JakeL blog

Hello! Here is what Mr.Dignam wants me to do in science today! Assignment: Write a short article about the ISS or the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft. What problems did the spacecraft designers have to solve?

My Choice is the Soyuz rocket and spacecraft because the way it launches and lands is very interesting to me. So here is my assignment:

When The rocket launches there are the giant phone tower looking arms that along the rocket to wherever there launching it so for example the International Space Station. When the Soyuz is preparing to leave the ISS the ground team as I call them, finds a flat area that is uninhabited that is within 350 kilometers from the nearest town and the rocket launch site. The rescue team that goes pickup the rocket and the astronauts go in any condition from 5 feet of snow to a sand storm. I wonder if there’s any farm fields in that region. Imagine a farmers was ploughing his when the rocket landed in his field and because the rocket would shake the ground it ruined all his work in that field. I bet he wouldn’t be to happy.

That’s it!

Hello! Today in science I learned how to make water bottle rockets, and an air rocket.

I already knew how to do a certain type of rocket we call the pop bottle rocket It’s technically pretty similar to the rest except we put a egg on the top of an upside down bottle and use the air compressor to put pressure in the bottle once there is to much pressure in the bottle it launches itself into the air the egg normally goes higher because it has more weight but when we put water in the bottle it makes it go higher. We use a fence post holder to hold the bottle before it launches a fence post holder in our version is two pieces of plywood cut about two inches long and one more piece of plywood about 4 inches long then we screw two screws into the edge of the 4 inch piece and under it we put both two inches pieces so there is about an inch of space from the ground to the bottom of the center piece of plywood. Then we drill a half inch hole in the center of the top piece of plywood then we put the lid of the pop bottle in to the half inch hole then we put the air compressor under it. Next we put the egg on top of the bottle after that we start the air compressor and away you go! We only had one egg that did not break doing this because it somehow landed on the trampoline that is about 300 feet away from the shed where we normally launch the rocket. After we found it we threw it in the fire it blew up! That was when I had friend over last summer when I had just finished my first year of homeschool when there was no Coronavirus.

The difference between the water bottle rocket, pop bottle rocket, and Air rocket is very interesting. The air rocket uses string, a straw, a balloon, and some tape. You first attach one end of the string to a tree branch or something similar that is higher than launching point. Then you put the straw in the string next you tape the balloon to the straw then you blow up the balloon but don’t tie it. After that you let go of the balloon then there you have it!

The water bottle rocket uses some pipe, and a big pop bottle and at one end you but an air valve that is on the typical tire. Then you use some tape a few snap ties to the tube without tying them then you use the top part of the snap ties as a holder for your bottle to be held with. then use a bike dump or something close too it to pump air then once there’s enough pressure the snap ties will let go and your rockt has been launched!

That’s it! Maybe I could post a video of us doing pop bottle rocket sometime comment if you think we should!

Hello! Today in science I learned how to make a model rocket although I just watched the video’s and did not make one I also learned that people spend more the 1 year orbiting earth at a time isn’t that crazy?!?!

I also learned that SpaceX’s goal is to get people on mars.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp., t/a SpaceX, is an American aerospace manufacturer and space transportation services company headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the goal of reducing space transportation costs to enable the colonization of Mars. Cool right! But I thought Elon Musk was part of Tesla? Did you now Tesla is making tractors now?!?!

Here is two of them:

To be completely honest these tractors look TERRIBLE. The cab is way to big for the size of tractor the engine frames look ugly and plus on some of the models they don’t even put actual tractor tires on them. And how in the world will farmers afford them!?!?! There soooo expensive. One of their 100 horsepower tractors cost as much as John Deere’s biggest tractor which is almost a million dollars and John Deere is pretty expensive already.

That’s it!

Hello! Today Mr.Dignam wanted me to write about NASA’s space shuttle programs.

There have been many downfalls and wonder full things happen.

Like in 1986 the Challenger Space shuttle program went terribly wrong when one of the O rings in the full capsells let go witch cause gas to leak out which cause an explosion which killed all 7 astronauts on board.

In 2003 the Columbia space shuttle took flight giving 15 years of success after the Challenger incident when a piece of debris hit the left wing of the shuttle when taking of into space. They crew of 7 successfully made into orbit around earth. Then after a few orbits around Earth NASA decided to return the astronaut’s to earth thinking that the pieces of debris would not be a big deal. When entering the atmosphere of earth the astronauts noticed that the left side of the space shuttle was more hot then the right side. The space shuttle then exploded in Louisiana on its way back to the Kennedy launch pad the space shuttle then went on to crash the remaining parts into Louisiana.

I’m glad no more people were killed during the accident and I’d like to take this as a learning experience.

And thanks to our mistakes of the past we were able to learn from our mistakes and improve our equipement to go to space with.

That’s it!

Hello! Today Mr.Dignam wanted me to write on this subject: Write a short article on one or two of the space pioneers.

John Young and Wernher Von Braun shall be the two space pioneers I shall talk about today!

Wernher Von Braun was a German–born American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States. Who made several rockets in Huntsville Alabama.

John Young was an American astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer. He became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. 

And that’s it hope you enjoyed!