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__Hows Electricity Helps Search for Life On Mars __

Electricity is a part of nature that contains negative and positive types. It can be part of a natural phenomena and is observable in the attraction and repulsions of different things with electric charge. There are three main types of electricity, static electricity , current electricity , and discharge electricity . Static electricity is electricity that gathers and stays in one place without moving. Rubbing a balloon on a wall then it sticking to the wall is an example of static electricity. Current electricity is electricity that moves around from one place to another in a flowing manner, for current electricity to be present there must be a path or circuit that electricity can run through. A machine being powered by electrolytes in fruit juice is a form of current electricity. Discharge electricity is when the electricity doesn’t have a path to go on and the electricity is going everywhere in an unorganized way. A plasma globe has all three forms of energy in it, discharge is one of the types of electricity in a plasma globe though.

On a trip to mars electricity would be vital to survive. If you were going to Mars to search for life you would need lots of machinery to detect living things and life, those machines would need to be powered through electricity. Another way that electricity would be really important is getting to Mars would be impossible without electricity, because you need electricity in the space ship to work the controls to steer, land, and to get working lights in the space ship. Anyone going to mars would need electricity to communicate to the base wherever the space ship launched from, you would need electricity to send messages or to talk to the people on earth at the base while you are on mars.

__** History of Rockets **__

__Early Rocketry__

An aeolipile was the first device to contain and show the main principles of a rocket. In about 100 B.C. a Greek inventor named Hero of Alexandria used steam to create something like a propulsive gas for the first time. No one knows when the first true rockets appeared but there are stories of rocket-like devices through historical records. The Chinese had a gunpowder that they used on bamboo during festivals and holidays, they realized that the gun power sometimes shot around rather than create explosions. That is when they used that gunpowder to create things that could launch because the gunpowder would launch themselves through the gas escaping.

__Modern Rocketry__

In 1898, a Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky had the idea of using rocketry to explore space. He was the first to propose the idea of using liquid propellants to get objects to space. He was considered the Father of Rocketry because of his discoveries, research, and ideas. Robert H. Goddard, had more ideas in the early 20th century. He began by exploring solid propellant rockets. Goddard's first successful flight was in 1926, and he used liquid gasoline and oxygen. The rocket he created flew for 2.5 seconds and launched 12.5 meters high. He experimented with liquid propellants for many years after that. The rocket only got better after these discoveries.





__Rocket Results __ The purpose of this experiment was to see whether or not the mass of the rocket affected the max altitude or not. This experiment was performed through creating a hand made rocket, with a rocket kit and painting the rocket for decoration. After that an explosive and recovery kit were placed in the rocket. It was constructed similarly to a real life rocket, although the landing was a little different than it would be. The class altogether constructed 9 different rockets. We used trigonometry to discover the max altitude through multiplied 100 by the tangent of the angle from the angle gun. My hypothesis was incorrect because I hypothesized that the rockets with more mass would have a higher altitude but what happened was the rockets with more mass had a lower altitude.



Our rocket had a mass of 46.2 grams and the altitude was 91.6 meters. After making the scatter chart, I noticed that the rockets with more mass had a lower altitude and the rockets with higher mass had a higher altitude. Some rockets had more mass than others because of the paint that was on them, the more paint that was on the rocket the higher the mass was.



**Nose Cone:** Helps with the airflow of the rocket. **Recovery System:** Gets the rocket back to the ground safely, and is stored inside the body tube. **Body Tube:** A strong structural part of the rocket. **Recovery Wadding:** Protects the recovery system to overheat from the ignition. **Launch Lug:** Guides the rocket straight off the launch pad. **Motor Mount:** Holds the rocket motor in place. **Fins:** Keeps rocket travelling straight. **Rocket Motor:** Carries ignition to get the rocket off the launch pad.

__Rocket Drop Take 2 - Egg Drop Vehicle __

Olivia and I created a drop vehicle using two paper towels, a piece of paper, a paper cup, two balloons, a Ziploc bag, a piece of string, a sheet of bubble, twelve popsicle sticks, two pipe cleaners, and half a roll of tape. We used the paper towels and paper as the flotation part of our drop vehicle, and the balloon acted as a thrusting force. We used the Ziploc bag as a parachute, and the cup as the place to put the egg, we wrapped the egg in bubble wrap for further protection. The popsicle sticks were placed in a "x" so that the whole contraption would not tip over as easily when it dropped.



Some things that went well were that no parts of our drop vehicle fell off and we were able to get our egg out and unwrapped from the bubble wrap in the 45 second time limit. Although some things that didn’t go so well was that our drop vehicle did not land right side up, causing the egg to hit the ground with minimal protection. Our balloons and parachute were not as air resistant as we hoped them to be making the fall harder. We could have used the balloons as a rocket to push the vehicle away from the ground. Along with that our egg could have used more cushioning when it was sitting in the cup. I don't think we need any new or anymore materials, I believe some of the materials we were using were unnecessary and we could have placed some of our materials differently, and in different spots.

__History of Robots __

Robots have been around for many centuries. A robot is a programmable machine for performing tasks. In 359 B.C. a Greek Philosopher created the first Mechanical Bird, which was powered by steam. This invention led to many more ideas and creations, which led to robots. Leonardo Da Vinci made plans to build the first humanoid robot in 1495. The robot was not built, although there were sketches and plans for building it. In 1932 the first robot toy was built in Japan. It was a metal device that stood 15 cm tall, and walked through a child's commands.

Robots are used in many ways to help people. They are used to do human tasks more efficiently, to support people with disabilities, to help humans communicate, and help with medical conditions. There is a robot named Charlie, that was designed to help autistic children. This robot can sense movements, and copy them. She can also be programmed to show certain movements and motions to children who have trouble learning certain movements. She is designed for children because she has break away features built in for the children who aren't very gentle when playing with her. She has a face with human features, but looks like a teddy bear. She spends time with many different children to help them.



Mindstorms Discoveries Robots operate through motors. A computer communicates certain directions to the motor, in order for the robot to move. Programming a motor is telling it how to move the robot. A robot can move in many different ways such as moving forwards, backwards, accelerating, and turning around. All motors need to be equal for certain tasks, this can cause some difficulties, when attempting to move forwards or turn around. When moving forwards both sides of the robot need to be balanced, if one side weighs more than the other, then it might tip over. As well as turning around, if the robot is unbalanced it could turn more or less than expected.

A sensor is something that is used to help a robot sense its surroundings, and to help it move according to its surroundings. There are many different types of sensors, including ultrasonic, sound, touch, and light sensors. A sensor is very helpful when it comes to a robot knowing its surroundings. Sensors can help with the safety of a robot because certain sensors, sense what is in front of the robot, and it will stop before hitting something. There are many ways sensors can help robots perform tasks.



__Geology on Mars __ There are countless amounts of rocks and minerals on all planets. Minerals can be identified through examining their color, luster, magnetism, how it reacts to UV lights, and shape. Another way to identify minerals is by scratching it against an unglazed porcelain tile. It will leave a mark of a certain color and substance, which is a big part in determining types of minerals. A geologist on earth would make observations and do tests to see what the mineral is made out of, the different substances in minerals can tell geologists' a lot. There are many ways to identify minerals. Curiosity, the NASA rover currently on Mars is going to perform many tests on the rocks and minerals on the surface of Mars, searching for life. The rover, can perform many tests, and can pick up rocks. The rover can identify certain minerals through looking at its color, luster, shape, and what it is made out of. There are also other tests such as searching for living things in a mineral. Curiosity is capable of many different tests on Mars.