Curiosity, anyone?

Curiosity, anyone?

         Combining the forces of Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the two have come out with something grand. In a big step for human kind a rover has been prepared to land on Mars. Launched November 26, 2011, the rover is scheduled to land at Gale Crater on Mars in mid-August 2012. This rover’s task is to establish whether or not the Red Planet is or ever was able to support life.
          Imagine how you would feel if you got to name a famous space rover made by world renowned programs? That’s probably how Clara Ma felt when her essay with the suggested name Curiosity won the Mars Science Laboratory naming contest. The twelve-year old wrote a paragraph that caught the eye of many. Ma wrote:

Curiosity is an everlasting flame that burns in everyone's mind. It makes me get out of bed in the morning and wonder what surprises life will throw at me that day. Curiosity is such a powerful force. Without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. When I was younger, I wondered, 'Why is the sky blue?', 'Why do the stars twinkle?', 'Why am I me?', and I still do. I had so many questions, and America is the place where I want to find my answers. Curiosity is the passion that drives us through our everyday lives. We have become explorers and scientists with our need to ask questions and to wonder. Sure, there are many risks and dangers, but despite that, we still continue to wonder and dream and create and hope. We have discovered so much about the world, but still so little. We will never know everything there is to know, but with our burning curiosity, we have learned so much. (NASA)

Since then, Curiosity has been a long-awaited mission for science nerds everywhere. The answers that this rover promises humanity are the answers to some questions that have been around for a very long time.
          Curiosity is substantially larger than Spirit or Opportunity (the Mars Exploration Rovers that came before it). This rover is about the size of a Mini Cooper which makes it nearly five times as large. It also weighs a hefty 1,984 pounds (1600 lbs. more than the previous rovers). With all the weight and bulk, this rover’s estimated maximum terrain-traverse speed is 90 meters per hour. Please note like I have that during track season not one of CCHS’s athletes ran a 100 meter sprint in more than 30 seconds. So this is probably super slow and painful to watch. Over Curiosity’s two year mission it is anticipated to travel no less than 12 miles.
            The landing spot, Gale Crater, on Mars was chosen out of a list of places because of the different attributes it has. Inside Gale Crater is a mountain rising 3.1 miles of layered rock. Since the mission is to look for any sign of possible life on this planet, one of the first things Curiosity will be doing is taking a look at a very dense and bright colored rock. This kind of rock is different from all other rock types inspected on Mars. It might just be a piece of an antediluvian playa lake deposit. The rocks from there will be checked for the existence of organic molecules. (Wiki)
          Of course this crazily weighted will need insane amounts of power and I honestly think I should get extra-extra credit for writing this paragraph. Through the natural decay of a non-fissile isotope (see why I should extra-extra credit now? *nudge nudge*) of plutonium-238 generators produce electricity. Heat is given off by the decay regardless of the time of year or day. The heat is then turned into the electricity used to operate Curiosity. This method is an extremely smart move for NASA and MSL. Pu-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years giving it a long time to produce energy. (EPA)
          If Curiosity gets the answers that we hope to achieve from this then this will be a major breakthrough. And even though I still can’t get over how super-duper slow this little (kind of big) piece of equipment goes I even hope the best for it. I hope this report this report cured your curiosity of Curiosity (good pun, ay?). So tune in August of 2012 if you want an update on what this little rover has to offer. 

Electromagnetic Pulse

Don’t Cut the Red Wire

            Can one these days possible imagine what life without technology would be like? Texting with cell phones and letting people across the world know that you just made yourself a PB&J sandwich through face book is a highly common and mundane thing nowadays. Most teenage kids (and probably a lot of adults too) would literally have a spaz attack if all the technology were to crash down. So we better start preparing by getting more psychologists because an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack can happen anytime.

            The world has had the knowledge to make an EMP attack happen for a while now. Actually, since 1945 it’s been known about. The United States first discovered this side effect (but almost overlooked it) when they were first testing nuclear weapons in the Pacific Ocean about 1000 miles away from Hawaii. The electromagnetic waves traveled far and blew out a couple electric streetlights and signal lights. It’s an invisible pulse from an nuclear blast that completely and permanently destroys electronic equipment over mass distances.

