Samuel+C

The Search for Life on Mars = From Big Bang to Galaxies =

In the beginning, about 15 billion years ago, the whole universe was packed into one very small particle, smaller than the nucleus of an atom. Within an extremely short period of time, that small particle exploded out of nothing and it was expanding rapidly. This theory is called the Big Bang. The particles in the Big Bang were quarks, antiquarks, and energy that created bigger particles from the radiation. After about a tenth of a millisecond, protons were made and they merged with other protons. After a very long time, the temperature of the universe fell and electrons were able to orbit protons, which created helium and hydrogen atoms. Galaxies were made from the Big Bang, by gas being clumped together at first, then spreading out around a point. Our galaxy was created just like this. = = = The Milky Way Galaxy = The Milky Way Galaxy is where us humans live. It consists of hundred of thousands of stars. If you look at the galaxy from the side, there is a disk made of stars that is about 100,000 light years across. Gas and dust cut across the middle of the disk, and in the center of the disk is a huge bulge of stars. The Milky Way Galaxy is a spiral galaxy with four arms consisting of many old and new stars. The whole galaxy is turning but each star turns at its own pace. The sun takes about 250 million light years to go through its rotation. = Lives of the Stars = Stars are balls of gas that form in cold, dark clouds of gas. A rippling through space causes clumps or core to form and contracts as gravity pulls it together. The energy heats up the center of the core and a proto star forms. Stars have a massive amount of hydrogen that turns it into helium which provides the star with a huge supply of nuclear energy. Stars are classified in seven different categories based on its mass, color of light it gives off, and how much light it gives off. After a long, long time, the sun/other stars will expand to about 100 times it is now. After a long time, the star will lose its outer layers and the last layer will be flung out which exposes the core of the star. It glows white over a very long period and then fades. = The Sun = The sun is the closest star to earth and consists of mostly hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen nuclei crash hard together and merge. They build up a helium nucleus in the core of the sun. The crashes of hydrogen give off energy to the outer layer of the sun which gives off heat. Sun spots are parts of the sun that are colder than the rest. The sun's magnetic field which is five times stronger than earth's magnetic field can control where sun spots appear. =History of the Solar System = The sun, like all other stars, was formed when gravity pulled together a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. A disk formed and solid material started to merge together to make bigger objects in the solar system. The objects of solid material which were far away from the sun were made of ice while the closer ones were made up of only rock and metal. In the outer part of the solar system, four very large masses formed. They grew disks of their own out of which moons condensed and rotated around the planet. The gravitational pull from these planets were strong enough to hold on to a thick atmosphere of gas. Closer to the sun were four smaller masses that were made up of rock, one of them being earth.

= Hubble Deep Field Academy = The Hubble Space Telescope was sent off into space to take pictures of our universe. One of the astronomer's questions was, "how many objects are there in the HTF?". Some other questions were about the image and how some things were unclear. In the image, astronomers estimated that there were about 3,000 objects in the image. In the universe, astronomers estimate that there are about 50 to 100 billion objects. I guessed that there was about 150 billion objects. Three types of objects classified in the Deep Field are spiral, circle, and oval. The way astronomers can estimate how far away objects are from earth is how much light the objects emits. Size was also a way astronomers estimated how far away it is, but size can't always determine how far away it is. The color of a galaxy can determine how old it is. Some colors are red, blue, white, and yellow. The shape of a galaxy indicates the dust, planet, and star patterns. Gravity pulls these things together but it depends on how strong it is. The process that astronomers use to estimate how many objects are in the universe is called "representative sampling". They divide the sky into equal sections and then count the number of objects in that section. They then multiply the number of objects in the sky by how many sections are in the sky. 

=Rocket History=

The first rocket was created by Hero of Alexdrania in around the year 100 B.C. He boiled water to create steam and the steam went into metal tubes which let the gas out one-way, spinning the sphere around. Below is an image of his invention. Later on, the Chinese would take bamboo tubes and fill it with gun powder. They would throw it in a fire and it would explode. They attatched it to a stick so that the tubes would go straight. Then they attatched they attatched the firecrackers to an arrow. They would light up the tube and it would become a weapon. This firecracker arrow was first used in the year 1232 against the Mongols. Europe experimented with rockets for a while, and the first bazooka was created.

In 1898, a Russian schoolteacher, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, thought that they should use liquid to propel a rocket. An American named Robert Goddard conducted experiments with rockets. He experimented with liquid fuels. In the year 1926, Goddard achieved the first successful flight with a liquid-propellant rocket, rising up to 12.5 meters in the air. Rockets were created for war, and were used a lot in World War 2 to attack cities and kill many people.

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched a satellite which was called Sputnik I. A few months after Sputnik I, the U.S. launched its first satellite, called Explorer I. After this experience, many more satellites were launched into space. They could give humans the ability to forecast weather, communicate around our world, and many more things. Human beings were launched into space and they landed on the moon. The rocket has come a very long way since the beginning of it.

Sputnik I

= = = Model Rocket Labeled Parts =



Rocket Flight

In the rocket experiment, we launched our own rockets and we would see how high the rocket could fly. We were also testing whether the amount of paint we put on would affect the results of the height it flew. In order to build the rocket, we used a kit and put it together. In order to know how high the rocket flew, we used angle guns and did some trigonometry. First, we took a Trundle Wheel and counted 100 clicks away from the rocket. Each click was 1 meter, so we stood 100 meters away. Using the angle guns, my lab partners and I would point the gun at the rocket when it was at its apogee to know the angle of how high it went. We took the average of the angles we got. Using the equation "100(tan of the angle). We used a calculator to calculate our answer. Our rocket's angle was 32 degrees, making the height 62.5 meters high. Normally, the rocket with more mass would launch higher because it has more momentum to keep it pushing foward. I think that the mass affected the altitude of the rocket because the lightest rocket went about 62.5 meters, and the heaviest rocket went about 70 meters. The rocket with the maximum altitude went up 91.6 meters, and it was around the middle of the group according to the mass. Light won't go up high enough, nor will heavy. Sometimes, the rocket would mess up and it wouldn't fly as high as it could've if it didn't mess up.

