Robotics: The Blog of Valles Marineris

          We’ve been here for only a couple of weeks, but we’ve been in our space ship for EVER!!  We left Earth on August 19 and we just got here on February 17! That’s almost six months!!! And, MAN has it been cramped!! Marinara takes up so much room, you have no idea. I mean, I knew it wouldn’t be like paradise, but I didn’t know that Marinara would be so… big?  Well, Marinara and I, Randette Wohlmon, met when I was just getting out of college. Ahhhh, the good ole days! Man! The college was just naming me to come up and get my diploma when poor little Marinara came rushing through saying that she was lost and that she couldn’t possibly get anywhere without a co-pilot. She was basically talking gibberish to those close-minded folks. I thought differently. Marinara and I opened the minds of people all over the world.  Since that day, everyone in all the countries has been space traveling a WHOLE lot.  We are the first robot and person to make it to Mars. 

          Everyone says I’m crazy.  They say, “Oh, well, robots can’t talk.” At first I was a little skeptical. I even thought I was crazy! But then, Marinara reassured me that she really was talking and that she was one of MANY that can talk. I said, “Really? I’ve never heard one talk before.” She said, “We only talk around owners we like.” Then she said, “Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.” I smiled and since then we’ve been BFFLs. Until she went missing.

          ”Marinara! Oh, Marinara!” Where could she be? I stood there thinking. I scratched my black hair.  Ugh. Ever since we had arrived on Mars, my hair had gone all haywire and I was starting to get annoyed.  No matter. I’m trying to find Marinara. She ALWAYS gets lost. I swear if she didn’t have the sensor on her that stopped her from running into things, she would be a piece of junk in a junk yard by now. BEEP! BEEP! Oh, that’s my pager. It’s… Marinara? It says, “911.” Oh, no! She said, “In VM.” VM? What’s that? 

          I went back inside our spaceship to think this through. Where could Marinara be that was dangerous and its initials are VM? Hmm… Very Much? No such thing. Vallie Merry? No such thing. Wait, Valles Marineris!!!! 

          I raced outside. *Gasp.* Valles Marineris?  The system of canyons that’s about 4000 kilometers long? Well, this is a pickle. I don’t know if you know, but Marinara was named after Valles Marineris. And now… she’s stuck there. *Deep sigh.* Now I have to go save her. Oh well, it’ll be… fun? I raced back inside the spaceship and saw on the map, “Valles Marineris. LIFE SIGHTED!” I thought, “Oh, well that’s probably just Marinara.” I pushed the thought away. 

          How will I save Marinara without getting myself stuck in there as well? I could get a rope. No good. A rope is too flimsy to be able to hold such a wonderfully built creature such as Marinara herself.  Maybe she can crawl up herself? No. Too hard. Wait, I thought that sensor on her head was supposed to make sure she didn’t run into anything or fall off any cliffs. Well, I might as well take anything and everything I can to the canyons, just to see how deep she is, whether she’s on a cliff or whether she’s really beaten up.  Let’s see. I might as well take a rope, just in case she has something else that I can use with the rope. Along with our history as pilot and co-pilot, we also make quite a few inventions.  For instance, we’ve made a lot of lightweight stuff, such as water bottles, ropes, books, stuff like that. But then, we made a lightweight backpack. Anything you put in any size pack, will immediately become lightweight and feel like nothing is there.  Which means a lot of happier kids and a lot of happier parents because they aren’t worrying about their kid’s backs. We are awesome because of that, apparently. You know, not for sure, but… here’s hopin’! I should also take a couple of tools, such has wrenches, screws, screwdrivers, hammers, nails, anything that can help put Marinara back together. You know, just in case. 

          Man, I’m scared. What if the 911 message meant something like, “Help. I’m about to be eaten by flying wolves and flying cats too. Save me!!!” Just push the thought away, push it away. I need to stay cool under pressure.

          BEEP!! BEEP!! PRESSURE! PANIC! Oh, it’ just my pager. Whew. It’s from Mr. Boss. “Everything OK?” I said, “Uhh… sure.” He said, “Well?” I said, “Well, scary, but OK.” Oh, well, I lied to Mr. Boss, but I REALLY don’t want to get fired for losing a two-ton robot. I want it to be something better than that if I get fired, like stealing money or something. Let’s get back to what I should take with me. A flashlight, a tire, a grappling hook and a suction cup thingy that Marinara and I invented. It sucks pretty much anything back to you. Here I go. Oh wait, I almost forgot my traveling device. A little car thingy that fits one person and it makes you float a little above the ground on air. It’s very environmentally friendly.  I rode quickly over there. Where is she, where is she? I heard a feeble, “Help.” I SEE HER!!! YAY!! Oh, good, she’s on a ledge. That’ll make it easier, plus she isn’t all the way down at the bottom of the canyons. 

