Mr. Rotts Room Blog 3/5 - 3/9

Welcome Space Travelers!

Welcome... well we did have some snow..  But not enough for us to stay home!  It was pretty exciting to look out our classroom window and see the snow falling... oh to have been able to go out and play in it, now that would be fun!  The year is passing at the speed of a super rocket!  Keep up, want and work for your very best!
   
THIS WEEK: As we continue our journey to familiar and unfamiliar planets... well really parts of math, we will continue our work with the hands on equations program for algebra.  It continues to become more difficult, so please keep those eyes, ears and thoughts focused on ALGEBRA!
               
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: Next Generation Vehicle for Space Exploration Driving New Tech Here On Earth 

The NASA website has this to say about cars for planet exploration: 
If you want to do productive exploration anywhere in space, you'll need a suitable vehicle. NASA is now testing concepts for a new generation of vehicles, building on lessons learned from the Apollo missions as well as the unmanned rovers on Mars. The Space Exploration Vehicle (SEV) concept is designed to be flexible depending on the destination; the pressurized cabin can be used both for in-space missions and for surface exploration of planetary bodies, including near-Earth objects, the moon and Mars.

The surface exploration version of the SEV has the cabin mounted on a chassis, with wheels that can pivot 360 degrees and drive about 10 kilometers per hour in any direction. It's about the size of a pickup truck (with 12 wheels) and can house two astronauts for up to 14 days with sleeping and sanitary facilities. Likewise, the in-space version of the SEV would have the same pressurized cabin on a flying platform; it too would allow two astronauts to stay on-site for 14 days.

The surface SEV is designed to require little or no maintenance, be able to travel thousands of miles climbing over rocks and up 40 degree slopes during its ten year life exploring the harsh surface of the moon. The vehicle frame was developed in conjunction with an off-road race truck team and was field tested in the desert Southwest with 140 km of driving on rough lava.

The view from cockpit and the ability to "kneel" make it easy for astronauts to get close to objects they want to examine without having to leave the cabin. Its wheels can move sideways in a "crabbing" motion, one of many features that make it skilled at scrambling over rough terrain. The crab style steering allows the vehicle to turn on a dime with a zero turning radius and drive in any combination of forward and sideways.

For both the surface and in-space versions of the SEV, astronauts can work in shirtsleeves in the safety of the vehicle's cabin, and when they need to, or want to for exploration missions, they can quickly enter and exit their spacesuits through suitports. These protected suitports keep the astronauts' suits outside, allowing a spacewalk to start in ten minutes. The surface SEV allows the cabin to be removed, so that the chassis can be used to carry payloads or driven by astronauts in spacesuits. The in-space SEV also includes manipulator arms and an airlock, for handling satellites and other objects of interest.

Some of the new technologies to be developed for the surface and in-space concepts include new batteries, new fuel cells, advanced regenerative brakes, active suspension, gaseous hydrogen/oxygen RCS system, automated rendezvous and docking, and new tire technologies. These are the same technologies that are required for electric vehicles such as cars, tractors, and heavy equipment that the U.S. needs to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels. The prototype surface rover is a plug-in electric vehicle with a cutting edge, Lithium-ion battery with a 125 W-hr/Kg specific energy (including cells, packaging and battery management electronics). To meet NASA's requirements, the flight rover will need a 200 W-hr/Kg battery, so a big technology development push is underway. It will need the same reliability, energy storage and recharge capability that will be required for an Earth-based electric sedan that can travel 500 miles before needing to be recharged.

To begin the development of the Space Exploration Vehicle, an initial surface concept was built and began testing in October 2008. This concept vehicle was invited to participate in the 2009 Presidential Inaugural Parade. This vehicle was built using today’s most advanced technologies. As more advanced electric vehicle technologies are developed, they will be incorporated into the design.

The development of these more advanced technologies will not be easy, so NASA has its best engineers and scientists working with the U.S. auto and heavy equipment industries, universities, other government agencies and international partners to make the program succeed. Our success will have a great impact on developing highly reliable and efficient electric cars and trucks for Earth. For each advancement NASA makes in the Space Exploration Vehicle's capabilities, the world will be one step closer to sending humans to explore destinations including the moon and Mars, and one step closer to having highly reliable and efficient electric vehicles on Earth.

BLOG QUESTIONS: SEE SPACE FACT FOR INFO!!
1) How many days can two astronaut stay in the SEV____?   How many hours is that_____?

2) There are roughly 160 Kilometers (KM) in ONE mile, if the SEV drove 360 KM over lava on a test drive,  your question is about how many miles is 360 km____?

3) If the SEV can travel at 10 KM per hour ... about how fast is that?  Use the information in question 2 to help you answer this question.

4) If NASA took it’s SEV into Les Schwab to get 1 of the 12 tires changed and it took the worker 15 ½ minutes to change and fix one tire, how long would it take the same worker to change and fix all 12 tires because the lava that the SEV was driven over had caused 12  flat tires.

GONZAGA MENS BASKETBALL           

Well we had a 12 year run of winning the conference championship.... at least we are headed for the National Championship Tournament.  It looks like the Zags will be a number 7 seed, if ESPN is correct, and if they stay in the bracket that I saw last, that means they play a #10 seed and if they win that.. Then they have to play PUKE... I mean Duke... now that would be a treat especially if they beat puke!  I am guessing that the way things go ... all of this will change... either way.. We are nearing March Madness!

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.  W 71 - 60
Tue, Dec 20 Butler Spokane, Wash. 6 p.m. W 71-55Thu, 
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. W82-60
Thu, Jan 12 Saint Mary's * Moraga, Calif. 8 p.m. L 83-62
Sat, Jan 14 Loyola Marymount * Los Angeles, Calif. W 62-58
Thu, Jan 19 San Francisco * Spokane, Wash. W 74-63
Sat, Jan 21 San Diego * Spokane, Wash. 5 p.m.  W 77-60
Thu, Jan 26 Portland * Portland, Ore. 8 p.m. W 74-62
Thu, Feb 02 BYU * Provo, Utah 7 p.m. L 73- 83
Sat, Feb 04 Pepperdine * Malibu, Calif. W 72-60
Thu, Feb 09 Saint Mary's * Spokane, Wash. 8 p.m.  W 73-59
Sat, Feb 11 Loyola Marymount * Spokane, Wash. 5 p.m. W 78-59
Thu, Feb 16 Santa Clara * Santa Clara, Calif. 8 p.m. W 73 - 62
Sat, Feb 18 San Francisco * San Francisco, Calif.  L 66-65 
Thu, Feb 23 BYU * Spokane, Wash. 8 p.m. W 74-63
Sat, Feb 25 San Diego * San Diego, Calif. W 65- 57

Remember MATH is OUT OF THIS WORLD!

As always, you are amazing, incredible people with the whole world waiting to be changed by YOU!

Mr. Rott