since I think that some of it got into the launch lug, which made it hard to get off of the launch pad. I think if we hadn't have done that, it would have flown much higher.

= = =Mars Rover Drop=

My group's design was very simple and safe, as you can see in the picture below. We put the vehicle between two paper cups, which had bubble wrap and paper towel inside of them. They were held together with a rubber band. We put two holes on the side of the cups, and used string to attach the cups to two balloons. To keep the balloons together, we cut open a zip-lock bag and attached it around the balloons using pipe cleaners. We designed it like this because we thought that the balloons would act as a parachute to cushion the fall of the vehicle, and the extra bubble wrap and paper inside the cups would protect the rover more. We put the zip-lock bag on top of the balloons because we thought it would help keep the vehicle more straight and on target. I think that the balloons acting as a parachute and the plastic above it worked well since the egg didn't break and it landed on the target. I think if we made the balloons more similar in size it would have worked better. That would be the only modification I would make. Overall, our drop was very successful and efficient.



=Programming Robots=

A motor in a robot helps the robot move by controlling the wheels. There are many different movements a robot can make with the help of the motor. For example, if you were to go forward, the motor would move the wheels clockwise. If you were to go backwards, the motor would move the wheels counter-clockwise, depending on where you look at it from. To make a point turn to the right, the left motor would make the wheel turn and the right wheel would stop, or go backwards. And vice-versa. For a curve turn to the right, the left wheel would move more than the right wheel, but they would still both move. And vice-versa. For turns you measure in degrees, but if you go straight or backwards you measure in rotations. These rotations are counted in the tachometer. One challenge of using a motor in a robot is that it is easily affected by its environment. For example, on carpet, the robot won't turn as much as it's supposed to since it isn't always flat.

A sensor is something attached to the robot that detects natural energy and converts it into electromagnetic energy. Robots use these sensors to interact with their environment. There are many different types of sensors. The ones we used were sound sensors, ultrasonic sensors, light sensors, and touch sensors. Sound sensors essentially let your robot hear things. This sensor takes electromagnetic energy and keeps it as electromagnetic energy. They can detect decibels and adjusted decibels. A decibel is a measurement of sound pressure. From hearing things, the robot can do a lot of things. It can move and "dance" when it hears certain things. Another sensor we used was the ultrasonic sensor, which is what gives the robot vision. It can let your robot detect and see objects, avoid obstacles, measure distances, and detect movements. Inside the sensor, there are two smaller sensors inside the holes that look like eyes. The sensor takes energy and turns it into electromagnetic energy. This can let the robot stop when something in it's way, or detect the distance between it and another object. We also used a light sensor as well, which is another sensor that gives the robot vision. This sensor takes electromagnetic energy and keeps it as electromagnetic energy. It helps your robot distinguish between light and dark. The sensor reads the light intensity in a room and the light intensity of colored surfaces. You can use this to make a line-following robot or you make the robot sort things by color. Lastly, we used a touch sensor, which gives your robot a sense of touch. Inside the sensor there is a spring, and when the spring is pushed back it hits a crystal substance, which when crushed produces electricity. A touch sensor can allow the robot to pick things up with an arm, talk, walk, open your door, etc. These sensors help a lot with robots because the sensors allow the robots to do more things than they can do regularly.