            Even my mother remembers the possibility of this attack and what it would do. In fact, when the power went of earlier today it was one of the things that had crossed her mind. And that’s not all surprising. She did grow up during the time when that was one of the biggest scares. In 1962, the Soviet Union executed a series of EMP-producing nuclear tests. Yeah, that’s pretty darn scary if I do say so myself. Even though before the U.S. did a test in space called the Starfish Prime (part of Operation Fishbowl, no joke). The Soviet’s came out more powerful and more damaging they were done over a inhabited large land mass and at a setting where the Earth's magnetic field was more intense even though the weapons they used were smaller.
            Fear. That’s the only thing keeping us safe from these attacks from other countries. Fear that we might be able to send something back seconds before our technology is crashed. And we all know that most people wouldn’t be able to handle living without their I Love Lucy re-runs.

Sources

Ÿ  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse

Ÿ  http://www.fas.org/nuke/intro/nuke/emp.htm

Ÿ  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvu08Y9XJ0U

Many Worlds Hypothesis

Oh Those Toothbrushes!

“You may think that in life, a lot of things happen to you along the way. The truth is, in life, you happen to a lot of things along the way.”

 - Dr. Shad Helmstetter

          What would’ve happened if I hadn’t forgotten my lunch today? How would my day be different if I had told my best guy friend that I’ve been crushing on him since I met him?? Each of our days are filled with choices, even if some of them seem inconsequential. Think of all those movies where one of the characters stoop to pick up a penny and they put their head down just in time to save their life from the evil guys’ bullet. Now if that hadn’t happened then that would have been the end of him. But the latter experience comes in a separate spilt off universe. That is what the Many Worlds Hypothesis is explaining.

                Each decision making it’s own path since the beginning of time. Each choice creating a new “island universe”. One says island universe because out of the many number of options since the Big Bang, or whatever one considers to be the beginning of the universe, the one universe that lead up to you, the reader, viewing this particular piece of writing is just one of an infinite number (and I really mean infinite!) of universes created explained in the Many Worlds Hypothesis. It is also known as the Many-Worlds Interpretation.

                To some saying, “Oh this is due to chance; it’s just the cosmic lottery,” just doesn’t cut it for their curiosity and previous conception of the world. That’s how it was with Hugh Everett in 1957, although known as the relative state formulation. Later Bryce Seligman DeWitt made famous and renamed Many-Worlds in the 1960s and ’70s. This theory puts into question a previously conceived idea that our world and universe has been just a single unfolding line of events. Another who has accepted and expanded this idea is Alexander Vilenkin.

          Vilenkin has brought up and published this concept in depth with his book Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes. In which he comments that he is aware that this is too much for a lot of physicists to take in. He also admits to some imperfections within this hypothesis with the commonly brought up understanding of the word ‘nothing’ and the poor logic consisting in that.

          Fine-Tuning: anyone ever hear of it? On philosophyofreligion.info they say, “The argument from fine-tuning suggests that the fitness of the universe for life either involves a series of staggering coincidences, or is the result of intelligent design.”

          Although I’ve heard some physicists and scientist differ on their opinions of whether this particular hypothesis contradicts with or supports the Many Worlds Theory, there is no doubt that these two can easily go side by side when talking about a point. It’s been used to try and confirm the existence of a God. Some may argue the point of how likely it is that everything fell perfectly in line for a piece of rock to be able to contain and support life, and intelligent life at that (which I can argue that point of how we know we should be considered intelligent; just because we compare ourselves to what we have around and that they seem a lot more dim than us. It just seems wrong).

                The point they’re making is that something must have guided this planet and our life forms because it is so highly improbable that we would have made it here and into this situation without the guidance and help from a more superior being. While a bundle of scientists have pointed out that if the Many Worlds Hypothesis was actually true then it would increase the chances of one of the many universes would be capable of bearing and keeping up life we still see multitudes of religions all over the place.

                And honestly it’s quite near impossible to write three pages on this subject because if you’ve looked at any of the websites that I have searched through, you can see that they couldn’t even write a three page essay on this subject. So I call this unfair.

