Luciana's Adventures

After almost 5 months it was time to take Luciana to the American Girl Salon for a hair styling! Doesn't she look pretty?

Luciana and I were looking at the new pictures from the Mars Curiosity Rover.  So many interesting pictures. But this one was especially interesting. We go outside all the time at night and look at the stars. It's not hard to see Venus and Mars since they are the closest planets. Luciana says that it's just normal to see them as twinkling dots in the sky. But to see a picture of Earth from Mars as a twinkling dot in the sky seems so strange. Maybe we forget that we are just a speck in the galaxy. Another object in the universe circling it's own star. This is the selfie Curiosity took of itself in August 2012. Luciana and I agreed that it looks so peaceful and quiet on Mars but so lonely. She asked me if there is life on Mars. I remembered reading that they have found signs of water on Mars so there could have been life. But probably not now. NASA said that water erosion is believed to have created a network of valleys. This is the link to Mission Mars Science Lab

Luciana's Telephone Projector Set is really awesome and fun. It comes with a toy telescope that lights up and projects space scenes,  a tripod to hold the telescope steady, a soft blanket to sit on, a pretend smartphone, two smartphone screens with charts of the night sky. Turning the lights completely off really makes a difference to see the spaces scenes. She is holding her new smart phone in her right hand! K9 (Luciana's dog) is sitting on the soft blanket. 

The Mars rover is similar to the Moon Rover that the Apollo astronauts used to travel on the moon. This is amazing video of the Apollo 16 mission. The astronauts are driving on the moon. This version of the Mars Rover has a robotic arm, lights and a power antenna. It also has solar panels just like the satellite. This is the Apollo 15 Moon Rover The MARS Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover  Curiosity's mission is to determine whether the Red Planet ever was, or is, habitable to microbial life. The rover, which is about the size of a MINI Cooper, is equipped with 17 cameras and a robotic arm containing a suite of specialized laboratory-like tools and instruments.

This is the Satellite from Luciana's Maker Station. The blue objects are the solar panels. These catch the rays of the sun and charge the batteries which keeps the satellite working. The antenna sends and receives information to Mission Control Center on Earth. Version 2 of the Satellite added the camera, batteries and the radio receiver. This is a really interesting article from NASA all about  satellites . Satellites come in many shapes and sizes. But most have at least two parts in common - an antenna and a power source. The antenna is used to send and receive information. The power source can be a solar panel or battery. Solar panels make power by turning sunlight into electricity. A satellite is an object that moves around a larger object. Earth is a satellite because it moves around the sun. The moon is a satellite because it moves around Earth. Earth and the moon are called "natural" satellites. But usually when someone says "satellite

I was so excited to get Luciana's Maker Station and her Robotic dog.  The maker station is for Luciana to design and build robotics. The Maker Station has a   robotic arm that can pick things up and a  workbench for tinkering with two shelves and two bins. Plus lots and lot of accessories to decorate and for Luciana to use: A poster, photo, and two clips to hold them A measuring tape, screwdriver, and set of screws for building A pair of safety goggles and apron Three graph papers and three papers for ideas and sketching A solar system model of the planets A pretend terrarium for plants A sticker sheet for decorating We spent 3 hours on  Saturday working on the t wo MEGA CONSTRUX™ construction sets for a satellite and a rover using the MEGA CONSTRUX™ playbook! First we opened the bags with all the parts and organized similar parts by color and type. The parts for the satellite and rover were all mixed up together in the 4 bags. So we started with the sate