Jack+H+SFLOM

=Wiki Entry One=

Electricity and the Search For Life On Mars
===Electricity is a power source for many different things that we use today. Electricity can come in many different forms of energy. Some of the most common forms are static electricity, electric current, and electric discharge. Static Electricity is electricity that gathers in one place, and it doesn't flow or move, an example is a balloon that will stick to the wall after being rubbed in your hair. Electric current is electricity that moves from one place to another, for it to happen there has to be a circuit or a closed path, an example is an electric circuit when the electricity flows in a circle. Electric discharge is quick or fast moving electricity, an example of this is lightning.===

==== Electricity is needed to search for life on Mars in many different ways. One of the ways electricity is used is for the rocket to take off into space. Another way it is used is to control where it moves to or how it moves in space. It would be needed to land on Mars and for a rover to search the planet for life. It would also be needed to be able to get in and out of the rocket. It would lastly be used to take the rocket back off into space and to land back on earth. These are just some of the many things electricity would be used for to search for life on Mars. ====

=Wiki Entry Two=

Magnetism and the Search For Life On Mars
===Magnetism is when objects attract or repel each other. Not all objects are magnetic. There are only a few metals that are magnetic which include, iron, nickel, and cobalt. A magnet is an object that can produce its own magnetic field without help from any other source. Each magnet has a North Pole and a South Pole. Similar poles repel, and opposite poles attract. The Earth is like a giant magnet, it has a North Pole and South Pole, and the Poles will rotate and switch places after very long time periods. A compass points to the North because it is pointing to the earths North Pole because it is attracted with the metal it has inside of it. This is how a compass works. The Earth also has a magnetic field around the planet which can stop deadly particles from coming into our atmosphere. Sometimes they will get past the outer layer but then they will get trapped in the other layers. The particles turn into light and are known as the Northern Light or an aurora. There is a time when the poles switch and scientist believe that there is no magnetic field at this time; this could allow some of these particles into our atmosphere. There is also magnetism in our everyday lives. It is under the road which tells the stoplights when to turn green, and it is also in our GPS that we keep in our car. Overall magnetism can is many different things.===

Magnetic Field of Magnet

===Magnetism would also be useful on a trip for the search for life on mars. One of the ways it could be used is for a navigation system or like a GPS in space that would use magnets to tell the direction. Magnets could be used to make the rocket which would make the rocket attract to the magnetic field in Mars. It could also be used for a rover which could be put on Mars and then be able to tell where the south and North Pole are. These are some of the things that could help for the search for life on mars.=== Magnetic Field of Mars

=Wiki Entry 3=

From Big to Galaxies
=== Our universe began about 15billion years ago. In the beginning the universe was very hot and packed into a space smaller than an atomic nucleus. In less than a second it began to expand rapidly and particles of matter were created. The universe was made up of exotic particles such as Quarks and Antiquarks and also energy. The temperature of the universe gradually fell and the universe kept growing and soon protons and neutrons were forming. The universe is then later dominated by lighter particles such as electrons. The particles combine to form helium and then very little happens after the next 300,000 years. Soon the first hints of structure in the universe appear. After about 2 billion years the formation of galaxies begins. Gravity causes it to grow. Our galaxy formed after another billion years and started as a ball of gas. In the early universe collisions of galaxies were common and they would merge into one galaxy, this might happen to our galaxy some day. ===

The Milky Way Galaxy
=== The Milky Way is made up of many stars all close together. There is a flat disc of stars about 100,000 light years across, And 1,000 to 2,000 light years thick. The sun is in the disc and about halfway out from the galactic center. On the other side there is a dwarf galaxy merging with the Milky Way. The stars are red and orange in the center because they are old stars. In the center of the galactic center is a black hole. Our galaxy is surrounded by a huge invisible Corona. The galaxy may be five times bigger than it appears. ===

