The Travels of Sojourner The Mars Rover

The Travels of Sojourner the Mars Rover

The Planet Mars. (4)

          Sojourner the Mars Rover was the first robot to ever land on the planet Mars. He was a robot who had six wheels and a tiny body about the size of a remote control car. He had a camera attached to his body and received energy from the sun through a panel attached to his back. Sojourner was a special robot because he had been where no human or robot had ever been before. He was rolling through the surface of Mars! But Sojourner just didn’t go to Mars for the fun of it. He had a job to do and a lot of responsibility on his robotic shoulders. He had to explore and investigate the unknown and dangerous surface of Mars.

Sojourner the Rover (Clip Art)

        Sojourner’s job was to take pictures of this red desert-like land and send them back to scientists on earth. It was a very risky job for Sojourner to travel the rocky deserts of Mars, and Sojourner was all alone. He had no other rover friends to help him explore.

       Sojourner had spent years exploring until one day he saw in the distance what looked like two more rovers. Sojourner excitedly wheeled towards these two rovers and introduced himself.

          “Hi, my name is Sojourner” he said.

          “Hello! My name is Spirit” said the one rover, “And I’m Opportunity” said the other.

Spirit and Opportunity (Clip Art)

          Sojourner noticed that Spirit and Opportunity were much bigger than he was and had a lot more tools attached to their bodies. They had bigger cameras, bigger solar panels attached to their backs, tools to dig through the ground, and drills to drill through rocks (5). They were supposed to look and dig for water as well as take more picture of the surface of mars (5). What Sojourner also noticed was that these two rovers were exactly the same, almost like they were twins.

           Although Sojourner had new friends, they didn’t stay long. Spirit and Opportunity had bigger missions to accomplish and were headed to the polar ice caps of Mars to look for water (3). Sadly, Sojourner was again alone and without a companion.

         Many years passed and Sojourner had completed all the missions that the scientist asked of him. While wondering around the red planet one day, Sojourner saw in the distance a massive rover digging through the dirt and drilling through rock. This rover was almost the size of the car and had a robotic arm attached to its body along with digging and drilling tools (5). He was a state of the art rover equipped with all sorts of advanced technology Even though Sojourner was intimidated by this huge rover he gathered the courage to introduce himself.

       “Hello my name is Sojourner”

       “Hi. I’m Curiosity! You’ve been here for a long time haven’t you? Have you seen any aliens? I’m supposed to be looking for intelligent life here on Mars.”

        “Well I haven’t seen any green men walking around here and I’ve been here for years. But if you dig through the dirt you might find smaller aliens. They may not be green and they’re probably microscopic”

Curiosity the Biggest Rover (1)

          When Curiosity heard this news he seemed to be disappointed. He was expecting to see big green aliens on the planet but now all he could hope to find were tiny organisms in the soil. Sojourner, being an experienced traveler of Mars, offered to guide Curiosity through the rocky terrain. Curiosity, who was very happy to have some company took Sojourner along with him to help him complete his mission. Sojourner finally had a companion to travel with on the barren and deserted planet. He was no longer alone.

Curiosity (2)

    
 Sojourner, Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity still rove around the surface of Mars today looking for signs of life, searching for water, taking pictures, and digging through soil. These robots may be far away on a distant planet, but the work they do is still very important. Who knows, maybe one day these rovers will find big green aliens on the planet Mars! 
   

References

   
 1. Curiosity the Biggest Rover [Online Image]. (2014). Retrieved from   https://www.pinterest.com/pin/554083560377423305/

    
2.Curiosity [Online Image]. Retrieved from http://www.fotosearch.com/UNN011/u551573  

     
  3.Grotzinger, J. (2013). Field trip on mars: Curiosity, the mars rover, is the next best thing to being there. National Geographic, 28. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=16&sid=460a8f07-d06a-4915-ba71- fc5091a92e3a%40sessionmgr111&hid=126&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.336843582

     
 4.The Planet Mars [Online Image]. Retrieved from https://images.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVvBAPH1UdDUABwQPxQt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsa3ZzMnBvBHNlYwNzYwRjb2xvA2JmMQR2dGlkAw--?_adv_prop=image&fr=yhs-Elex-elex_v9&sz=all&va=mars+clip+art&hspart=Elex&hsimp=yhs-elex_v9

5. Wright, A. (2013). Revving the Rover. Communications Of The ACM, 56, 14-16. doi:10.1145/2408776.2408782 

How Does Your Computer Think?

Have you ever wondered how your computer or tablet is able to do so many amazing things? Just like humans use their brains to think, so do computers. The brain of a computer is called a PROCESSOR. This processor gives directions for your computer to follow. But how do our computers read and understand these directions?

What Language Does Your Computer Speak?

