Robotics: The Blog of Ophir

It was a sunny day in Atlanta, where the little NASA robot currently was. His name was Ophir. He wasn’t as good as all of the space probes like the Viking probes and all of the other space probes that gave astronomers information about Mars. It is the fourth planet from the Sun, only one planet away, why couldn’t he do it? The humans thought he was to small and his memory was too small that he couldn’t take all of the info off of a planet that they need. Ophir was ready to go, like all of the rovers, he was better than them. He decided to hang on to the next probe that was going to Mars.

Months later the probe took off to Mars. He was so exited. As soon as it left Earth, he felt lonely, space was a very strange place, it was dark, and quiet, nobody was with him. A year later he landed on Mars, he was frozen, tired and scared. Who would of thought that Mars was so far away? It was quiet. All he could hear was his motor as he moved along the trek. There were channels, he took a picture, water may have carved those channels. There was also sign of bacteria. He took a picture. He also showed a picture of the rocky surface. There was a huge mudslide on Mars, he had never expected a mudslide in space. Once again he took a picture. He heard a russle, like something was hiding from him. There was a big rock so he drove behind it. There were footprints near the rock, they were ugly and shaped weird. He took a picture and examined it closely. Then he heard a beep sound, there he saw it, something green with big buggy blue eyes. It was an… ALIEN! “Greetings Earthling!” it said. “Hey, what up?” ophir asked. “Aww nothing much, my mom just went to jupiter on a business trip and my dad died of plupus disease.” he said. “We are the only ones here on this planet, the others are on a mission and have been gone for millions of years, we are the planet guards, you don’t seem so evil, ill let you pass!” “Thanks” Ophir shouted. “Can I take a picture of you for the people of earth?” Ophir asked. “Well if you don’t mind, i’d like to pose, i want to be famous like NcMonhus the famous alien singer.” He said Cocky in behavior. Ophir took a picture while the space probe was getting useless data the whole year they were there. “Hey Ophir, talkin to the aliens agian?” The probe said mean. “Stop i have discovered a lot.” They had to leave soon so Ophir and the alien became friends the took pictures together and said goodbye. Ohpir spent another year on his journey home and then he showed the pictures that he got. He was on the news for dicovering landslides and aliens and possible life. His reward was getting the landslide named after him and he lived happily ever after! THE END!

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hi, its astronaut Gianna. This is the story of our robot, Ophir, and his journey on Mars. Mari Cole and I went to space school for 4 years to learn about space. During that time, we created and programmed a robot. We named our robot Ophir after the region on Mars. Our hope was that one day, we could take him to Mars and show him what he was named after. After years of researching Mars and a year traveling there, we finally arrived in Mars yesterday at approximately 16:00 army time

We assisted Ophir to the bottom of the largest volcano in the solar system, Olympus Mons, then turned around and left. We would have continued the journey, but because of the thin atmosphere on Mars, it won’t support life. Instead we installed a sattilite so we could watch Ophir back from the spacecraft. On the way back, we decided to investigate Mars’ surface. Mari Cole skidded on ice. This is evidence that water once existed and may still exist underneath the surface. Brrr! It plunged to about -100 degrees celcius. We finally returned to the shuttle.

That morning, we woke up and realized Ophir had reached the top of Olympus Mons. It looked scary; small flames shooting from 1,000 feet below the ground. He should be careful! It was good that we remembered to install sensors that way he wouldn’t crash into the wall. He twisted around the side of the volcano as if a staircase had been molded there hundreds of years ago. But who could have done that. We are the first humans to explore the volcano, no one else has been brave enough to go inside. Then the screen went blank; completely fuzzy, we couldn’t see anything!!! Oh no; what could’ve happened. Mari Cole and I rushed to the volcano on the spacecycle. We got there in a matter of seconds and raced to the top of the volcano. If Ophir is destroyed, then all our information will be lost!

Finally we saw traces of the path he had taken. Dodging flames, we sprinted down the imaginary staircase and found Ophir; hostage over a fire. Then I stared face-to-face with a slimy alien! AHH!!! I thought aliens didn’t exist. I grabbed Ophir, whispered something to Mari Cole, and we escaped within an inch of our lives. I didn’t dare to look back until we arrived at the shuttle, in fear the aliens would be chasing us. As soon as we got there, I started the engine and we took off to Earth. And that is our adventure to Mars!!!

