Curiosity’s touchdown on the Martian surface

On August 6, 2012, Curiosity, in the Mars Science Laboratory, landed on the surface of Mars. Specifically Mount Sharp inside of Gale Crater. It was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on November 26, 2011.

Curiosity is the size of a car, therefore dwarfing any other rover sent to Mars.  

This is a list of scientific instruments aboard Curiosity:

-ChemCam

-MastCam

-REMS

-SAM

-Antenne UHF

-RTG

-Antenne Grand Gain

-DAN

-RAD

-MARDI

-APXS

-MAHLI

-CheMin

Curiosity is powered by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG), which was also used by the Viking rovers in 1976. The RTG produces energy by using the natural decay of Plutonium-238. That is then converted to electricity. The extra electricity is used to heat the pipes or is released. Curiosity can take microscopic photographs from close-up and take regular photos from a couple of feet away.  

Recent News

-Lifebrowser:

Lifebrowser was created by Eric Horvitz from Microsoft and it is an application designed to show every important event, emails, photos, website browsing and search history that occurred to the user. This is similar to Facebook but is also different from Facebook. A reason why it’s different from Facebook is because it does not need to be checked often. Lifebrowser also sets all the information in time order. Something called a “volume control” was created so that the user could change how important a topic is. Horvitz downloaded information of his life going back nearly 20 years! He could see the name of the person who sent him his first Email in 1997 and family photographs from a specific event. Lifebrowser can even recognize a photo and tell if it was taken indoors or outdoors. 
http://phys.org/news/2012-03-lifebrowser-personal-microsoft.html  

Museum of Natural History Lang Science Program Application

This March my mother told me about a program held at the Museum of Natural History called the Lang Science Program that interested me greatly. I then set up a goal to enter that program even if it was one of the most rigorous ones to enter.

The first step was to answer about six questions that the program sent by mail that explain a few of the reasons why I chose to enter this program in specific as well as what types of science I a am fascinated by the most. This went through many drafts before it was sent to the museum two weeks after the first stage was given. I also had to have at least two letters of recommendation, one from the principal and one from a teacher. I brought four just in case. I received the letter from the museum a month later saying that I passed the first stage.

My diorama of the universe

The next step was to create a diorama and make a description on it as well. I was given a week to complete the project.  It was going to be a diorama of the universe, displaying major categories such as nebulae, stars, black holes etc. For each category, there was an example with a description about it. I also brought with me some of my ideas and a printout of Zero Gravity. It turned out nicely at the end.

A few weeks later, on a Saturday, I went to the Museum of Natural History with my project to take an interview with four different people who had different roles in the program. They asked me questions about the diorama, my interests, weaknesses, strengths etc. The results of the interview came back a month later saying that I was not accepted into the program. Even though I didn’t make it, I enjoyed the experience. 

 

Jacque Fresco and The Future by Design

Jacque Fresco is a futurist, industrial designer, product design, architect, and engineer that has dedicated his life to try creating a city that can coop with nature and still be full of advanced technology. This project is called The Venus Project and his headquarters are currently near Venus, Florida, therefore partially explaining the title of the project.

It is called The Venus Project also because Venus is the goddess of beauty. Jacque Fresco has a friend called Roxanne Meadows works with him to aim for the same goal Fresco has. Jacque Fresco and Roxanne Meadows released a documentary called The Future By Design that I’ve watched four times and I’m planning to watch it a fifth time. My family and I are planning to visit him this summer. He is right now ninety-six years old and I hope I will get to see him before he dies.