Samantha+F

= Search for Life on Mars with Electronic Devices! =

Analog and digital signals are both types of electronic signals. Electronic signals are signals that are given off by electronic devices. They are changing electrical current that have signal when they change. Analog signals are used in analog clocks and in thermometers. They are what makes the clock's hands move smoothly and what makes the liquid inside of the thermometer move smoothly. Digital signals are used in CD players. They make signals that are choppy and jump when they change. The biggest difference between analog and digital signals are that analog is smooth and digital is bumpy and takes steps when changing. Semiconductors are also useful in electronic devices. Older TV's used to use vacuum tubes to power them, but now they use components from semiconductors. Semiconductors are a different type of metalloid that can conduct electricity, but is not very good at it. They also have a unique quality. The amount of impurities in the object can control how well the semiconductor conducts electricity. This is a good reason for why semiconductors are great for electronics. The semiconductors can be pulsed with more or less impurities, according to which setting the device would be on, to make a screen brighter or even to turn the object on and off! Diodes and transistors are both solid-state components. This means that there are a mixture of semiconductors involved in the electronic component. Diodes and transistors, being solid state components, can be used in making electric circuits. Diodes can be used to make a direct current which means that the current only flows in one direction if there is an alternate current. In an electric circuit, a transistor can be used to amplify signals. As well as amplifying signals, transistors can also be used as an electronic switch because it has the option of either letting the current pas through it or stopping it. Integrated circuits are used for computers. Computers use integrated circuits because they can have many of them in on small computer. Integrated circuits are one tiny chip of a semiconductor and can contain millions of diodes and transistors inside of them.

It is very important to have electronic devices in a space mission to go to Mars on a hunt for life. First, the person who decided to go to Mars would need something to travel in. The spaceship is an electronic device and would need it to get there. Also, the person would need food and water. Electronic devices can keep water and food fresh like a refrigerator or can cook food like a stove or microwave. Maybe the person traveling would need a GPS to find Mars. The GPS would be an electronic device that could help with navigation. There would need to be a transmitter to be able to contact the space station in case of emergency or for anything else. A spaceship would need lights on it and inside of it like flashlights and high beam lights for space travel because it can get very dark in space. The use of an air containment device could also help if the person desires to get out of the space ship or even just being in the cabin of the ship. Maybe the person would even want to bring a digital camera to prove that there was or is life on Mars with a photo. The importance of electronic devices is very clear when traveling to space because our bodies can't adapt to being their without food, water, or any oxygen. Electronics can help to keep the person alive while traveling to Mars and can even help to get evidence of life there.

= The Exciting History of the Rocket =

Nobody knows quite when the first rockets were invented, but we do know that Hero of Alexandria, a Greek inventor, showed the world how to make a rocket fly around 100 BC. Hero used steam to rotate a sphere with two opposite facing tubes blowing steam different ways. He called it the aeolipile. The Chinese made rockets too in 1232. They used gunpowder made from sulfur, charcoal dust, and saltpeter to make rockets that they set off during religious festivals. The gunpowder was put into little bamboo tubes and then tossed randomly into a fire to create a entertaining explosion. The only problem with throwing them into the open fire was that they could go shooting out in any direction and burn innocent people standing by. Later, they used the same idea of gunpowder and bamboo tubes to make the first recorded rocket with a spear in the bottom. These early rockets were invented usefully during the time of the Chinese-Mongol war. The Chinese used the rockets as a weapon towards the Mongols by setting the rockets on a stick to guide it and then lighting the bottom and letting them go. They may not have been very useful, but were shocking to the Mongols.The Mongols then took the idea and probably started the chain of rockets throughout England. Jean Froissart of France later found that rockets could be more accurately launched by shooting them through a tube. This lead to the invention of the bazooka. The discovery of rockets built upon itself for centuries to get us where we are today with rocket technology.