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Hi there my name is astronaut Saskia and this is the story of the aliens attacking me and my rover Ophir. One day I was at the lab helping Ophir research and explore Mars when something started to shoot at Ophir. I was so startled that I spelled my coffee all over the computer totally crashing it. The screen started to go black and I knew I was in trouble. I quickly started up the one next to it, while it was loading the settings, I thought of poor Ophir on Mars getting attacked and I was totally helpless because I spelled the coffee on the computer next to me. The computer was finally loaded and I was putting in Ophir’s information I was back and already I could program Ophir. That is strange the aliens were gone and Ophir was totally fine. The rest of the day I programmed him to go straight, then turn slightly to the left putting the power a 90and the duration at 56. The day went by fine no more alien attacks and we figured out a new kind of rock an Mars. A whole week went by and still no more alien attacks. When the next day came and nothing went wrong I started to guess my sanness but then I looked to the computer next to me and it was messed up, something must have attacked Ophir and when I was sitting there thinking starting to disbelieve what happened it happened again. Something started to attack and not go away. This time I was prepared to defend Ophir I started programming right and left putting the power at 57 then the duration at 34 and typing the direction to go left then slightly to the right then start to go backwards. After 30 minutes of noting but typing in powers and durations, the aliens left Ophir and he found a secret path there was water flowing and all different kinds of rock soil plants and animals. There was life on Mars!!!! I dialed the boss and told him to come wick. When he came we phoned the news, and the museums, everyone we knew. There were parades everywhere in the newspapers it read Ophir’s big discovery. That is the amazing story of Ophir and Mars.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

This was the first hypothesis for the circle: If the robot can turn 360 degrees in 10 seconds at the power of 90 then it will have achieved the goal because it is to turn 360 degrees. That only went 350, instead of 360. We changed the turn amount, but kept the power and duration. This time we were lucky. It went exactly 360 degrees.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Group 8′s first hypothesis for 4 meters was this: If the robot can travel 4 meters in 12 seconds then it will have accomplished the goal because the goal is 4 meters. That didn’t work. It went 3.82 meters. The variable to change was the duration amount. We tried 13 seconds on 100 power. It went 5.4 meters. Once again, the variable to change was the amount of duration. It didn’t work on 11 seconds either. It went 4.1 meters. The group knew that it would have to be a fraction of a second plus 10. It finally worked on 10.75 seconds and 100 power.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

In science class my partner Drake and I tested our robot Ophir by seeing if the robot could travel a full 4 meters. If we put the power on 80 and the duration at 13 seconds then the robot will stop on the mark. It took us nine tries before we got the correct settings. We had the power on 80 and the duration on 13 and we turned the robots direction 3 times to the right.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

This was probably the hardest task for us. We tried numerous times. To be exact 9 times. The power was 80 and the duration was 9.5 seconds. This worked perfectly and we were off to the maze. What is funny about that is that the first two tasks we were the last group to finish.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

To make our robot go in a straight line we had to adjust the power to 100 and the time of seconds to 20. The hard part about it is that it has to stop exactly on the end line. So we had to make it perfect. After,completing th 4 meters we now have to go in a circle.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

If the power of the robot is 60 and the duration is 19 then the robot will stop at the blue tape because 19 is the right duration. It took 3 tries for me and Gianna to get the robot to go in the perfect circle for 1 meter.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The robot went straight in four meters by figuring out the power and duration that the robot had to go in to get exactly four meters. The power of the robot was 100 and the duration was 23. The method was to keep trying out new durations and keeping the same power, because it was the variable that couldn’t change. The power stayed the same and the group had to change all of the durations. Me and my partner kept duration in the twentys because we knew that it was close to start with at 25. It only took me three trys to get the robot to move the proper amount. Other people’s powers may have been lower so the durations needed to be longer. It was pretty easy to do if you get the right speed and duration. Thanks, MC

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »