Nathan+M+SFLOM

=**//__ The Search For Life On Mars __//**=

__ Electricity __ Electricity is the flow of electrons that can cause certain functions to happen. For example, a light bulb lighting up. There are three types of electricity, and they are as follows. Electric current is the simplest of the types. It is when electrons are flowing through a conductor. An example of current is electrons flowing through a wire to light up a light bulb. The second type is static electricity which is electricity that is static, or still. An example of static electricity is when a balloon is rubbed on a head covered with hair, the balloon will then stick to some things. The third type of electricity, electric discharge is when static electricity is quickly released. Examples of this include lighting and being shocked by a doorknob.

On a trip to Mars to search for life, electricity is a very important component. Electricity will need to be used to power the computers that keep the spaceship on course, and flying. Electricity will be needed to light the ignition to get the rocket off the ground. Lights in the ship and most other automatic components will be electric, including airlock technology. Landing would be partially automated using computers and also partially manual using thrusters. Searching for life on mars would also take electricity. For example radios sending signals back to earth to communicate discoveries are also electric.

__ Magnetism __

Magnetism is a force that can affect objects based on their polarity. There are two poles in magnetism, north and south. A magnet always has the electrons in its atoms spinning in the same direction. This is what causes it to become a magnet. A magnet will always have a north and south pole, never just one of the two. The attraction and repulsion of magnets are as follows. A north pole will repel another north pole. A south pole will always repel another south pole, but a south pole will attract a north pole and vice versa. Magnets can also attract objects made of cobalt, iron, nickel, or any alloys of these. Each magnet has a magnetic field. These magnetic fields help to affect objects from a distance, not just if two objects come in contact.

On a trip to Mars where the goal is to search for life, magnetism could be very helpful. First of all, a compass will function because Mars, much like Earth, has a magnetic field. This is useful because if there is civilization on Mars, this may help lead us to it by using its navigation ability. Magnetism could also be a good way to lift the spaceship into place for launch, as electromagnets can be tuned on and off to lift heavy objects. Between these two reasons, magnetism will be very useful on a trip to mars to find life.



__ Crash Course in Astronomy __

From Big Bang to Galaxies The big bang was how we believe the world was created. Before the big bang all the matter in the world was in a minuscule spec. That minuscule spec exploded into the big bang. In the beginning there were quarks anti-quarks and energy. The big bang is still going and the world is still expanding.

The Milky Way Galaxy The Milky Way is the galaxy that we live in. The milky way was created about three billion years after the universe. It has a flat disk of stars. In the center of the galaxy, there is a ball-shaped bulge. The Sun and it's planets, including Earth, are located in the ring of stars. The galaxy is surrounded by dark matter.

Lives of the Stars Stars form in cold dark space. The star starts forming from gasses and becomes a proto-star. This proto-star will spin until it is a full star. When a star runs out of fuel, it will become a supernova explosion.

The Sun The Sun is the center of our universe. It is a star, which means it I a big ball of gas. It is huge, hundreds of times the size of earth. It is the closest star to us by far, others are millions of times farther.

History of the Solar System The solar system started in the big bang. The sun formed and then the planets did. Solid particles clumped into planets. Then Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars formed after the Sun.

__ Rocket History __

Rocket history began at about 100 B.C. when a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria invented the Hero engine. This engine was a fairly large contraption. It worked like this: there was a kettle filled with boiling water over a fire. The steam from this water funneled into a spinning bulb. This bulb spun when the steam went into it because there were two L- shaped spouts that the steam would come out of (diagram below). This was really the first big step in engine-making. The next great step in rocketry was the Chinese fire-arrows. They were invented just a century after the Hero engine. The Chinese would attach a very primitive rocket (made from gunpowder and a casing) to an arrow and fire it by bow. This was the first big step in rocketry. . The V-2 rocket was invented in the 20th century by a German group called The Verein fur Raumschiffahrt. This rocket is shown in the diagram below. The V-2 was propelled by a mix of water, alcohol, and liquid oxygen, producing a huge amount of thrust. The rocket also had automatic gyroscopic control and a radio receiver so that it knew where to go. The warhead (explosives) at the tip of the rocket were powerful enough to blow up an entire city block. The V-2 was used in WWII against London and the Allied Forces. Luckily, this rocket came too late in the war to change the outcome.

__ Rocket Experiment __

A labeled model rocket

The purpose of the experiment was to see if mass affected the altitude of the rocket. The experiment was performed as follows. The rocket was placed on the launch pad and the wires were hooked up to the ignition. There was a countdown and then the two buttons were pressed and the rocket was ignited. It flew into the air and after a few seconds, the parachute deployed. It then drifted back down to the ground.

