FTC Freight Frenzy

 

    Last week on Saturday, September 18, FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) announced the challenge for the 2021-22 FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) season. Immediately following the announcement, hundreds of teams from all over the world started to analyze the game and come up with a solution to the challenge. This year’s challenge, Freight Frenzy, for 7-12^th graders, involves scoring small whiffle balls, boxes, and rubber ducks into different goals placed around the field. Teams will design, build, and program a robot that fits within an 18^3 inch box to complete the goals outlined by the challenge. For every match, teams will ally with another team and compete against two other teams on a 12*12ft playing field, trying to score as many points as possible. Every match starts with a 30-second autonomous period in which the drivers can’t control the robot manually but are only controlled by in-game elements; followed by a 2-minute driver-controlled period where the robots are controlled manually.

    This season, the teams must pick up these game elements from the corner of the field, drive over a small barrier, and then place them on a 3-tiered goal or onto a shared hub that needs to be tilted in their favor. In addition, the boxes have differing weights, adding the potential need to sort them to place them in more favorable locations. In addition, there are elements to the game that make it advantageous for teams to scan the field for different scoring opportunities during autonomous. Finally, at the end of the driver-controlled period, the teams can place a team-created scoring element on top of the goal and roll rubber ducks onto the field for additional points.

    This challenge provides many opportunities for the students to learn about how to design, build and program a robot. When I was in 8-12^th grade, I competed on an FTC team, 12043 Power Surge, in similar challenges, winning the state championship twice. This year, as a college freshman, and my old team retired, I am mentoring a younger team, 13377 Blackout. I have seen what a profound impact this program can make on the students and that is what inspired me to give back by helping to teach the next group of students.

    If you would like to learn more, you can watch the game reveal video: FTC Freight Frenzy

Inspiration 4

     On Wednesday, September 15, 2021, four civilians launched into orbit where they will stay for three days before returning to earth. Launching off from launch complex 39a aboard their Falcon 9 rocket, they flew into a higher orbit than the International Space Station where, from 367 miles in altitude, they can get amazing views of Earth and the vast expanse of space. The crew dragon capsule that they rode in was modified slightly from its previous flights to the ISS. Their capsule does not need to be able to dock with the space station so the docking adapter was replaced with a plexiglass dome, allowing them to get even more amazing 360° views.

               The four crew members are Jared Isaacman, the billionaire paying for the flight, Hayley Arceneaux, Dr. Sian Proctor, and Chris Sembroski. Commander Jared and Piolet Sian needed extra training, but all four members trained for months in preparation for this flight. Another interesting fact about one of the crew is that Hayley Arceneaux, a cancer survivor and physician for St. Jude, will be able to claim to be the youngest American ever in space at 29 years old as well as the first with a prosthetic.

               While the primary purpose of the flight is for tourism and curiosity, they will be doing some experiments while in space. Part of this is that all four of them are simply normal people and not held to the physical requirements that NASA astronauts are held to. It will be interesting to see how space affects them over their short stay in orbit. They will also be doing tests involving ultrasonic imaging as well and blood and brain activity while in orbit.

               Splashdown is planned for Saturday, September 17, 2021. With their arrival back on earth, a new age of space travel will be born. One in which normal people have the opportunity to go to space.

This year in space

    The last year in space has been very interesting. From more private companies launching men to the edge of space to new rovers on Mars and the moon, there is plenty to be excited about beyond the confines of our planet.

    Launching on November 23, landing on the moon on December 1, and returning a sample to Earth on December 16, China’s Chang’e 5 spacecraft made a mission to the moon to collect and return rock from the moon back to earth. This is the first time since the 1970’s that this type of mission has been done and provided new material for scientists to study. The vehicle is completely solar-powered and marks a continued increase in the Chinese space program.

    The Perseverance rover and its companion helicopter, Ingenuity, landed on Mars using the same sky crane method as was used for the Curiosity Rover many years ago. This car-sized rover is being used to investigate the surface of Mars and cache samples to be returned by future missions. Ingenuity was the first vehicle to take a powered flight on another planet and is providing a lot of valuable data about flying in an atmosphere that is only 1% of the thickness of earth’s as well as scouting ahead of the Perseverance rover.

    There has also been a lot of progress made by SpaceX over the past year. Starship, their large rocket designed to bring people to other planets has made several test flights with the most recent one, SN15, being very successful with a successful launch and landing on May 5. They also sent their second crewed mission to the ISS carrying NASA astronauts Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken to their home for the next couple of months. Finally, they have been launching the Falcon 9 rocket quite regularly to put satellites in orbit including their Starlink network.

    Multiple companies have also started to get involved in the private space launch industry. Notably, both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin launched their founders, Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos respectively, along with other paying customers to the edge of space. One of the people that got to fly on this flight was Wally Funk, an 82-year-old pilot that has more flight time than nearly every astronaut. This is making space tourism finally possible for the first time in many years and hopefully, it will get more accessible over the coming years.

Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World - Reflection

     Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World is a great educational documentary about the history of the Internet and an explanation of how it impacts our lives today. It simply cannot be understated how much of an impact that the Internet has had on us. From communications, sharing of research, and education to digital transactions and the ability to work from home, it has forever changed how we live and work. A film like this really makes the listener reevaluate the things that we take for granted today that have such a profound impact on our lives.

    Towards the beginning of the documentary, there was a scene discussing the very beginnings of the internet featuring the first node of the internet in its original state. I found it very interesting how when the first monumental message had been sent to a computer at another university, it was noted with very little excitement, especially for something of such importance. This along with the fact of how forgotten it is today really surprised me as it was of such vital importance to society today, even if they didn't realize it at the time. And as it seems, not all that much has changed as partway through the first message being sent, the receiving computer crashed.

    After watching the documentary, I had a greater appreciation for how far technology and the internet have come over the past couple of decades. What probably interested me the most was the advances in autonomous car technology as I hope to work in the fields of autonomous navigation and operation. In the future, this technology will help to dramatically improve safety and efficiency.

    However, as with everything in life, every good thing comes with its own downsides. With our dependence on the Internet and electricity ever-increasing, the problem of what happens when that fails becomes more relevant. One example from the film of something that could bring our world to its knees is solar flares that could wipe out large portions of the grid, sending us back decades to a time without such modern conveniences. What exactly that could be like, we don't fully know but such an event would be devastating if we are not prepared.

    When writing a summary on a documentary such as this one, it may in many circumstances be beneficial to avoid doing external research as doing so could result in a mess of information. This could be problematic as it is not fair to include data not found in the documentary in a summary of it as it could change the theme of the summary.