                The Many Worlds Hypothesis is there to point out that through our lives a lot of decisions must be made and from those choices comes multiple consequences. It might have been that if I had told that boy about my long-term crush today that I would have been sitting in my room writing all about that conversation with him in my journal instead of writing this essay on the “should’ve, would’ve, could’ve”s in life. Through all of our choices there is an exact formula that lead each and every one of us to this precise moment in time, life, and the universe.

Sources

Ÿ  http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/the-teleological-argument/the-argument-from-fine-tuning/the-many-worlds-hypothesis/

Ÿ  http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/theistic-proofs/the-teleological-argument/the-argument-from-fine-tuning/

Ÿ  http://www.allaboutscience.org/many-worlds-hypothesis.htm

Ÿ  http://lifelessons4u.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/26-quotes-on-choices/

Ÿ  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Many_worlds_hypothesis

Relativistic Classical Field Theories

Relativistic Classical Field Theories                   

Sam: Let’s do our project on hobos!

Carly: What do hobos have to do with science?

Sam: Aren’t they affected by gravity or something? (iCarly)

                One of the most generic science subjects is gravity. And it’s not just a song from the musical ‘Wicked’ or a song by Sara Bareilles. It relates to everything we do on Earth so it’s no wonder it’s talked about commonly in the scientific world. It’s responsible for the formation of the tides and keeping the planets to remain intact. Gravity is one of the four fundamental interactions, meaning the ways that particles interact with one another, along with electromagnetism, strong interaction and weak interaction.

                When most people hear the name Newton they imagine a boy sitting under an apple tree while an apple falls to the ground giving the boy a sudden “light bulb” thought and thus gravity came into the minds of humans. But in all actuality, the theory of gravity began with Galileo Galilei’s work in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s with his experiment in having balls fall from the Tower of Pisa until it hit the ground and measured how far they rolled down slopes. His experiment showed things that were very contrary to what Aristotle believed that objects with more weight accelerate faster. Then later, a short while after Galileo died, Isaac Newton expanded on his research using his own thoughts about the universe and his knowledge of mathematics. His theory consisted of the thought that an object with more mass exerted a greater force and pulled smaller objects, with less mass, toward it. From there Newton’s mind just kept going forward with the ideas. What if gravity reached out into space? What held up the orbits of the planets? With calculations and thought Sir Isaac Newton came up with ideas that changed the way people looked at the universe and understood it.

                So how gravity works is entirely different than just the history of it. It is common knowledge now that Newton defined gravity as a force and Albert Einstein concluding that gravity is due to the curvature of space-time (space-time being a single continuum that combines space and time). The more mass in an object, the more space around the object is warped. That’s why planets and the Earth can have things “fall into their orbit”. They go into a little dimple made by their massive matter and that’s why all of them stay in their proper place in orbit. This is all a part of Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

                Believe it or not, there are alternatives to the general relativity theory. From the candid theories that just throw it out the opposing, such as Brans-Dicke theory, to the other theories that try to unite gravity with other forces, like the Kaluza-Klein theory, there are many that don’t believe simply in what Einstein had configured. Their rival ideas consist of adding to the general relativistic classical field theory and adding a scalar field. Although most people now only know of the most famous theory by Einstein, the other propositions for how the universe works are starting to get more and more credit.

                Gravity is entwined into our everyday lives. From the moon at night, to running laps during the day, gravity plays a big part in all of lives. And no matter what theory we put our beliefs in, the truth that some sort of force, pull, or field keeps everything in line has been there and will be there for as long as we all can guess.

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation

·         http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brans%E2%80%93Dicke_theory

·         http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geophysics/question232.htm

·         http://icarly-transcript.seesaa.net/article/156837581.html

·         http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blnewton.htm

Space Launch System

Space Launch System

Ever since 1958 when National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) replaced the foregoer National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) there has been great programs and missions coming from it. From Project Mercury to Project Gemini to the famous Apollo moon-landing mission one may start to wonder what will be coming next. Well on September 14, 2011 NASA made public that a new design for the Space Launch System had been chosen.