The birth of exploration of space with a rocket was all because of a man named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. Tsiolkovsky was a Russian schoolteacher who had the brilliant idea observing space in a rocket in 1898. He thought that the rocket could propel itself with liquid to get greater range. This statement lead to amazing innovations in the future which is why we call him the father of astronautics. A man by the name of Robert H. Goddard, an American man, decided to make a rocket that could go higher than lighter-than-air balloons. He conducted numerous experiments to make a new kind of rocket that could run on liquid fuel. He finally came up with a gasoline rocket on March 16, 1926. The rocket was fueled by liquid oxygen and gasoline. It went 12.5 meters high, flew for 2.5 seconds, and landed in a cabbage patch 56 meters away. This gasoline rocket spawned fascination throughout the world with rockets and inspired people to learn more about them. After the first gasoline rocket was created, Goddard kept experimenting. This made Goddard the father of modern rocketry. Later, rockets were used more commonly rather than just experimenting on them. The 20th century V-2 rocket was used by Germany to attack London during World War II. This rocket was tiny, but very fierce. It could wipe out a whole city block due to the quick rate that the fuel, a mixture of liquid oxygen and alcohol, was put out. Soon after that, medium and long-range ballistic missiles were constructed and quickly became the starting point of the U.S. space program. The Soviet Union decided to build Sputnik I, meaning "satellite" in Russian, and send it into space. It was the first Earth-orbiting artificial satellite. It was launched on October 4, 1957. Sputnik had four radiating radio antennae and a spherical body. The Soviets then sent a dog named Laika into space in a satellite. Laika survived for seven days before running out of oxygen in the satellite. The Explorer I was launched by the U.S. Army on January 31, 1958. Later that year, the United States formed NASA. Soon enough, the rest of the world was eager to keep exploring space and continued to launch machines and make more discoveries.

= Rocket Stages Project = media type="custom" key="9054336"

= Rocket Parts - Labeling and Uses =

= Rocket Launch - Purpose, Method, and Results =

The purpose of this experiment was to find out if the weight of the rocket would affect the altitude of it after we launched it. This was done by dividing the class into groups of two, and constructing model rockets. Each group painted their rockets any way they wanted. The paint added weight to the rocket, even if by a few grams, that would change the altitude that the rocket would reach. The rockets were taken outside into the middle school field and launched into the air. The data was recorded and the rockets came down to the ground. The results of this experiment were that the rockets with the lighter mass traveled higher. Since the rockets were being shot straight upward, the rockets with more mass probably had more gravity on them and could not go as high as the lighter rockets. The hypothesis made was correct that the heavier rockets would not go as high as the lighter rockets. My group's rocket, weighing 44.1 g, flew 40 feet high. It did not start ignition immediately, but after it ignited, the lift off was so fast it was hard to see. The rocket shot into the sky and started coasting. It hit the apogee slowly and then popped open in ejection with a puff of smoke. Then, the parachute was released and did not start to recover the rocket until it was close to the ground. The rocket landed rather roughly into the ground, but safely. The parachute was singed a little from the ignition where the recovery wadding should have protected it. My group's rocket was very heavily painted and flew lower than most groups' rockets. One of the fins was glued a little bit higher than the others. This may have also affected the flight of the rocket. Everything else with the construction of our rocket went as planned. The rocket flight could have been improved by using less paint when decorating, using a more powerful ignition, more recovery wadding, and putting the parts on properly. Our rocket could be the best after minor improvements be made to it.

= The Importance of Astronomy in the Search for Life on Mars = My thoughts on the importance of astronomy in the search for life on Mars.

I think that astronomy in the search for life on Mars is very essential. If we don't study astronomy before going into space, we will not be able to orient ourself and will not be able to get to Mars. Also, we need to know how far the trip will be to get to Mars and what the surface and surrounding area of it will be like. We won't want to be sucked into the planet if it has a very strong gravitational pull on it. Also we will need probes to test the temperature to insure that we won't melt. Also, we do not know what is out in space completely so we need to understand what we could be facing. These have been the reasons why astronomy is important to this mission.

To learn more about astronomy click here: astronomy continued...