Lives of the Stars
=== Stars form in cold dark clouds of gas and dust. A disturbance rippling through the gas cause clumps to form. Each clumps contracts as gravity pulls it together. The energy of the falling gas heats up the center of the core. It forms a star surrounded by gas. The star gets smaller and gas streams out from the poles. The star settles down turning hydrogen gas into helium which supplies it with nuclear energy. Other stars form and the bigger ones are bluish white. There are different lettered stars and there are some that are really bright and some that are dull. Our sun formed from a cloud and gas and then it became stable as a yellow star. In 5 billion years it will start to change and dramatic events will take place. The color darkens to orange and it expands. Later is grows to the size of 100 times the size of now. It becomes 1,000 times brighter. It then gets larger, redder, and brighter than ever. It becomes unstable and then it shrinks and becomes a white dwarf star. It soon disappears and this happens to many stars. ===

The Sun
=== The sun is the same as all the other stars in the sky. It is made of hydrogen and helium. Every second 4million tons of hydrogen are used to keep the sun running. The energy radiates outward from the core. In disturbed regions of the sun, sun spots appear which are dark because they are cooler than the rest of the sun. Solar Flares can erupt from the surface. The earth funnels the particles to the North and South poles. The particles crash and are known as the Northern Lights. The sun has its own magnetic field five times stronger than that of the earths. Each magnetic field line is tied into the fabric of the sun. The sun spots on the sun change every few weeks. This cycle keeps repeating. ===

History of the Solar System
=== A few billion years ago planetesimal started to collect in the disc of the sun. Far from the sun where it was the coldest the planetesimal survived. In the warm region near the sun, they are made of rock and metal. In what is now the outer Solar system, four very large masses formed. They became the giant planets and they are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They grew discs of their own in which moons formed. In the inner solar system there were four smaller planets, mercury, Venus, earth, and mars. The Moon was created by the collision of earth and another planet. The rings around the larger planets are smaller torn apart planets. ===

=Wiki Entry 4 Rocket History= === Rocket history started around 100. B.C. with a Greek inventor known as Hero. He placed a sphere on top of a water kettle. He then put a fire below the kettle, which turned the water into steam, which traveled through the pipes into the sphere. Two tubes that were on top of the sphere, allowed the steam to escape, which gave a thrust to the sphere and caused it to rotate. A while later in the first century A.D., the Chinese had a simple form of gunpowder, made from saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal dust. At festivals they threw bamboo tubes with a mixture in them into the fires. Sometimes it didn't explode and it skittered out of the fire propelled by the gas and it produced a burning powder. After looking at these, the Chinese developed bamboo tubes attached to arrows, that could launch themselves from the escaping gas. These were the first rockets. ===

=== The first recorded date of true rockets was 1232 when the Chinese used their rockets to defend themselves from the invading Mongols. After the battle the Mongols produced rockets of their own. Between the 13th and 15th century many of the European countries were producing rockets of their own used for warfare and fireworks. Many years later in 1898 a Russian, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of exploring space by rockets. He suggested the idea of liquid propellants in order to gain a greater range. He talked about how the speed and range of a rocket were limited by the exhaust velocity of escaping gases. He later became known as the father for modern astronautics. In the early 20th century an American, Robert H. Goddard, performed experiments in rocketry. He came up with the idea of a liquid propelled rocket, and on March 16, 1926, he was the first person to get a liquid rocket to fly into the air. His flight only lasted a few seconds, but he still was the forerunner in a whole new era for rocketry. He soon built rockets with parachutes, so that they could return safely. ===

=== In Germany a society sprang up in the early 20th century, it was called Verein fur Raumschiffahrt. They made the V-2 rocket which was used against London in world War 2. The rocket was small compared to modern day rockets, and it lifted off by burning a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol at a rate of one ton every seven seconds. After the fall of Germany these rockets weren't used a frequently. The United States and The Soviet Union realized rocketry as a military weapon and soon formed programs for rocketry. Eventually a variety of missiles were developed, and some of these were used to take men into space. On October 4, 1957 the world was shocked when the Soviet Union launched an orbiting satellite around earth. It was called Sputnik l, and less than a month they launched another satellite with a dog on board. The dog lasted seven days before being put to sleep, because of the low oxygen supply. A few months later on January 31, 1958 the United States sent a satellite of it's own called Explorer l. Later that year the United States created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with the goal of peaceful exploration of space for mankind. More rockets were built, and more things were sent into space as time went on, and in the present we are still using rockets to explore space. === = =