          I yelled down to her and said, “Here. I brought you some gasoline to drink from.” I lowered the gasoline down to her with the rope and she drank it and said, “Thanks. Listen I have a program on me that I can use to climb out of here.  Unfortunately, when I fell it was broken. I figured out that even with all the tools in the world, I can’t climb out of here by myself. You’ll have to help me out with some kind of rope or chain.”  I said, “Okay, well, I brought tools and a rope, so I guess we’re in business.” Marinara looked skeptical, but I reassured her that it would be okay and that I would save her. I cautiously and quickly climbed down to her ledge. It was getting colder and, even though I had a spacesuit on that was fully equipped, my spacesuit won’t save me from Mars’ -125 degrees to 35 degrees Celsius temperatures.  

          I’m kind of worried about Marinara, she seems fine, but she’s never usually out this late because of the temperatures. I guess she’s going to be okay. I followed her instructions to the letter and her part started to work!! I attached the rope to her and pulled her up out of the canyons. She said, “Thank y-.” She stopped mid-sentence and I said, “What’s wrong?” She answered, “L-look over th-there.” I slowly turned around and I saw in the distance a little monster. I said, “Oh my gosh, what is that?” Marinara said, “Wait, let me check.  Hm… nothing’s coming up on the radar. Hold on, it’s a…”

          ”What? What is it?” I said, in a very impatient way. Marinara said, “It’s a… dinosaur.” I said, “But, I thought they were extinct. Plus, I thought Mars couldn’t support life.” Marinara said, “Has anyone been here before?” I said, “Well, no. I guess not.” Marinara said, “We’re the first ones here and we found life. Here, let me take some pictures.” She took some photos of the newly found dinosaur and said, “Come on. It’s getting chilly and we should get back in the HEATED spaceship.” I agreed, but I really wish I could’ve followed the dinosaur. Oh well, I’ll probably see the dinosaur again. Won’t I?

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The signals had failed.
We spent eight months working on that Mars probe, decking it out with sensors and the most technologically advanced equipment the US could afford. Eight months. Wasted. Eight precious months. And directly before the most peculiar piece of footage NASA has ever filmed.
I, Randette Wohlmon, had been the chief surveyor of this particular rover, Valles Marinaris (nicknamed Marinara). All kinds of facts have been revealed from our recent research. For example, iron oxide in the soil gives Mars its reddish color. The polar ice caps of Mars were made of frozen water covered by a layer of frozen carbon dioxide. Mars’ axis of rotation is tilted 25 degrees, as opposed to Earth’s 23.5 degrees.
The incoming wave of facts would cease to exist, however. Our robot had broken. The signals had failed. All of this was beaming through my mind as I sat blankly in front of the screen, busy with black and white pointless waves to identify the failure.
But then, a beacon of hope.
Little pictures began to pour its way into the screen. I could see tiny images of Phobos and Deimos, Mars’ two moons, hanging in the sky, with Phobos going over four times as fast as Deimos. The robot was jamming itself into a rock… or was it being pushed? The flash of a tail could be seen as the sensors came crashing off the robot. Every now and then, I caught a glimpse of something shiny in the distance. As the system cleared up, I opened up my digital map, showing 55% of Mars, and furiously sent over programs to our robot, giving it clear directions to this mysterious glowing substance.
Once all the sensors were off and the signals cleared, I activated to program and sent Marinara speeding off into the distance. Why the sensors had clashed with our signal, I didn’t know, but I recalled the system getting weaker the more we crusaded east- the direction of our mystery objective. After an hour of anticipation, we were there.
But nothing was here. I looked around, and no longer could I see a glistening sparkle. Perhaps I had seen a star…? No… it was on the ground. The ground! Moving the camera to the surface, I found a silver light illuminating from the ground. Scooping up a pile of soil, I allowed to robot to inspect the strange chemical
This was what messed up th signals. But upon further inspection, this was what is supporting life on Mars. Little microbes… are in the soil.

(Look out for Caroline Blackmon’s story, once again portraying another Randette adventure… except over twice as long!)

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Valles Marineris’ robot was drifting through space headed to Mars. While the robot was running low on power, it was closing in on Mars. The person who had created the landing and usage program for the robot before it went into space, was reviewing all the details regarding how to execute the program. He and his team were under a tremendous amount of tension to make sure they got it right. The command center at NASA in Houston were in a panic. There was pure chaos at headquarters.The robot was about to crash, while everyone was trying to figure out how to start the program.

The robot’s programming was created for two reasons. The first reason had to to with the landing program and making sure that there was a successful landng. The landing program insured that regardless of where the robot was sent to accomplish its mission it would land there with great accuracy and a successful landing would insure reports would come back to earth regularly. Secondly, the robot had a usage program that allowed it to do amazing things with its arms, so that he could collect samples from Mars and other parts of the galaxy. For example, one part of the usage program allowed the arms to extend out four feet and the arms could also turn sideways to get in to corners and folds. In addition, the usage program allowed the robot to emit energy so that he would not freeze up on missions to colder parts of the galaxy. Also, the usage program allowed the robot to travel further distances away from where it landed. It also had the ability to dig deeper than any of the previous devices that were used. These were some of the amazing things that the robot was able to do.

