NASA Image of the day

Check out this cool image of the Spirit rover NAS posted today....
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1215.html

Image of draft RoboLab program for getting to Mars

The image above is a draft or start of my program that will ultimately get my Robot to Mars and bring it back while recording data.

Welcome New Contributors!

Welcome to Mr. C. and Taylor, this week, as contributing authors to our humble Blog. Want to join up? Heard a good space related story lately? Let us know in the meeting and we'll talk about it.

Announcement Of A Major Extrasolar Planet Discovery Coming Thursday

NASA News Service announced on the 7th they will hold a press conference on Thursday the 13th, at 2:30PM EST to "report on a significant discovery about planets orbiting other stars". The discovery was apparently made by the Hubble Space Telescopes Advance Camera for Surveys instrument. More information can be found here: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2008/nov/HQ_M08227_Hubble.html
Hmm...? Just a coincidence that Hubble has been down, then up then down again and now back up? I'm wondering if this might be big news! Stay tuned!

Onward to Mars We Hope!

On Monday, November 3rd we looked at what it takes to get a Robot to Mars. Rockets and guiding them, no technical problems, and being sure that you have a landing where your Robot doesn't get destroyed when it lands. Then once your on Mars a whole bunch of other problems begin. Waiting for 20 minutes to get your radio signal from the Earth to Mars, unknown objects, and challenges and many other obstacles.
This week begins the first stage of getting to Mars. Designing our "Rocket" Robots to get to Mars with a payload and to follow the course from 4th and 5th grade to 2nd and 3rd via the long way around!!! It may be harder than you think or it may be easier. You need to make many decisions and try them out. Also the programming needs to get done. This will be difficult but you need to plan out your steps as to what you thing your robot should do then use Robolab to create the program. Hopefully you are up to the challenge! Mars or Bust! When you go Bust in space it is expensive so take your time!!!!

Name the "Hab" contest

NASA and the Challenger Center announced today they are beginning a contest to name the inflatable habitat, currently under test in Antarctica, intended to be used on the moon. Details about the contest can be found here:
http://www.challenger.org/hab/
The contest runs until November 25. If our club members would like to submit an entry or two please let me know.

Update for Oct. 21st meeting

This week we’re finishing up our Robots for our first competition. The object of this project is to build a Robot that will travel away from you when a laser pointer is targeted on the light sensor. When the laser slips or is off the Robot will come towards you. The Robot that ravels the distance the fastest wins. We’ll also have a winner for the most original Robot to be picked by you guys. Our Robot Race will be held on Tuesday the 28th.
The basic program, set into all the Robots, is shown below:

Check back soon for photos....