The Space Launch System, also known as the SLS, is a design that, when completed, will be used to take NASA’s astronauts deeper into space than America has ever gone before. Reason for doing this is, more or less, to start a new era for future space investigation. Also, as stated on the NASA website, they explain, “We will learn more about how the solar system formed, where Earth's water and organics originated and how life might be sustained in places far from our Earth's atmosphere and expand the boundaries of human exploration. These discoveries will change the way we understand ourselves, our planet, and its place in the universe.” (NASA website)
           
            The blueprint for this new program has been elaborately drawn and measured to scale. The actual objects that make up the SLS are an initial crew shuttle and an evolved cargo shuttle. Each of these has been created to suit its own special needs. While they both have a core stage and space shuttle main engines, the crew shuttle includes a multi-purpose crew vehicle, solid rocket boosters, and a launch abort system. The cargo shuttle consists of solid (or liquid) rocket boosters, an upper stage with a different J-2X engine, and a cargo fairing that helps the craft reduce drag.

            Sizing is important in this program. 320 feet will be the size of the crew’s craft. And will way roughly 5.5 million pounds. But that’s a mere nothing compared with the cargo craft; it will be measuring in at 400 feet and 6.5 million pounds! How much weight they will be taking is pretty impressive too. Crew shuttle will be taking 70 metric tons into orbit. The cargo spacecraft will be carrying almost two times that at 130 metric tons.

            Although on the U.S. Space Launch System Fun Facts sheet it says that this program is a “safe, affordable, and sustainable to advance America’s exploration of space” (NASA website), one might get a different feel for the price while looking at the estimated expenses for this trip into space. When NASA first announced their exciting new program they said that the estimated development cost would be $18 billion with SLS being completed with building in 2017. The amount has been split into three sections. With $10 billion heading towards the SLS rocket itself, $6 billion being spent for the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) which will be a back-up for the commercial cargo and crew and the other $2 billion for the launch pad upgrades and other places being used at the Kennedy Space Center (Wikipedia). Just to throw this out there, I don’t know many people who just have that sort of money sitting in their wallets ready to jump out and go to space. Nonetheless, Lori Garver, the NASA Deputy Administrator, conveyed that NASA been “driving down the costs […] by adopting new ways of doing business and project hundreds of millions of dollars of savings each year” (NASA website).

            As for the total schedule this SLS project is going to be on, it’s pretty darn exciting. Even though it’s very fundamental and unofficial, since the project is still in its first stages, this is a worst case scenario budget outline. As stated above, the deadline for the actual completion of the spacecraft and launch pad is in six years in 2017. Then the same year in December NASA would send the MPCV on its very first unmanned trip around the Moon. Again in August 2019 it would be sent on another one. In more than a decades time (August 2024) SLS Cargo configuration will be having its first launch. A year later there will be a manned “exploration” mission. In August of the consecutive years after that there will be a cargo launch, a manned launch, another cargo launch, yet another manned launch, new configuration with a cargo launch, a manned mission, and finally ending up in August of 2032 they’d have an additional new configuration with a cargo launch (Wikipedia). Another thought is that if NASA’s budget doesn’t get tied down as much we could be moving a lot faster than this. Instead of this whole schedule taking up 21 years since now it could be moving a lot quicker. Maybe even cut off almost a decade.

            After all of this, who knows? We could be on our way to collect rocks off of Saturn. So many things can happen because of this project, so many doors can be opened unto us if we just let it. What NASA’s doing with the resources it’s given and the challenge from President Barak Obama to be bold and dream big about space exploration is amazing. It is completely obvious that now we have the next huge mark in the outer space realm in America’s hands because of the Space Launch System from NASA.

Personal Narrative

Easter Time

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

-King James Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:11

            The innocent, carefree days were always the best. Enjoying the company of my family, being able to joke around. Although, through ages six to eleven I didn’t really get to see many of those moments. Those were the years when my brother, who is two years older than me, and I would be in a constant state of rage and hatred against each other. Hair would be pulled and faces punched. It was a miracle if my mum could make it through a day without having to break apart a fight. But even though I’m completely aware that 98% of the time was spent like that, it’s the other 2% times that are fresh in my mind.

