Pop-top cap from a water bottle or dish soap bottle
Balloon
Glue
Procedure:
1) Glue the pop up lid firmly onto the CD directly over the hole in the CD and let the glue dry.
2) Push the pop-top cap closed. Blow up the balloon, then hold it so that no air escapes, but don't tie it off. Stretch the mouth of the balloon over the bottle cap 3) Place it on a flat surface and let it go.
What Happened:
Air from inside the balloon escapes through the hole in the pop up top and flows out and under the CD. The CD has a flat surface with an even weight. So the airflow flow from the balloon creates a thin layer of air between the surface of the floor and the bottom of the CD. This reduces the amount of friction between the CD and floor and the hovercraft easily floats and glides on the pocket of air. This is the same way in which a hockey puck table game works! You can make up all sorts of games!
The
Curiosity Rover has been on Mars for about two years, collecting information so that
scientists here on Earth can figure out whether or not Mars ever could or ever
did support microbial life. The rover has a mass of about 900 kg and is about
as big as a car. Ever wonder how something that big and that heavy landed on
the surface of Mars? A group of very
smart and talented engineers and scientists developed the technology to make this
possible. Watch this video to learn more about the landing sequence.
What makes Curiosity special is that it can not only take
pictures of the surface and acquire information about things like the weather
on Mars; Curiosity is able to drill and scoop up the contents of rocks and
soil, deliver a small sample to instruments inside the rover, find out what
elements the sample is made of, and send all of that information back to the
scientists on earth.
A few more fun facts about Curiosity:
1.It has 17
cameras on board. Some were used to help the rover land on the surface, some
are used to take pictures so that the rover and people down here can know where
it’s located, and some are used to take selfies!
This selfie was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
2.Engineers can
drive the rover themselves by telling it exactly where to go and how to get
there OR they can tell the rover where they want it to go and the rover figures
out its own safe path to its destination.
3.The holes in
the wheels are particularly interesting. They let the dirt out if it gets
trapped inside the wheel, BUT they also spell out the letters J-P-L in Morse
Code! JPL stands for Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the NASA center that developed
Curiosity. So now everywhere the rover goes, it leaves these markings that
spell JPL all over Mars!
4.One of the
ways Curiosity can analyze rocks and soil by “zapping” them with a laser! The
instrument that does this, ChemCam, is located where you see the big circle on
Curiosity’s “head.”
From
landing Curiosity to how it’s being operated until today, exploration of this
world outside of our own is made possible by engineers and not just aerospace engineers.
A project as big as this needs mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, and
computer scientists as well. To date, Curiosity has been making some amazing
discoveries. To find out more and stay up to date on the mission, visit the mission's page at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ or check out Curiosity’s Twitter account!
