Jessica+M

**From Big Bang to Galaxies ** All matter in the universe was created by the Big Bang and energy. The universe exploded out of nothing and expanded rapidly to the size of the Earth in a flash. Particles of matter were created as well as radiant energy, quarks, and antiquarks. As the universe cooled electrons were able to spin around nuclei and hydrogen and helium atoms were created. Two Billion years later galaxies were formed by the unevenness of matter, and gravity which brought that matter together. If it wasn't for the Big Band nothing would exist.
 * Wiki Entry 1: The Search of Life on Mars **

**The Milky Way ** The Milky Way Galaxy or the big white streak across the sky is made up of many large individual stars and clumps of dust. The Milky Way Galaxy is our galaxy so the white streak we see is us looking out at our galaxy from the inside. If you were looking at the Milky Way from a side view is would look like a CD with a tennis ball in the center. In the Milky Way there is a long disk of stars, about 100,000 light years across and in the middle of the disk there is a thin layer of gas and dust. The tennis ball or central bulge is about 20,000 light years across. Our sun is half way between the central bulge and the edge of the left side of the disk and on the other side of the central bulge lies a dwarf galaxy which is intruding our galaxy. Globular star clusters surround the central bulge in a large circle. The Milky Way has four spiral arms than spin out from the central bulge and rotate clockwise. It is believed that there is some huge amount of unknown matter causes the stars on the outer parts of the arms to move so quickly. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy and is the one we live in.



**The History of the Solar System ** The sun, which all planets in our solar system revolve around is very important to our solar system. The sun, like all stars was created when gravity pulled together a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. Then the ball of gas and dust flattened into a disk which had a protosun in the center. In the disk solid matter formed and combined to make larger clumps. Some clumps combined or when impacted broke apart. In the outer layers of the solar system four large masses were formed; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Those for planets had their own disks where moons were created. The gravitational pull of the four giant planets were strong enough to pull in enough gas to create a thick atmosphere for itself. Closer to the sun larger planets weren't able to form because there were too many collisions but four terrestrial planets were created; Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. The terrestrial planets were very hot because of the collisions and radioactivity so the metal sank into the center to create the core and the lighter rock became the crust. Earth's moon was created by a collision of a smaller planet and earth. The smaller planet was then captured by Earth's gravitational pull and was set into orbit. That is how all of the moons in the solar system were created. Icy clumps of rocks become comets when they reach the warmer parts of the solar system (near the sun.) Rings were formed when a giant planet's gravity tore apart a clump of rock and the torn clump was pulled into orbit. The sun, the most important star for mankind is essential to the existence of planets, moons, rings, and comets.

**Wiki Entry 2: The History of Rockets ** Rockets have had a huge impact in warfare and exploration and have a unique history of experimentation and countless accomplishments. The __#|spark__ of the creation of the rocket was in Greece around 100 B.C. when inventor Hero of Alexandria invented the Hero Engine. The Hero Engine was made up of a large sphere positioned on top of a pot of boiling water. The steam created from the boiling water was pushed into two L shaped tubes attached to the sphere. The steam exited from the tubes and the concentration of energy caused the sphere to rotate. Chinese gunpowder had a huge effect in the invention of rockets. The Chines’ simple gunpowder, consisting of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust were packed into bamboo and then were tossed into fires and exploded. The gunpowder soon evolved into the first rockets. The gunpowder filled bamboo was attached to arrows and were launched by bows. The arrows were lit on fire and in mid-air the rocket would explode. Though the first use of rockets wasn’t until 1232 when the Chinese army used the “flaming arrows” as a weapon against the invading Mongols. The Mongols then created their own rockets which is said to be what caused the spread of rockets throughout Europe from the 13th to the 15th century. The main reasons that rockets were used then were warfare and fireworks.



Then rocketry spread to the U.S. where Robert H. Goddard did his part. Goddard experimented with solid rocket propellants in the early 20th century. Then the thought came to him that he could use liquid rocket propellants instead which was much more complicated. Goddard invented the first liquid propellant rocket. Its first flight was on March 16th, 1929 were it flew for 12.5 seconds. The rocket traveled 12.5 meters up and 56 meters forward. That day was a big accomplishment for Goddard and the rest of the world. He continued to improve his rockets. Making them bigger, fly higher, inventing the Gyroscope system, and using a parachute to safely recover his rockets.