During this critical hour, programmer remembered the details and he ran to a special button and slammed it down with might. The robot program started and landed the robot and it functioned without a problem. Everyone at NASA headquarters were very proud and cheered. The billion dollar project was saved. The Valles Marineris’ robot survived to see another adventure in the galaxy one day.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Round and round it goes… where it stops, nobody knows…

Finally, Randette and Marinera plowed through the circle. By the ninth time, we were so frustrated that Randette actually pulled out her hair. Although, due to her hair being one object, she ended up being bald…

Anyways, it was never enough. The turning was either too much or too little. FINALLY, though, we managed to figure out that it was in fact power that decided how perfectly it travelled in a circle. I mean, we even tried changing the DURATION TYPE.

To add, every time we changed anything we had to change the duration as well. But in the end, we got Marinera to go in a full circle. She gets so close- being at the very edge of the tape. And almost running off the finish line. But it was all good, and we finished before a team that had been there even before us. Go, Marinera! Now you ahve to do the maze… oh gosh.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Marinara and, of course, her faithful sidekick Randette, just completed going around in a complete circle!! Austyn and I tried again and again, but it just wouldn’t work.  We had the duration right, but every time we changed the turning action, the duration would have to be changed.  Austyn and I had it going in a circle that was going to the right.  We decided to change it so it was going in a circle to the left.  That worked perfectly!!!!  The power proved to be the most important variable to change in the circle.  Now, we work on the maze.  It looks interesting, difficult and cool!!! Randette, Marinara, Austyn and I are up to the challenge!!

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The task that the robot Valles Marineris had to complete this time was to go in a complete 1 meter by 1 meter circle. At first we had the robot at 75 power at 7 seconds. The results were that the robot was spinning around and around in a small circle. We had to change the steering angle. The next try we had the robot on the same settings, but we had it on a sharper turning angle. The results was a bigger circle than the last try, but still a pretty small circle. The next 4 time we had to change the power from 75 to 50 to 60 to 65 and the duration from 7 to 18. They all didn’t work. The next try we had the robot on 65 power for 20 seconds. The results were a 1 meter circle. The challenge we faced was not cutting into the 1 meter circle. The next task will be to program the robot to go through a maze. It is a challenge that will be hard, but rewarding.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

We did it! Valles Marineris, four meters, staight line. With 75 power, we were easily the fastest team in the class: Randette, Mainera, Caroline & me. We weren’t the first team to make it, but certianly not the last. I remember when we started, we travelled about 10 meters… but quickly sliced that bit down.

As an update, Randette’s boyhair is still hidden, but her wig continuously falls off. She must have a pretty slippery head. Ms. Husmman says she feels bad for my children. Hey! Randette isn’t THAT bad.

One last thing: We had spagghetti today, and our robot is nicknames MARINERA. Hahaha.

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Marinara and her faithful builder, Randette have gone 4 meters exactly.  Austyn and I had Marinara at 75 power the entire time.  What we changed was the duration.  First the robot practically ran into Mrs. Traver in the MS office.  Then we punched the robot down to 15 duration.  Marinara barely went two centimeters.  We kept going around 20-25 duration until we hit the jackpot.  Marinara went 4 meters by using 75 power and 23 duration.

Austyn and I are SO close to getting Marinara to go in a complete circle.  We just have to lower the turn power down a little.  The duration is perfect! It stopped exactly at the Start/Finish line.  All Marinara did was turn a little too much inside on one side and on the other it went to far outside the taped line.  

Marinara is pretty much handled with for now.  I can’t wait until Marinara makes it farther.  *tearful eye* Marinara has grown up so much! *tearful eye* *brush tear away meaningfully*

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Valles Marineris robot had to perform the task of going 4 meters and stopping. The hypotheis was If robot is programmed with 30 secound and 90 roataions then it will go 4 meters in a straight line beacause this he the best guesswe

First try the robot go straight for 9 seconds at a 90 power. It didn’t even go 2 meters of the 4 meters.

The next try had the robot on for 30 seconds at 90 power. The robot overshot the end by a lot.

The next few tries varied from 25 seconds to 29 seconds, but still at 90 power. All of those tries overshot the ending.

The last try of the class period was at 24 seconds with 90 power, it was overshot by a couple centimeters.

The challenge we encountered was not to overshoot the 4 meters.

The next chance we get I know we can go the full 4 meters and stop.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

1) It is the biggest canyon in the solar system and is located just south of the Martian equator.

2) It’s 4000 miles long and it would extend across the whole United States of America.

Valles Marineris is the best canyon in the whole universe!!!!

Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »