Packing for Mars

All the items your crew takes along must fit into a box 1 meter wide by 1 meter high by 1 meter deep—in other words, having a volume of 1 cubic meter (1 m3). (One meter is about 39-1/2 inches).

Mission to Mars

Brianna Trujillo
Laura Walkingstick
Katie Flippin

We chose the topic mission to mars and for that we are going to create a shuttle and determine what we would need for the shuttle, how it launch it, how it would enter space and fly.
When we get to mars we are going to explain/demonstrate the seasons, night and day, what constitutes a year, lunar phases and two types of eclipses. We will do this creating diagrams, acting it out, pictures and models.

Harwood Diagram

Making Observations - Create a light weight miniature balloon and create a heat source at the bast so balloon will lift. We had to make the balloon out of something light enough to lift off a minimal heat source. The heat source had to create enough heat to make balloon lift without weighing it down. Tissue paper is good material for balloon because it is light weight and we can construct the balloon to our satisfaction. Plastic did not work. Birthday candles didn't create enough heat to fill balloon, so we used solid fuel cubes that burn at 1400 degrees F and are still light weight.

Defining the Problem - Our problem was finding the right heat source and the right material for the balloon. We tried plastic bags with birthday candles at the base, but that didn't create enough heat. We tried a plastic bag with numerous candles and just holding the bag over the candles, but all the heat burnt the bag. We then created a balloon made of tissue paper, we used a blow dryer to fill the balloon to see if it lifted, and it did. We then had to find a heat source hot enough for our big balloon but light enough to carry it.

Forming the Question - Our question was also our problem. How do we create a balloon light enough to be lifted by minimum heat source? How do we even make a balloon? What should the structure of our balloon be? How do we create a heat source hot enough to lift the balloon and light enough to be carried by it?

Investigating the Known - The balloons from the balloon fiesta create evidence that our project can be successful. We also watched numerous videos on youtube of people created fixtures similar to ours and they were successful in flight.

Communicating with Others - Our group communicates very well, we are generally on the same page and when any of our members has a question or idea we all stop to listen and evaluate what they have to say. Communication is key, especially when members don’t show up to the class sessions every time. Communicating inside and out of the classroom was very helpful and made our project much more productive. We came up with the initial idea for our experiment together and communicated throughout the entire production. As a group we had many questions and had to adjust our design many times, on through our solid communication did we come up with solid ideas. We even communicated with another group that worked on a similar project; this helped us in our progression and design prototypes.

Reflect on Findings - What we found so far, first and foremost is that our balloon is very flammable. It went up in flames and turned to ash within 2 seconds. Aside from this, we found many things that influenced our production. Such as the size of our envelope and the degrees of heat that our fuel source emits and how much heat it would take to propel our envelope. We found that with the size of our envelope we needed about 1300 degrees of heat to fill our balloon so it would take of and fly. We also found that the balloon becomes much more buoyant when you take it outside and the cold air is surrounding it as opposed to room temp air. We are not completely done, so we still have things to find.

Examining Results - The only result we have so far is our balloon going up in flames. It is very valid that tissue paper will turn to ash within seconds if it comes in contact with a flame. We also found that in cold air our balloon will become buoyant much faster which is completely valid. Our diagram of motion also is very valid and the forces documented on it are correct.

Carrying out the Study - Our research plan was rather simple, use sources from the Balloon Fiesta, youtube, as well as our in class text. We collected all of our data, mainly through the use of photographs and videos that we shot.

            

Articulating the Expectation - We predicted many different things. Our first prediction was that by using a small plastic bag and attaching small birthday candles we could make it fly. Our second was that we could make a trash bag fly by putting several candles on a table and simply putting the trash bag over the candles. Our last prediction was that by making a replica of a hot air balloon out of tissue paper and connecting a fire source at the base we could make it fly. 

Diagram of Motion

Hot air balloon...fail

Floating Lantern

For our project so far we have discussed the items we need to build the lantern. 

We are getting plastic produce bags to use as the lantern

 tape, a birthday candle and skewers.

We are also going to make an additional lantern that has a different set up than the first, for this we need bigger candles that we are going to place on the ground. For this lantern instead of building the heat source into the lantern the source is going to stay on the ground. 

we are using this video as a guide

http://youtu.be/vb4g5-oUrhQ

Part 2 - Activity MOdel for Inquiry Questions

Communicating with others - Our group communicated well, we all had ideas we brought to the table

Reflect on Findings - Our first attempt at burning the candle underwater we did not make the candle ourselves. The experiment did not work at all, we needed the magnesium on the wick for the candle to stay burning underwater.

Examining Results - The video of the candle burning underwater really helped us step by step and it was a successful experiment.

Carrying Out the Study - Our first question was can we make a candle burn underwater? We then looked online at video's of people's attempts and found a video that showed us how to do it step by step. We got supplies to make a candle and all the supplies needed to burn it underwater and tested out the experiment. Our first trial we did not self make the candle and it did not work, our second trial we made the candle and it successfully burned underwater.