But the world wasn’t satisfied yet, people wanted to continue to push the limits of rockets. They decided to put rockets into space. Sputnik, the first satellite that orbited Earth was launched by the Soviet Union on October 4th, 1957. Soon after the U.S. Army responded with satellite Explorer which also orbited Earth. Then on January 31st, 1958 NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was established. Rocketry continued to improve. Astronauts orbited the Earth, landed on the moon; robots landed on different planets, and advanced satellites contributed to the growing knowledge of our universe. From 100 B.C. to today rockets have been enhanced by important individuals and whole countries to create a wonderful invention that is very important to our world and the exploration of others.

= = **Wiki Entry 3: Rocket Stages Animation ** media type="custom" key="13889734"

**Wiki Entry 4: The Search For Life on Mars ** Over the past forty years, the U.S. has revealed a lot about Mars with the help of; fly-bys, landers, orbiters, and rovers. Some of this very important missions include the Vikings 1-2, the Odyssey, and the Pathfinder. The Viking missions one and two, were orbiters and landers. The Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975, arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976, and landed on July 20, 1976. The Viking 2 was launched on September 1975, arrived at Mars on August 7, 1976, and landed on September 3, 1976. The Viking missions were very important to the information we know about Mars, because they were the first U.S. rover that landed on Mars and transmitted pictures back to Earth. The Odyssey is an orbiter of Mars which launched on April 7, 2001 and arrived on October 24, 2001. It is still in orbit and has collected more than 130,000 pictures. The odyssey was able to help scientists to identify where there were places of underground water ice. Finally, the Pathfinder was a rover and launched on December 4, 1996. It used an interesting method for landing on Mars. It had a large parachute that slowed down its descent and a series of air bags/balloons deployed that cushioned the impact. These missions and many others have had a huge impact on how much we know about Mars.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 130%;"> = = **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wiki Entry 5: Parts of Rocket ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 130%;">

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wiki Entry 6: Rocket Launch Overview ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">The purpose of this experiment was to determine how mass affects the maximum altitude of the rocket. First, the body tube of the rocket was constructed, then the fins were glued on, after that the parachute, recovery wadding, and an A8-3engine were inserted, and then the rocket was painted. The rockets were launched on a small scale launch pad in an open field. One-hundred meters from the launch pad was measured with a trundle angle guns and trigonometry were used to fin the highest altitude. On average, the highest altitude was 54.91 m. The hypothesis was incorrect because the mass of the rocket didn't make the apogee lower, which was predicted. Instead the mass didn't affect the maximum altitude. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">The mass of the rocket sometimes affected the altitude because the rocket with the mass of 48.5 g had the altitude of 78.1 m and the rocket with the mass of 43.1 g had the altitude of 42.4 m. So in that case the larger the mass, the higher the altitude. But, in other cases the mass of the rocket didn't affect the altitude because the rocket with a smaller mass (44.5 g) had the altitude of 54.3 m when a rocket with a larger mass (46.1 g) had the altitude of only 35.4 m.) So in conclusion sometimes the data relationship was direct, sometimes it was inverse, and sometimes there was no relationship. The paint on the rocket could have caused the rocket to fly lower because it had a larger mass and the quality of construction definitely affect its flight because when the rocket only had one fin it flew significantly lower than when it had three fins. The flight of the rocket could be improved by adding more fins because with the data we obtained the more the fins the better the flight.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wiki Entry 6.5: Rocket Fin Experiment ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">The purpose of the experiment was to determine how the additional fins affected the apogee of the rocket. The control was the rocket with its original three fins. The independent variable was the number of fins. The dependent variable was the apogee of the rocket. The group's rocket that had the most success cut off the bottom point of the original fins so the fins were smaller and were right angles. The group's rocket that had the lowest apogee had 18 fins placed at random on the body tube of the rocket. The rocket's flight failed because the additional fins increased the mass of the rocket significantly and the irregular placement of the fins caused the center of gravity of the rocket to be obscured. So, the rocket became unstable and spiraled out of control during flight. It was hypothesized that the rockets had three to nine fins it would fly higher than the rockets with less than three fins or more than nine fins. <span style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">There was no relationship in the maximum altitude versus number of scatterplot because the independent and dependent variables didn't seem to affect each other. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">There was no relationship in the maximum altitude versus mass scatterplot either because some of the heavy rockets went high but some of the heavy ones flew low too. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">My hypothesis was correct because on average the rockets with 3-9 fins had higher apogee than those who had less than three or more than nine. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">Three small triangular fins were added to the rocket design to add stability to the rocket. Even though the added fins caused the rocket to have more mass it also stabilized it during flight which is important to the apogee because if the straighter the rocket flies the higher the altitude will be. The six-fin rocket didn't fly as high as the three-fin rocket but it flew straighter. The original three-fin rocket had the higher apogee but the added fins did help stabilizes the rocket.