= History of Robotics =

The history of robotics all started a long time ago, back with the ancient Greeks. In 350 B.C, a mathematician named Archytas of Tarentum created a robotic bird. He called it "The Pigeon". It the movements of real birds and helped for other mathematicians and scientists to study flight. It was powered by steam and actually flew! Then later, another person invented a water clock. This person was named Ctesibus of Alexandria and he was a physicist. His water clock was very famous around 200 B.C. In 1495, another robot was invented. It was Leonardo DaVinci's robot. It looked light a knight in shining armor standing up and then would make movements like a real knight to entertain royal families. Later, robots kept advancing as they ranged from recreating anatomy and even automobiles. Fast-forwarding about 900 years in 1946 was the world's first true computer. It weighed roughly 30 tons and was as big as two semi-trucks. As innovations started expanding with technology like computers, they became smaller. Vostok I was launched in 1961 being the first rocket ship ever launched. It was constructed by Russia. In 1969, a man named Victor Scheinman invented the Stanford Arm which was a robotic arm that still impacts robotic arms today. Then, in 1973, Martin Cooper created the world's first cell phone, one of the most used devices in current life. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into the atmosphere and beyond in 1990 to observe our planet from the outside. 1998 was the year that LEGO released their MINDSTORMS robot. Now robots are used in factories as parts of machinery and smaller robots are found in houses comonlty like microwaves.

= Programming Robots = = = Robots have motors that allow them to move which ever way they want to. The motor lets them move forward, backward, and turn. The way that it lets them go forward is the motor turns the wheels forward. The way it moves backward is the motor turns the wheels backward. The way they turn is the motor turns one wheel forward and one backward. The wheel going backward is the one on the side that it is turning, and the one going forward is the one that is propelling it around. Sometimes, some of the challenges that one will face when working with the motors of robots, is that the motor can be connected oddly and it is very hard to tell unless that person feels like reassembling it. Also, the motor could work very well on one side of the robot, but work a little less well on the other side and it can develop problems with the way is steers. Also, the motor could be receiving the programming wrong and could do things incorrectly. The motors can be tricky to use.



A sensor is a device used for measuring that reacts and responds to things around it. There are several different types of sensors. There are ultrasonic sensors, light sensors, sound sensors, and touch sensors. The ultrasonic sensor can be used to detect how close an object is to the robot. The light sensors detect the different shades of light on the ground. The sound sensors detect sound, and the touch sensors detect objects once it feels them. These sensors can be very useful when working with the robots because they can tell your robot not to hit objects around it and help it move smoothly. Also, it can change the way that the robots reacts. It can do different things when it detects something. Sensors on a robot are very important to the way the robot functions.



= SLM - Biology and Life on Other Planets =

There are certain criteria that a living thing must posses to be called "living". Firstly, it should be made of cells. This can be identified by looking closely under a microscope at an object's texture and seeing if it has little cell blocks on its surface. This is easy to see on animals. Secondly, The living thing must need materials meaning that it needs certain materials to grow and to live. They are usually things like food, water, sunlight, etc. They also need to be homeostatic. Being homeostatic means that the living thing stays the same on the inside during changes in the environment. It needs to be responsive to stimuli. The response can either be positive, where it moves closer, or negative, where it moves backward. The stimuli can be anything from noises to light. Reproduction is also a key criteria for living things. It can be sexual or asexual reproduction, sexual meaning that it has two parents and asexual meaning that it has one parent. It has to be able to grow, also. This means that it should develop from being simpler to being more complex. This can include regeneration, cancer, or galls. Adapting to its environment makes it living. Slowly the animals will adapt, or change to fit the needs to survive.



Discovering life on other planets is very difficult. The best way to know if there is life on another planet is to check it out for yourself. First though, a probe should be sent out onto that planet to measure the climate and surface of the planet. You could learn from the results if life would be able to survive on the surface. Then, send a spaceship over to that planet if the probes suggest that life could be there.You could roam the planet to try to find large enough life to see, but that would take too much time and oxygen. You could easily take a few samples from the surface of the planet and take it back to Earth. Then, you could try to identify it using the characteristics of a living creature listed above. If it is, there could be life on a different planet. If not, the planet may not contain life.