Margaret+C

=The Search for Life on Mars= //by Margaret C//

//Big Bang from Galaxies//
Our universe was created 15 billion years ago, and ever since, galaxies have been forming. When the explosion happened the universe was expanded. The temperature started dropping as all of the particles started to form. Most of the matter was turned into energy during that period of about a tenth of a millisecond. After about 300,000 years atoms are created therefore radiation can travel farther. After about 2 billion years of particles and atoms floating around galaxies start to form. Gravity is what causes clumps to grow and eventually become a galaxy. Ripples from formation are now able to be detected thanks to the Cobay satellite. As the galaxy starts to form it takes on a sponge like structure. Our galaxy formed when the universe was about 3 billion years old. Our galaxy started as a huge clump of gas then stars started forming and the galaxy settled into a spiral ring of gas. Galaxies are classified according to their shapes: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. In the early universe galaxies were much closer together, therefore many collisions would happen, which was common. Some time in the future our galaxy might collide with the Andromeda galaxy. It is very important that we know the history of our universe because it will make us have a better understanding ofelse in space.

//The Milky Way Galaxy// The Milky Way is our way of seeing the galaxy we live in; though it has many more components than we see. When you see the Milky way's lights and dark patches you are actually seeing light from billions of stars and the dark patches are clouds of dust. 25,000 light years away the milky way is a disk with stars, gas, and dust. At the center of the disk there is a large bulge. The sun is located about half way from the center to the left. On the other side of the disk there is a dwarf galaxy merging with the Milky Way. Looking at it with a birds eye view you can see that the stars are scattered in a halo. There our 4 spiral arms attached to our galaxy. The spiral arms are made out of stars and hydrogen gas. In the center bulge the stars are mainly red and orange. The galaxy can be 5 times bigger than it appears. This proves that there is actually way more to the Milky Way than the eye can see.

//History of Our Solar System//
Our solar system went through many stages to get to wear it is today. The sun was formed when gravity pulled together a cloud of interstellar gas and dust. The rotating ball of gas and dust collapsed into a thin disk with the sun in the center. The sun formed 4.5 billion years ago. The particles in the disk started forming bigger and bigger particles; these were called planeticibles. The icy planeticibles survived. Collisions between planticibles were common. Now what is called the outer solar system, 4 large masses were formed, these became the giant planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. They grew disks wand moons were formed. In the inner solar system there were too many collisions for large planets to form so the planets on the inner solar system are Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Those planets surfaces were heated by bombardments. Radio activity was also generated in the inner core. Later on the moon was said to be formed by a collision between a newly formed Earth and a Mars sized planet. Planeticibles turned into a number of different things including moons. The atmospheres might've been created from the gas of volcanos. Our solar system was complex and took billions of years to form knowing how our solar system was created helps us figure out many other things.

//The History of the Rocket//
Around 100 B.C a Greek inventor named Hero used steam as propulsive gas, but the time of the first rockets is unclear. The Chinese were said to have accidentally made the first rockets. They used bamboo and gun powder to make the first rockets. Rockets were first used in 1232 when the Chinese and Mongols were in war. After the battle the Mongols started making rockets and might have been responsible for the spread of rockets to Europe. In England a monk worked on improved forms of gunpowder which increased the rockets range. Through the 13th and 15th centuries there were many reports of rocket experiments. Nearly all uses of rockets were for warfare or fireworks. In 1898 Konstantin Tsiolkovsky proposed the idea of space exploration by rockets. In the early 20th century Robert Goddard conducted practical experiments in rocketry. Goddard’s rockets started going higher and getting bigger. He developed the compartment for the parachute. Goddard is called the father of modern rocketry.

In the early 20th century the Germans developed the V-2 rocket which was used against London during WW2. It was a success from the liquid oxygen and alcohol. On October 4, 1957 an artificial satellite orbited around the Earth by the Soviet Union. The satellite was called Sputnik 1; it was the first successful satellite to orbit the earth. A few months after the United States launched a rocket of our own called Explorer 1. That’s when the U.S.A created NASA. After that many people started launching more and more things into space. Since the beginning rockets have come from just gunpowder devices to giant contraptions capable of traveling to outer space!