            Picture perfect Easter Sunday is as welcome as a present when I wake up in my room, decorated so exact for a six year old who didn’t notice. Chocolate is on my mind, although I know church comes first. I pull on my pink Easter dress, oh so proud that I could do it by myself, and I stalk out of my room like I own the place. Everyone is relatively ready to leave for church and I find it a startling surprise when there has not been a single argument in the car between my brother and I. And that is it. That sets me in an excellent mood.

            By the time we get in our car after church, my three older brothers and even my 18 month old baby brother have caught the giggles, and we are joking around like best friends. My mother can hardly believe it. When we arrive home, my mother makes us stand outside as she runs in. She comes out, camera in hand, and lines us up. We are out there for at least 45 minutes with my mother telling us where to stand and how to tilt our heads, but we barely notice. Jokes and funny stories are being told by my oldest brother and even my mother adds in a few of her own. “Knock-knock!”

            “Who’s there?” us kids scream in chorus.

            The sun is in the sky and the air warm when we go back into my house, laughter still ringing through my head like a choir. ‘I wish everyday could be like this,’ I thought as we sat down to dinner. But I know it’s impossible.

            Harmony in my home is practically never ending now, with only the occasional fight breaking out like bad acne. My brother, who I had thought to be my worst enemy is now one of my best friends. Laughter is used commonly for inside jokes and new stories. And though I would never fathom this before, love is a strong spirit within my family. And on those special “2%” days I have learned what really had taken place; we all forgave each other for the things the other days we would’ve considered inexcusable. We trusted each other and we were honest. That is the basis for the relationship I have with them now. And I wouldn’t have it any other way. 

"The Masque of the Red Death"

“Masking the Signs”

            Symbolism is a tricky literary device used by many famous authors. Such authors like W. W. Jacobs, Robert Frost, and Edger Allan Poe. While a common literary device used in the world of short stories, books, and poems, there is a certain technique to hiding a deeper meaning in a piece of writing. In “The Masque of the Red Death,” Poe has symbolism to portray a more profound religious meaning.

            In this short story there are seven completely separate rooms, each expressing its own feeling by use of color. The first six rooms in this story are relevant to the time humans will spend on Earth as mortals. The reader can see that trace of symbolism using the knowledge that in the Christian world, people believe that God created this world in six days and the seventh day he rested; a day in Gods eyes is equal to about 1,000 years here on Earth. After that, most believe that God has given His children another six days to live on Earth and enjoy all it has to offer and on the seventh day His Son will come again. As the guests of the masque go about from one solidly colored room to the next one can get the feeling that the time on Earth is going by, getting closer and closer to the day when Jesus Christ will come again and the wicked shall be burned.
            In addition to that, Poe has put in some scriptural references. Near the end of the story at the scene when the ebony clock has just struck twelve and the presence of a mysterious masked figure has just been noticed and disapprobation spread throughout the party, the author wrote, “But the figure in question had out-Heroded Herod.”  Herod was a king during the era that Jesus was born and acted intensely when he ordered all the babies two years old and under to be killed. When Poe says “out Heroded Herod,” he is explaining the thing that the masquerade guests were murmuring of: that what this stranger did by dressing up like the Red Death was unnecessary and extreme considering their situation. 
            Simultaneously, the renowned writer makes the characters another example of this literary device. In the story, the Prince Prospero was happy and joyful, thinking he could escape this plague because of the position he was in and the power he had to construct a large barrier between him and the outside world that was full of disease. There are people in this world who don’t agree with Christians in the idea that God may come again to this Earth and they try and block out everything dealing with that. They may even go as far as to belittle those that do. Much like the Prince in the end when he confronts the Red Death by going up to him and demanding, “Who dares? […] Who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery?” The guests who fear this stranger and shy away represent those that fear God and his power. Guests who jump after him and attempt to hurt him and reveal the underlying personage can show the reader that they more like the Prince Prospero.

            Reading writings by more advanced authors, a reader can become more familiar with the presence of symbolism. Edger Allan Poe gracefully wrote “The Masque of the Red Death” and inserted symbolism that depicted a modern Christian world that one can pick-up while reading it.