The Chinese Fire Arrow, was used during the battle of Kai-Keng.
=Wiki Entry 5=

Rocket Experiment
=== The purpose of this experiment was to see if the mass of a rocket affects the height that the rocket will fly. First the rockets were built with all the different parts, and then they were painted which affected the mass of the rockets and made it different from others. The rocket motor was then put into the rocket, and it was ready to be launched. To measure the distance that the rockets flew, there had to be a group of people 100meters away which was measured with a trundle wheel. Once this was found angle guns were used to find the angle of the rockets when they launched. After the angle was found trigonometry was used to find the altitude that the rocket reached. The rockets with a higher mass ended up not flying as high as the rockets with a lower mass. One of the rockets had a mass of 44.9 grams flew 100 meters, and one of the rockets that weighed 48.1 grams flew 36.4 meters. === === When we finished building our rocket we took it out to launch the next day. After it launched the angle was found and trigonometry was used to find the altitude. This was done by finding the tangent of the angle and multiplying it by 100, because this was the distance the angle guns were from the rocket. My groups rocket flew 76.7 meters into the air, and had an angle of 37.5 degrees. Our rocket didn't fly the highest or the lowest, so it was near the middle of the group. Some of the rockets flew more than twice as high as some of the other rockets. Some rockets had their recovery system not work, and other rockets landed on top of a building or in a higher elevated area. I think our rocket could improve or fly higher next time we do this, by not putting as much paint on, because it affects the mass which affects how high the rocket will go. I think we could also put a little less glue on the rocket because that can also weigh it down. Overall I think my group did a good job constructing the rocket, and that it flew pretty high. ===

=Wiki Entry 6=

=== The egg drop vehicle was supposed to be similar to how a Mars Rover Drop vehicle would be. We made an egg drop vehicle from store-bought materials because we couldn't make a real Mars Rover Drop Vehicle. Our egg drop vehicle was designed by putting the egg inside a small paper cup and then putting a rubber band over it, and wrapping it with bubble wrap. Popsicle sticks were then taped to the bottom of the vehicle, and then paper towels on the bottom to cushion the fall. Then the paper was taped together to make a parachute and strings were taped to it and attached to the paper towels at the bottom. We designed it like this because we thought it would provide a lot of cushion for the egg and that it would also have a safe landing with the parachute. The things that went well about our egg drop was that the vehicle landed on the tennis court and we were able to get it out within 45 seconds. What didn't works so well was that our egg broke because the vehicle flipped upside down and our parachute flipped to the bottom. This provided no cushion for the egg, so it hit the tennis court and broke. If we go to do this again, next time I would put cushion on every side of the egg, and make our parachute stronger so that it will work. I would also make our device not weigh as much, so that it would fall more slowly and instead it would glide down. The materials I would use are paper towels to go on the other side of the egg, and more bubble wrap. I would also use the plastic bag to make it fall more slowly. Overall a lot of effort was put into the egg drop vehicle and it probably could have been successful if it landed and fell on the side that had the cushion. ===



=Wiki Entry 7=

Robot History
A robot is a machine that is capable of performing human tasks, and is usually programmed by a computer. Robots were first created hundreds of years ago. They were used in the Industrial Revolution to make mass-production of different products. They were used because they could make items faster than humans could make the items. Between 1700 and 1900 robots were being made that were life size. Jacques de Vaucanson made a robot duck in that time period that was able to move it's neck, flap it's wings, and swallow food. In the Early 20th century people began to think more about humanoid robots. They developed human sized robots that did some human tasks. These were some of the ways robots were used in different time periods.

Robot history began a long time ago. In 1495 Leonardo da Vinci made plans for a humanoid robot and later created one. Many years later in 1913 Henry Ford installs the world's first working assembly line in his car factory. In 1932 the first robot toy was made in Japan that walked, it was made from tinplate and stood just 15cm tall. Five years later in 1937 Alan Turing releases his paper “On Computable Numbers” which starts the computer revolution. A while later in 1950 Alan Turning comes up with the idea of a test that determine if a robot or machine can think for itself. This test became known as the "Turning Test". In 1964 the IBM 360 becomes the first mass-produced computer. These are some of the many robots or plans for robots that have been made throughout the past.

