Mr. Rotts Blog for the week of 1/13/12

Welcome Space Travelers!

 Now isn’t it nice to back at school?  Come on.. I know you couldn’t wait until you were able to hang out with your friends, talk, tell each other what you got for Christmas!..... it sure seemed like you were all excited about getting back to school by all the chatter in the hallways... 

THIS WEEK: We have started to work on percents and decimals, we will continue that this week and then start to get ready for our State Math Test... OH BOY!... 

CALCULATOR !!!  YOU really want to make sure you purchase a calculator that can do fractions, it needs to have an ABC button on it!  Trust me you’re going to want a fraction calculator!!

SPACE  FACT: Space Suits

We all know that clothes are important, in fact there is a saying that goes, clothes makes the man... meaning that what a person wears can say a lot about the person.  Astronauts also need space clothing for when they go out and work on the shuttle or even walk on the moon!

Spacesuits help astronauts in several ways. Spacewalking astronauts face a wide variety of temperatures. In Earth orbit, conditions can be as cold as minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit. In the sunlight, they can be as hot as 250 degrees. A spacesuit protects astronauts from those extreme temperatures.

The reason that spacesuits are white is because white reflects heat in space the same as it does here on Earth. Temperatures in direct sunlight in space can be more than 275 degrees Fahrenheit.

Putting on a spacesuit takes 45 minutes, including the time it takes to put on the special undergarments that help keep astronauts cool. After putting on the spacesuit, to adapt to the lower pressure maintained in the suit, the astronaut must spend a little more than an hour breathing pure oxygen before going outside the pressurized module.

A spacesuit weighs approximately 280 pounds on the ground -- without the astronaut in it. In the microgravity environment of space, a spacesuit weighs nothing.

Astronauts wear orange spacesuits called "launch and entry suits" during launch and landing of the space shuttle. In space, these suits can be worn only inside the shuttle.

An EVA is a spacewalk that takes place outside of a spacecraft. EVA stands for "extravehicular activity."

Alan Shepard is the only person to hit a golf ball on the moon. During the Apollo 14 mission, he fitted an 8 iron head to the handle of a lunar sample collection device and launched three golf balls. They are still there!

Each Apollo mission required 15 suits to support the mission. For the main, or prime, three-man crew, each member had three suits: one for flight; one for training; and one as a flight backup in case something happened to the flight suit. Thus, the prime crew had a total of nine suits. The backup three-man crew each had two suits: one for flight and one for training.

The Sonny Carter Training Facility including the Neutral Buoyancy Lab provides controlled neutral buoyancy operations to simulate the microgravity or weightless condition that is experienced by spacecraft and crew during spaceflight. For the astronaut, the facility provides important prefflight training for extravehicular activities and with the dynamics of body motion under weightless conditions.

Putting a spacesuit on is called "donning" the suit. Removing the suit is called "doffing."  

Thermofoil heaters are attached inside each of the fingertips in one of the layers of the glove. The heaters are located approximately over each of the crew member’s fingernails. The heaters have an on-off switch near each of the gloves' wrists.

No difference exists in a male's or female's suit, though the female astronaut usually requires a smaller size.
BLOG QUESTIONS: See the Space Facts and also the link for Click able Space Suit

Space Suit

1) Add the amount that you weigh plus the weight of the Space Suit and what is that total____?

2) How many suits does each Apollo mission require____?  If there were 25 missions in ten years how many total suits would have been used______?   

3) How many golf balls were hit on the moon__?  And where are they today______?

4) How many parts are there to a space suit_____?  See the Space Suit link.

5) How long does it take to put on a space suit___?  If you were an astronaut and had to put on and take off your space suit three times in one day... how much time would you have spent in one day getting into your suit___?

GONZAGA MENS BASKETBALL           

The team is doing great!  They will be playing some tough teams...
Fri, Nov 11 Eastern Washington Spokane, Wash. W 77 - 69
Mon, Nov 14 Washington State Spokane, Wash. 9 p.m. W 89-81
Sat, Nov 26 Western Michigan (Spokane Arena) 1 p.m. W 78-58
Wed, Nov 30 Notre Dame Spokane, Wash. 8:15 p.m. W 73-53
Sat, Dec 03 Illinois Champaign, Ill. 12:15 p.m. L 82-75
Sat, Dec 10 Michigan State Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. L 74 - 67
Thu, Dec 15 Oral Roberts Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. W 67 - 61
Sat, Dec 17 Arizona (Battle In Seattle) Seattle, Wash. 1 p.m. W 71 - 60
Tue, Dec 20 Butler Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. W 71-55
Thu, Dec 22 Air Force Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. W 70-60
Wed, Dec 28 Portland * Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. W 90-51
Sat, Dec 31 Xavier Cincinnati, Ohio 5 p.m. W 72-65
Thu, Jan 05 Pepperdine * Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m.  W 73-45
Sat, Jan 07 Santa Clara * Spokane, Wash. 5 p.m.
Thu, Jan 12 Saint Mary's * Moraga, Calif. 8 p.m.
Sat, Jan 14 Loyola Marymount * Los Angeles, Calif. TBA
Thu, Jan 19 San Francisco * Spokane, Wash. TBA
Sat, Jan 21 San Diego * Spokane, Wash. 5 p.m.
Thu, Jan 26 Portland * Portland, Ore. 8 p.m.
Thu, Feb 02 BYU * Provo, Utah 7 p.m.
Sat, Feb 04 Pepperdine * Malibu, Calif. TBA
Thu, Feb 09 Saint Mary's * Spokane, Wash. 8 p.m.
Sat, Feb 11 Loyola Marymount * Spokane, Wash. 5 p.m.
Thu, Feb 16 Santa Clara * Santa Clara, Calif. 8 p.m.
Sat, Feb 18 San Francisco * San Francisco, Calif. TBA
Thu, Feb 23 BYU * Spokane, Wash. 8 p.m.
Sat, Feb 25 San Diego * San Diego, Calif. TBA

Remember MATH is OUT OF THIS WORLD!