= Geology on Mars =

There are many different ways geologists identify minerals. Certain minerals have distinct colors and appearances, but alone that is not enough to identify the minerals. One way you can identify a mineral is by its color and luster. Luster is the way a mineral reflects light, and a mineral's luster can be metallic or nonmetallic. Metallic luster is like metal, and nonmetallic is dull and glassy. Additionally, a mineral's color also helps in identifying it. But even though a mineral may be a certain color, its streak can be different. Streak is the color of a mineral in powder form, and it is another way geologists use to identify minerals. To do this, you have to have a white or black porcelain tile, and you simply take the mineral and rub it against the tile. Another way geologists identify minerals is whether it cleaves or fractures. Cleavage is when a mineral breaks along a flat, smooth surface. Fracture is when a mineral breaks along a jagged, uneven surface. To test this, you just break the mineral and see what happens. Certain properties of minerals help geologist identify minerals as well. Magnetism is one of them. To test this, you just take a magnet and see if the mineral is attracted to it. You can also see if a mineral is a carbonate compound by using the acid test, which can help identify a mineral as well. To test this, you put hydrochloric acid on the mineral and if it bubbles, it is a carbonate compound. Light refraction can also differentiate minerals as well. Certain minerals, like calcite, make a double image when brought up to font. Also, taste can be used to identify minerals. Halite, for example, tastes like salt, so you can also guess what a mineral is by its taste. Lastly, you can use hardness to identify a mineral. Hardness is the measure of how easily a mineral can be scratched. Hardness is measured on the Mohs scale, 1 being the softest, and 10 being the hardest. Things like pennies, finger nails, iron nails, glass, steel files, steel plates, and other minerals are used to find how hard a certain mineral is. For example, if a mineral scratches a penny, but is scratched by an iron nail, then the mineral probably has a hardness of around 3.5, since the nail is 4 and the penny is 3. All of these methods are very useful in identifying minerals for geologists.

Curiosity can do many similar things that geologists do. It will travel to the places it wants to explore, maybe a dried up river bed, or canyon. Once it finds something it wants to "investigate", it will drive up to the substance and drill a hole in it. Then it will take the powder and put it back in the rover, where it separates and goes into two different areas. One of those areas is to see the mineralogy of the powder, and the other is to see if there are any organic molecules in the substance. In addition, the rover also has a lot of tools like a real geologist would have. It has a laser, called ken cam, that can look at rocks that it cannot get to or that are on walls. From the laser it can also see some of the chemical composition of the rock. Basically, Curiosity does everything that a normal, human geologist would do.





= Experimenting for Life on Mars =

The eight characteristics that a living thing needs are as follows: made of cells, needs materials, homeostatic, responds to stimuli, can reproduce, can grow, adapted, and respiration. Cells are the fundamental units of living things. They are made up of many different parts (organelles), and can be animal, bacteria, or plant cells. Secondly, living things need things like water, minerals, and air. They take what they need from the environment. Thirdly, homeostatic means that internally living things stay the same even if the environment around them changes. A lot of energy is given by living things to remain homeostasis. Living things also have to be able to respond to stimuli. A stimulus is anything that causes a living thing to react, and a response is the reaction to the stimulus. A living thing can have two types of reactions; positive, which moves toward the stimulus, and negative, which moves away from the stimulus. A living thing also has to be able to reproduce, which is the process by which organisms produce offspring of their own kind. Different livings things reproduce in different ways; sexual reproduction is with two parents, and asexual reproduction is with one. Living things also have to be able to grow. All things develop from a lower or simpler form to a higher or more complex form. In addition, living things have to be adapted, meaning that they make modifications that suit the organisms way of life. This is similar to evolution, which is the process by which characteristics of species change through time. Lastly, living things have to be able to perform respiration, which is releasing energy stored in the chemical bonds of sugars (food). If something does/has all of those things, then it is a living thing!

We can detect life on mars using many different methods. One method is called Labeled Release (LR) apparatus, which is when you scoop up a little bit of Martian soil and mix it with a drop of water that contains nutrients and radioactive carbon atoms. If the soil contained microbes, then life-forms would metabolize the nutrients and release radioactive carbon dioxide or methane gas, which you could then measure using the radiation detector. Another experiment used is called the gas exchange experiment, which tested whether or not dormant minute organisms in the soil would come alive with the addition of water or organic compounds. In addition, it also takes a sample of Martian soil and puts it in a nutrient mixture. Then it incubates the soil for 12 hours in a simulated martian atmosphere. Gas emitted by organisms consuming the nutrients would have been detected by the gas chromatograph. The last experiment used is the pyrolytic release experiment, which looks for life in soil by exposing a sample of Martian soil to radioactive carbon-14. This assumes that any organisms on Mars would have been able to assimilate carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. Although all three of these experiments have not been able to give results that confidently suggests that their was life on mars, they are still very helpful in learning about the red planet.