=Wiki Entry 8=

Programming Robots
===Lego Mindstorms robots can be programmed to do many things. The robot can be programmed by using a computer to type in and program different types of commands. To get the program onto the robot, the robot has to be plugged into the computer, so it can download the information. Once the information is downloaded onto the robot, open the file, and the press the play button to perform a certain task. Some of the simple commands the robot can do include driving forward, and reversing. Some of the more difficult commands are point turns, curve turns, accelerating, and driving in a square. To program the robot to drive in a square instead of just dragging the different commands, you have to put them in a loop, so that it repeats and drives in a square instead of a line. Some of the challenges of using robot motors are that they won't always make the robot go straight, or go the exact distance that you wanted. This can be from the wheels because they aren't the same distance from the center of the robot. The robots also have attachments on one side, so they might lean to a certain side, making the robot unbalanced. These are some of the tasks that the Lego Mindstorms robot's motors can perform.===

===A sensor is a device that is able to detect different qualities. There are more than one type of sensors. Different sensors are made to detect different types of qualities. Some of the sensors are sound sensors, ultrasonic sensors, light sensors, and touch sensors. The sound sensor can detect most noises that you make. This can be useful because you can program noises that you make, to make the robot move in a certain direction. The ultrasonic sensor detects how far away an object is from it. This can be useful because you can program it to stop in front of an object when the robot is a certain distance away from the object. The light sensor can detect how light or dark an object is. This can be helpful because you can program your robot to stop in front of darker surfaces, and you can also program it to follow a line of two different lights. You can do this by plugging in the number of the color of an object into the Mindstorms program. The touch sensor can detect objects and then it will back up or move forward. This can be useful so that the robot doesn't bump into things. These are the sensors and some of their useful qualities.===





=Wiki Entry 9=

Geology on Mars
===There are many different ways rocks and minerals can be identified. Some of the techniques we use to identify rocks and minerals are: color, magnetism, streak, luster, light refraction, hardness. The first step for a geologist would be to determine wither it was a rock or mineral. After finding that out, they would test for the different techniques. They would find the color by simply looking at it, they would find the magnetism by taking magnets and holding them up to different rocks and minerals to see which ones would attract or repel. They would find out the streak by doing a streak test. They would take an unglazed porcelain plate and rub the rock or mineral against it. The mark that the rock or mineral leaves behind is called the streak and you can use this to determine what it is. You can find the hardness by scratching the rock or mineral against other materials that have a known hardness. If the material is harder than the mineral it will leave a mark on the mineral, and if it is weaker than the mineral, the mineral can leave a mark on the material. The light refraction would be found be taking a UV light and shinning it on the mineral. Lastly the luster would be found by the color of the mineral or the light that it could give off. These are the different ways that a scientist would use to identify a mineral.===



=== Curiosity will be able to form many geology experiments on Mars. Curiosity has a mobile laboratory or Mars science laboratory(MSL) inside of it that will allow it to form experiments, while roving on Mars. Curiosity will perform experiments to search for life on Mars. Curiosity can drill into rocks on Mars, and collect powder from them. It will the deliver them to two large analytical chemistry laboratories. It can then determine what minerals are present in the material and what chemical elements are present. This information can help us determine if there was ever life on Mars. Curiosity was sent near Gale crater to look at different minerals to see if there was life. The soil there might have evidence of life and Curiosity can determine this in it's lab. The main reason Curiosity is being sent there is because there is a lot of history there because there is a three mile high mountain, that has a lot of sediment. There could also have been possible water in Gale crater. Curiosity can determine the different qualities just like a scientist inside a lab. It can use magnets to find magnetic materials and it can shine UV lights for light refraction. Curiosity could also use streak tests inside the lab and can determine the color of the materials with it's 3d lenses and camera. This is how Curiosity will form experiments on Mars. ===