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wiki Entry 7: Robotics History ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">Robotics is the engineering and science of robots. Robotics is a technological field of science that relates to the design, building, operation, application and manufacture of robots. A robot is a machine that operates by a remote control and can perform various tasks automatically. Robotics is a growing field and can perform tasks dangerous to humans such as defusing a bomb or too exact and precise for humans such as some difficult surgeries. Robotics has also helped manufacturing by putting parts of products together faster than humans and discovering the universe through satellites and rovers.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">There were many important stepping stones in the history of robotics but these are a few of the most significant ones. The very beginning of robotics was in about 270 BC when an Ctesibus; a Greek engineer created organs and water clocks with movable figures. In 1956 George Devol and Joseph Engelberger created the world's first robot company. The first computer-controlled robotic arm was created in 1963. In 1970 "Shakey" was the first mobile robot and in 1979 the Stanford Cart traveled through a room full of obstacles using a camera which took pictures and communicated with a computer. The history of robotics is filled with great discoveries and I am confident that many more important accomplishments are still to come.

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**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Wiki Entry 8: Motor Use and Function ** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px;">Motors in robots are very important because they make the robot go forward, go backwards, turn right, turn left, start, stop, slow down and speed up. When both motors are rotating at the same speed the robot travels straight forward. When only one motor is rotating the robot point turns to the side with the still wheel. When both of the motors are rotating, but one of hem is spinning slower the robot curve turns to the side with the slower rotating wheel. In this video the robot travels in a square clockwise. So, both of the robot's wheels were moving at the same speed when the robot was going straight but when the robot point turned rights its right wheel stopped moving.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 14.6667px; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">media type="file" key="jamcc.drive.in.square.AVI" width="300" height="300"