Our rocket took a while to ignite. We had to adjust the connection a couple of times, and there was a delay after we pressed the button. The rocket made a loud, sizzling sound while lifting off and it went pretty fast. The fire was on for about half a second and then died out. It coasted for most of the time after the fire went out. It's apogee was about 62.5 meters high. The parachute ejected after the apogee, and during the recovery, it flew to the north, over the CA bushes. Our construction of the rocket was pretty good. None of the fins broke when it fell, and the parachute opened when it was falling. I think if we put a little more paint, our rocket could've flown higher because there is more momentum carrying the rocket.

= Mars Rover Drop = This project was to see if we could drop a raw egg of of a platform and see if it didn't break. We could use material to soften the fall or slow it down, but it also had to land on a target. Our group taped two blown balloons to a plastic bag that was filled with lots of paper, paper towels, and bubble wrap. Inside the group of cushoning, we made a spot for the egg to be in. We used two cups and put a little more bubble wrap in it. That was the place we put the egg in. After we put the cups in the plastic bag, we blew up the plastic bag. Our group designed the Mars Rover Drop like that because we needed lots and lots of cushoning so the egg had a soft landing. We attatched the two balloons to the blown plastic bag because they were light and they could slow down the fall. In the end, our egg was not cracked. Our vehicle landed on the target, so we were successful in two things. The last thing was that we had to get the egg out in 45 seconds or less, and we were successful in that too. I personally liked our design. It was pretty simple and it was easy to get the egg out. I don't think I would do anything differently because our egg was not cracked and it landed on the target.

= Programming Lego Mindstorm Robots =

In the robot we used, there were two motors. On the motors were wheels so the robot could drive forward, backward, and turn left or right. In order to move forward ofr backwards, the motors had to use equal force. In order to turn left, the right motor had to be stronger. For the robot to turn right, the left motor had to be stronger than the right. We used a program that could program the robot to move in different directions. The program allowed us to make a path for the robot to move in so it could aviod obstacles. It also allowed us to determine the amount of force the robot used to move. Some challenges of this is that the different flooring would have different traction. On the carpet, we had to use more power to move the same distance as moving on the tiles because of traction of the carpet.

A sensor is something that reacts to light, sounds, etc. The sensors that we used were light, sound, touch and ultrasonic. Using the light sensor, the robot was able to follow a line based on the darkness of it. The sound sensor could react to a small sound or a big one. We used a clap for a small sound and it went forward. We screamed at the robot for a big sound and it went backwards. For the touch sensor, the robot would run into an object. The sensor would spring backwards and it would crush something, telling the robot to stop. The final sensor we used was an ultrasonic sensor. It could detect how far away an object was and would react in a way we programmed it. We put created a path with 3 cardboard posters standing up. It would move forward some and then once it detected the poster, it would turn and go another way.

Robot we used



Ultrasonic sensor on robot

Geology on Mars Geologists have many different ways to identify different types of minerals. Each type of mineral has its own unique chemical composition, making it possible to identify it. Some ways to identify a mineral is by the color, luster, hardness, streak, magnetism, light refraction, and taste. Some minerals have a colors which makes it easy to identify it, but if the color looks the same, you would need more information to identify it. Luster is the color the mineral reflects when it is put under a light. There is a scale for hardness that the minerals follow. You can scratch a mineral against an object and if it leaves a scratch, the mineral is harder than the object. You can do this test on many objects so it can be easier to identify the mineral. Streak is the color that the mineral leaves when scratched on a white or black streak plates. They might leave different colors than their surface color which can be unique. You can put a strong magnet up to a mineral and test its magnetism. Light refraction can take light and change the direction it is going, so it will change the image if you hold the mineral up to something. Minerals have different tastes and geologist will taste the mineral in order to identify it.



The Mars rover will be able to perform geology experiments by the way the humans program it to. Humans did experiments before and programmed the robot to do the same thing. The robot will take samples from the ground and observe it to see what rocks or minerals it is. Then using that information, it will send results to humans and humans can see how those minerals could affect the life on Mars.

=Characteristics of Life= In order to have life, an living thing must have 8 characteristics. The first one is that it must be made up of cells. Cells are the fundamental units of living things. The second thing is that it needs living materials like water, minerals, and air. If it can survive without at least one of those materials, it is not living. The third characteristic is that it is homeostatic. That means that internally it stays the same despite different environment changes. An example of this is body temperature. The fourth one is that it responds to stimuli, meaning it has to react to a stimulus. The fifth requirement is that it reproduces. This is the process by which organisms produce offspring of their own kind. The sixth characteristic is that it must grow. It has to develop from a lower or simpler to a higher or more complex form. The seventh thing is that it adapts to environment. The living this changes to a way that suits the conditions it is living in. The last requirement is that it must respire. That means it has to release energy stored in sugar.

[[image:ca-science7/#SCcharacteristicsoflife.JPG width="404" height="1.5; height: 201"]]Some o f the characteristics of life.
Humans have tried to find life on other planets. People might try to create a robot to send onto another planet. The robot could preform tests in the soil to see if there is any bacteria because if there is, that means that there was once life. Another way scientists do it is by using a radio telescope. Humans have tried to track radio frequency from outer space to see if there is any movement from there. We also try to send out probes to take pictures from above a planet and try to find anything unusual. They can observe the surface of the planet and the conditions it was once in.