Rocket Stages
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Exploration of Mars
In the past 40 years the mars exploration has been moving at a rapid pace. In 1964 NASA made probes to go to mars. Mariner 3 and Mariner 4 sent as flybys to Mars. Mariner 3 failed but Mariner 4 was successful. Mariner 4 provided the first close-up photographs of another planet. Some of the photos showed that something flowed which was most likely water. Mars Pathfinder was spacecraft that landed with a roving probe on Mars. It was a robotic rover named Sojourner, which was the first rover to operate on the surface of Mars. In 2001 the Mars Odyssey orbiter arrived. Its mission is to hunt for water on Mars. In 2002, it was announced that the probe had detected large amounts of hydrogen, indicating that there are water ice in Mars. Now we are expecting a new rover called Curiosity to land on mars and see if there is any evidence for life…if we do then the next stage will to be to get humans on mars!

Parts of the Rocket
Nose cone- guides airflow around the rocket Body Tube- main structural part Recovery system- device to land the rocket safely Recovery wadding- protects recovery system from explosive Launch lug- guides rocket of launch pad Motor mount- holds motor in place Fin- keeps rocket straight Rocket motor- the thing that makes to rocket move

Rocket Experiment
Our rocket flew the highest which I think is due to its large mass. We did three layers of paint just to make sure that it was pretty heavy. When we launched everything went smoothly, it spun up and the parachute deployed just like we wanted it to! Since we had the largest mass our rocket went the highest which corresponds with my hypothesis.

The purpose of this experiment was to see how mass effected the rockets height. Everyone launched their rocket and then two people 100 meters away measured the angle of the rocket. My partner and I made sure that we painted our rocket just enough that it had a large mass but not too much or else it wouldn’t go very high. The rockets with the larger mass went higher except for one outlier, and the rockets with the lower mass didn't go very high. Our rocket spun and then reached its apogee was one of the only rockets able to let their parachute deploy successfully. My hypothesis was the more mass will make it go higher because if you throw a paper ball or a baseball the baseball goes higher but if there is too much mass It is bad but too light is bad also, and it was mostly correct because the rocket with the largest mass went the highest but so did one other rocket which had the lowest mass. The rocket with the low mass is probably an outlier because other than that my hypothesis was correct. I could improve my rockets flight by clearing the launch lug a little better because it was a little slower getting off because there was some paint in it. Overall I think my rocket was a great success because it did go the highest and the parachute deployed.

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Rocket Fin Experiment
The purpose of this experiment was to see how a different amount of fins effects the max. altitude. We chose to do 4 fins because it would be more stable, but not too heavy. Our rocket is 53g but last time it was50.6. I think our rocket is going to fly the highest because it is the most stable out of everyone's. the control for our experiment is a painted 3 fin rocket, The independent variable is the fin design, the dependent variable is the apogee of the flight of the rocket. Our hypothesis was correct because our rocket went the highest, and it was the most stable and the third lightest. Our rocket's parachute didn't deploy so it came down extremely fast. Our rocket was the most successful. The first graph shows the mass of the rocket versus the maximum altitude of the rocket. In the graph it shows that the heavier the rocket the less high it went. In the second graph it shows the number of fins versus the maximum altitude. This graph shows that the more fins the less high the rocket went.

= = =Graph one=

=Graph two= = =

=Robot History=

Early Years
In 350 B.C Archytas built a mechanical bird called the Pigeon that is propelled by steam. This was one of the first robots and one of the first mechanical flight. In 200 B.C Ctesibus made water clocks. Before clocks were invented the Greeks used hour glasses that had to be turned over after all the sand ran through. His invention changed this because it measured time as a result of the force of water falling through it. These were considered the first clocks. In 1495 Leonardo DaVinci designed a device that looks like a knight. The mechanisms inside "Leonardo's robot" were designed to make the knight move. In 1738 Jacques de Vaucanson built 3 automata. His first was the flute player that could play twelve songs. The third one was the most famous. The duck was his attempt at making robots. The duck quacked, flapped it's wings, ate and digested food. In 1770 Swiss clock makers invented the wristwatch. IN 1822 Charles Baddage used punch cards to attempt to make computers. This is when the modern age of robotics is formed.

