Atmosphere

The Earth's abundant atmosphere can make life possible here on Earth and not on other planets with no atmosphere.The atmosphere is almost like a force field. It can break small meteorites before they can even hit Earth. The moon in fact has many meteor craters because it does not have an atmosphere. But Earth has received as many incoming meteorites as the moon has; but the atmosphere burns them up before they can land onto Earth. Also the craters on Earth are quickly eroded by weather, which is due to the atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere has many gases that are needed to support life. It is full of Nitrogen, Oxygen, Water Vapors,Carbon Dioxide and other gases. Nitrogen is the most plentiful gas in our atmosphere. It is very necessary to life. The second most gas is Oxygen. It is also very important for the needs of life because plants and animals take Oxygen directly from air and use it to release energy from their food. Also Carbon Dioxide which is essential to life because it produces food. Earth's atmosphere makes conditions on Earth suitable for living things. Other planets have no atmosphere thus the weather can be "extreme", no liquid water, or the right gases need to live.

Space Exploration

The Science of Rockets

The Science of Rockets!
By Riley Marlene Bratzler

Its a device that expels gas one direction to move in opposite direction

One of the first rockets in China, in 1100's

Chinese used rockets for fireworks...

As well as military rockets.

The first culture used rockets was China, in 1100's

 Reaction force that propels a rocket forward is thrust.

It moves forward because gases shooting out.

Advantage to multi-step rocket is total weight reduced.

 

Summaries

THE SCIENCE OF ROCKETS
NASA uses atlas rockets to launch probes into space, and satellites into orbit around Earth. It is made of 3 stages. the first stage is called Atlas: it uses both solid-fuel boosters and liquid-fuel boosters. They use the liquid-fueled boosters to maneuver into proper orbit which is called centaur. The third is payload which is released from the centaur.

THE SPACE PROGRAM
NASA wanted to see if humans could explore the unknown space. Apollo 13 went very smoothly at fist but then oxygen tanks exploded. All of the astronaut barely survived. NASA still explores space today.

EXPLORING SPACE TODAY
Floating robots: A new type of technology that floats next to an astronaut using small internal fans. It is powered by solar cells, and can detect temperature, pressure, and air quality. It even allows astronaut to talk to each other.

USING SPACE SCIENCE ON EARTH
Less than 1% of the U.S. budget is spent on the space program. Some people think it is a waste of time and should be here on Earth trying to solve medical mysteries. But NASA says we can learn more about Earth in space and it is good for the economy because NASA has a lot of job openings.