It might sound crazy, but computers have their own language! You might have been thinking of English, Spanish, or even French, but computers use a language called BINARY CODE. This language lets computers understand, read, and complete the directions given by their brains, or the 

Figure 1: Binary Code

processor we talked about above. Unlike any normal language that humans use and is written and spoken using the ABCs, binary code uses NUMBERS. In fact, it only uses two numbers which happen to be ZERO and ONE! These ones and zeroes are put together to create a secret code that only the computer can read along with the humans who invented this code. To get a better look at this “secret code,” a picture is provided above in Figure 1 of what all computers have to read (3). Since these secret codes of ones and zeroes are difficult for humans to read, they started to think of ways to make an easier language for both humans and computers to understand and read.

Making an Easier Language

Binary code is a very hard language for humans to understand and make readable for computers to follow directions given by its “brain,” or processor (2). To solve this problem, people called computer programmers created HIGHER-LEVEL LANGUAGES. These higher-level languages are very different from binary code. Instead of using zeroes and ones for computers to follow directions in, these new languages use the ABCs for computers to read. By changing from numbers to the alphabet, computers are able to do so many more AMAZING things. These things include the fun games that you play on your computer or tablet or watch cartoons and movies on Netflix. An example

Figure 2: Games on Kindle tablet

of what these games might look like to you can be seen in Figure 2 to the right (1). Next time you go on your computer and watch the cool and amazing things that your computer lets you do, take a second and think back to how your computer thinks and what languages it uses to do these things for us.

References

(1)Amazon Kids Series [Illustration] (2014). Retrieved from http://www.viralblog.com/trends-innovations/why-netflix-and-amazon-tap-into-kids-series/

(2)Deitel, P. & Deitel, H. (2015). Java™: How to program. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

(3)Vector – Blue Binary Background [Illustration] (2014). Retrieved from http://www.canstockphoto.com/blue-binary-background-16091597.html

Sami Learns to Save Sea Life

Sami Learns to Save Sea Life

 



Dolphin jumping out of the water

Sami COULD NOT wait to leave for the beach. Ever since her mom and dad told her they were soon going she has been very excited. She remembered the beach last year and seeing the dolphins jump out of the water throughout the day. She could not wait to see more dolphins and collect sea shells for all her friends. She helped her dad pack up her beach toys and loaded the last bags in the car to leave for Florida.

 

The beautiful beach Sami remembers...

When they arrived Sami was so excited to run out and stick her toes in the water. She ran out with her mom to the beach but something looked different to Sami. The water was not the pretty blue she remembered. Instead the water was dark green and Sami suddenly was worried. She asked her mom why the ocean looked different from last year and why she did not see any dolphins or sea shells.
 

Sami's favorite sea shell - Sand Dollar

Sami’s mom explained to her about ocean pollution and how it can really affect our beaches. She told her the pollution can hurt the animals and break all the sea shells up. Sami suddenly felt really sad. She did not want to think about not being able to come to the beautiful beach anymore. Then Sami had an idea and she quickly asked her mom and dad how they could help to save the ocean and the animals in it.

Her dad remembered seeing a sign about Marine Biologists teaching children the effects of ocean pollution. Her dad called the number on the sign and they made a reservation for three people at the center for the next day. He wanted Sami to learn about the dangers of pollution and he wanted her to learn about the environment.

 

When they arrived at their appointment Sami and her parents were greeted by Amanda who planned to teach Sami all about saving sea life. Sami saw many pictures of injured animals and pollution floating in the ocean and washed up on the sandy beaches. It made her sad and even more excited to learn about saving sea life. Sami learned many new things about the ocean that she did not know.

Sea Turtle

Jellyfish

Sami’s session lasted two hours and was filled with a lot of new information. She learned that HALF of the oxygen we need to survive comes from the ocean (3)! She learned plastic takes a very long time to break down and causes it to collect in the ocean. Trash that ends up in the ocean kills sea life because they mistake it for FOOD (1). Sami learned that jellyfish are starting to take over the ocean because they can survive in the polluted water (1). She also learned there are not many laws that can help to protect our oceans (2). Sami was also surprised to find out that ocean pollution affects humans as well! The polluted water can contain bacteria which can make us very sick. After learning everything, Sami became more aware and eager to share information with her friends and family.
 

Here are a list of Sami’s solutions, please join her to SAVE our oceans!
- Recycle and compost what you can
- NEVER throw trash out the window
- Leave your CAR at home when you can and WALK
- Pick up any trash you may find outside
- Eat less seafood to save the fish from going extinct
- Use fewer plastic products
- Grow your own food to reduce the use of agricultural chemicals
- Use sunscreen that is safe for ocean life
By following some of Sami’s tips we can help to save our ocean one person at a time!

References

(1) Kowalski, K. M. (2010). Oceans of trouble: Your health is closely connected to the sea’s health. Current Health Teens, 37(2), 16-19.

(2) Laws, Regulations, Treaties. (2013, April 9). EPA United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from http://water.epa.gov/type/oceb/marinedebris/lawsregs.cfm

(3) Ocean Pollution. (2014). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p.