=** Wiki Entry 9: Identifying Rocks and Minerals with the Tools of Geology **= <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">There are many different ways geologists can determine if the sample is a rock or mineral and the specific kind of rock or mineral. One of the ways is just physical observation. Looking at the sample under a microscope or magnifying glass can determine if the sample is a rock or mineral which can be done with granite. It’s possible to classify granite as a rock after physically observing it because granite has many different colors which are the minerals that form the sample. A second test is observing the color and luster of the sample and then comparing it to other identified samples. If the sample has a pinkish-white color and has white speckles it is possibly quartz and if the sample is grayish-white with some orange patches it could be gypsum. A third way to identify the sample is to use the Mohs (Hardness) Scale. By scratching the sample on common objects that are on the scale such as a piece of copper it’s possible to determine the hardness of the sample and then can narrow the possible rocks or minerals of the sample based on its hardness. If this test was done on a sample that was harder than an iron nail (4.5) but weaker than a piece of glass (5.5) you could determine that the sample is a rock or mineral because it is a 5 on the hardness scale like as apatite. A forth test would be the streak test. By scraping the sample on both a black and white streak plates, it’s possible to determine what type of rock or mineral the sample is because of the streaks it left. A fifth way would be to use magnetism. By seeing how the sample reacts to a magnet it’s possible to determine the type of rock or mineral the sample is by if it’s magnetic or nonmagnetic. There are many other ways to classify a sample such as a light refraction test, a taste test, and an acid test.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">By using the many methods of determining what type of rock or mineral the sample is has helped geologists classify many samples. But unfortunately, we are not able to send a geologist and their lab to Mars. Instead NASA’s rover Curiosity was sent to Mars to investigate its landscape and determine whether there is or was ever life on Mars. The rover is meant to copy what geologists do by traveling to a location with many layers of rock piled up over many years such as the sides of a dried up river bed or the sides of a canyon. The car size rover has many important tools that it can use to determine the different types of rocks and minerals. Curiosity is able to move very far and to rocky locations and places with uneven is very helpful. The rover has a drill which is used to drill a small hole into the sample creating dust of that sample. Then the rover would take some of the powder and can examine it. Curiosity can examine the powder in two different ways. The first would give NASA information on the mineralogy of the sample and the other would tell NASA if there were any signs of life in the sample. Curiosity carries a whole science laboratory with it where ever it goes on Mars. One of the instruments on Curiosity is a laser that can help the rover see samples that can’t be reached easily by reflecting light off them. Those are many different instruments and tools that Curiosity uses to identify the chemical composition of samples, whether they are a rock or a mineral, and if they have any signs of life. = = For something to be considered "alive," it has to do all of the eight characteristics of life at some time in their life. The first characteristic is that the object has to be made of cells which mean it has fundamental units of life and organelles. The second characteristic is the object needs some materials such as water, minerals, and gases. The third characteristic is that the object has to be homeostatic which means it tries to stay the same on the inside, like keeping the same body temperature or heart rate. The fourth characteristic is that the object has to respond to stimuli so if the object is exposed light, water, food, etc. the object should react or respond in some way. The fifth characteristic is that the object has to be able to reproduce and make more of it so it will not become extinct. The sixth characteristic is the object has to grow in some way and develop from a simpler being to a more complex being. The seventh characteristic is that the object has to be able to adapt and evolve. The eighth and final characteristic is that the object has to be able to turn food into energy and release the energy stored in the chemical bonds of sugars or food.
 * Wiki Entry 10: The Characteristics and Detection of Life **

Detecting life on another planet has been the goal of many astronomers around the world. They use some of these key methods to discover life on different planets. One method is to see if the object would respond to stimuli. That is tested by adding a drop of water to a soil sample and if the soil had microbes it would metabolize the nutrients and release carbon dioxide or methane gas. Another method is to add light or take light away from the substance to see if it would react to the change in light. A third method would be to add heat or to take away heat to see if the substance would react to the change in temperature. These are just some of the ways we can discover if Earth is alone or if life exists or once existed on another planet.

<span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;">ble was the apogee of the rocket. The group's rocket that had the most success cut off the bottom point of the original fins so the fins were smaller and were right angles. The group's rocket that had the lowest apogee had 18 fins placed at random on the body tube of the rocket. The rocket's flight failed because the additional fins increased the mass of the rocket significantly and the irregular placement of the fins caused the center of gravity of the rocket to be obscured. So, the rocket became unstable and spiraled out of control during flight. It was hypothesized that the rockets had three to nine fins it would fly higher than the rockets with less than three fins or more than nine fins. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 27pt; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;"> <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;">There was no relationship in the maximum altitude versus number of scatterplot because the independent and dependent variables didn't seem to affect each other. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in 0in 0in 27pt; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;"> <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;">There was no relationship in the maximum altitude versus mass scatterplot either because some of the heavy rockets went high but some of the heavy ones flew low too. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;">My hypothesis was correct because on average the rockets with 3-9 fins had higher apogee than those who had less than three or more than nine. <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;"> <span style="display: block; height: 1px; left: -40px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; position: absolute; top: 4330px; width: 1px;">Three small triangular fins were added to the rocket design to add stability to the rocket. Even though the added fins caused the rocket to have more mass it also stabilized it during flight which is important to the apogee because if the straighter the rocket flies the higher the altitude will be. The six-fin rocket didn't fly as high as the three-fin rocket but it flew straighter. The original three-fin rocket had the higher apogee but the added fins did help stabilizes the rocket.