Modern
In 1898 Nikola Tesla built a remote controlled robot and used it at Madison Square Garden. IN 1921 Karel Capek used the word robot in a play. Robot means compulsory labor in Czech. In 1926 a movie called "Metropolis" has the first robot to be in a movie. In 1959 John Macarthy and Marvin Misky start the Artificial Intelligence Lab at MIT. In 1962 the first arm robot was created. In 1977 Star Wars created the image of a future with robots. In 1977 Deep space explorers Voyagers 1 and 2 launch from the Kennedy Space Flight Center. To this day many companies such as LEGO have been creating robots and we have been using robots to explore other planets. Robots have been around since the beginning of time and we will keep on improving them.

= Robot Challenges =

Our challenge was to use our programming skills to go around a course. At first it was hard to figure out which way to turn and how far you need to go, but after a couple of tries we figured out how to do it. The NXT program required us using the moving techniques that we learned in the tutorials. We used point turns and curve turn which use different programming skills. We successfully went around the course. media type="file" key="lwf_robot.AVI" width="300" height="300"

=Identifying minerals and Geology on Mars = There are many ways to determine is a something is a mineral. Some are extremely simple tests like determining its lust and color or you could do more complex tests like a streak test or a magnetic test (to see which minerals are magnetic). Usually the more complex the test the more accurate. Some simple tests are color, luster, and hardness. Some more complex tests are streak test, taste test, and for determining if which minerals are magnetic a magnetism test. A hardness test is used with the Mohs scale which determines hardness using everyday objects. A streak test is helpful because every mineral has a certain streak. You take a piece of un-polished porcelain tile and rub the mineral against it and see what color it leaves. All of the tests are helpful in determining if it is a mineral or a rock. Curiosity is going to look for evidence of life on Mars through rocks. Curiosity has a full laboratory in which to test the rocks. First the robot will drill a hole in rock and the excess powder will go back into 2 tubes. Then it will test them to see if the conditions were once right on mars. There is also a laser that helps them look at rocks to hard to reach. All of these capabilities of Curiosity will help geologist determine if there was once life on mars. 

=Characteristics of Life =

====There are 8 characteristics an object has to be to be living. The characteristics are they need to be made of cells, need materials, homeostatic, respond to stimuli, reproduce, grow, adapted, and respiration. When it says that you need to be made of cells it means that your body if made up of different cells, Every living thing needs material to live, like water, food, and sun. Homeostatic means that you stay the same on the inside and internally living things stay about the same despite environmental changes. Even though we grow we don't change material wise. Every living thing responds to stimuli in 2 ways positive: moves towards stimulus or negative: moves away from stimulus. All things develop from a lower or a simpler to a higher or more complex form, yet not every thing grows at the same rate. All living things have adapted, like our evolution. Examples if adaptation are being warm or cold blooded, how many limbs you possess, and other features. In order to be living you must have respiration which is releasing energy stored in the chemical bonds of sugars. There are 2 types that living things can be consumers (like us) which take in food to sustain life or producers (like plants) that create their own food. If an object has all eight of those characteristics it is classified as a living thing.====

=Detecting Life on other Planets= ====People have done many different test to see if there is life on Mars. When Viking 1 and 2 set out for mars they did many different experiments including scooping up a bit of Martian soil and mixing it with a drop of water that contained nutrients and radioactive carbon atoms. The idea was that if the soil contained life-forms they would release radioactive carbon dioxide which could be measured by a detector on the probe. They also tried heating some Mars soil samples to different temperatures and isolating other samples in the dark for months. Sadly the tests came back negative for any life on Mars. Those are just a few of the experiments that they have tried, but most of them have come back negative so far.====