The results of the experiment are shown in the chart below. Our rocket flew 70 meters into the air, with the highest rocket flying 101.8 meters vertically. We calculated this altitude using trigonometry. There was an observer 100 meters away from the launch pad. That observer used an angle gun to find the angle of the rocket at max altitude from where they were standing. By multiplying the 100 meters by the tangent of the angle the observer measured, we found the altitude of the rocket at max height. My hypothesis was incorrect for this set of data. The lighter rockets flew higher than the others. If there was more wind my hypothesis may have been correct. If the wind speed variable was added to this experiment it may have had different results.

A chart that shows the relationship between the max altitude and mass of a set of rockets

__ Mars Rover Drop __ Our Mars Rover Drop vehicle is pictured below. It follows a few basic principles. These keep it upright, slow the fall, and pad the landing. The balloons on top are responsible for keeping it upright. With the little amount of drag the balloons create at the top of the vehicle, it stays straight. The parachute, which is a plastic bag cut halfway up the edges to increase surface area, helps slow the vehicle down, and also helps keep it upright. The cups, bubble wrap, and paper at the bottom of the vehicle padded and cushioned the fall, increasing the impact time thus decreasing the force of impact. All parts of the vehicle functioned just as planned and the baby food jar situated in the cups did not break when thrown on the tennis courts from the pavilion. We would not do much different next time.

Our drop vehicle

__ Robot History __

A robot is a machine made of parts and a programmable computer that can not only complete tasks but sense it's environment. Robot history really began in the early 20th century during the industrial revolution. Early robots were used to complete silly and usually unneeded tasks. They were more of a novelty, but as they were developed further the tasks they could perform became more practical. The humanoid robot Elektro was debuted at the 1939 World's Fair. It was 7 feet tall, weighed 265 pounds, could talk (within parameters), walk, smoke cigarettes, blow up balloons, and move it's arms, head and neck. Elektro was one of the first well-developed humanoid robots.



Elektro

Since the time of Elektro, robots have come a long way. Robots are now used to automate the production of thousands, even millions of products, even cars! There are even robotics competitions, the First Lego League (FLL) is a competition that uses LEGO NXT robots for not only fun but education. Robots can even play Jeopardy!

WATSON is a modern day supercomputer robot that can think and act like a human. It was designed and built by a special team for IBM. WATSON is artificially intelligent and once played on the popular game show Jeopardy and won against some of the show's best players. It used voice recognition and it's ability to scan the internet for useful information to be able to produce correct answers within seconds. WATSON is a great example of what can, and will be done with robots in the future. Watson

__ Programming Robots __

Lego Mindstorms NXT robots can be programmed in many ways, using motors and sensors. Motors can be programmed on the NXT using the Mindstorms programming software on a computer. In the software, "motor" blocks are used to rotate the motor(s) specified by the user. These motors can be used to not only spin wheels to move, turn, and reverse, but also rotate other motors to complete other tasks. These motors were used for simple tasks like moving and turning and for challenges that involved multiple turns like driving in a square. One challenge of programming a robot is measuring the number of rotations needed for a certain distance, as this was more of a guess and check process. A sensor is a small electrical device that can sense it's environment in different ways and let a central computer know what it senses. Types of sensors include touch, light, color, sound, and ultrasonic. These sensors are programmed to make a robot move motors when sensing the correct data. This uses the "wait for" blocks in the NXT software.

__ Geology of Mars __

Minerals can be identified in many ways. These include streak tests, cleavage tests, color, opacity, UV light tests, and acid tests. A streak test can be conducted by scraping the mineral across a ceramic plate. The streak left behind will help identify the mineral. A cleavage test can be conducted by chiseling a rock. If the rock comes off in small pieces that means it has fracture but it may also come off in clean sheets, meaning it has cleavage. Color can be identified by observing the mineral, as can opacity. A UV light test can be conducted by shining UV light on the mineral. The way the mineral fluoresces can help identify it. An acid test can be conducted by dripping acid onto the mineral. What happens next will also help identify the mineral. The Curiosity rover was sent to Mars and has successfully landed. It is currently taking geological data about Mars. It has two laboratories that are constantly pumping through and analyzing rocks and minerals. The rover scoops up materials and puts them into the labs. The labs use a laser to heat up the rocks and minerals in order to identify them. This is why Curiosity is called the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL). Because it contains these laboratories, Curiosity's main mission was, and still is, to uncover the geology of Mars. Curiosity, the MSL, before it traveled to Mars.