SPACE TRAVEL Are we lost in space?

SPACE TRAVEL

REACHING FOR THE STARS

By Brennan Ison

THE BEGINNING OF SPACE TRAVEL

            You may think that space travel has always been around.  Well, the concept started back to the time of Isaac Newton when he was doing calculations of gravity and inertia.  Legend has it, that the first space man was Wan-Hu, a Chinese adventurer who, in the 16^th century attached 47 rockets to a chair.  Once lit, the rockets produced a cloud of smoke, Wan-Hu was never seen again!  Since the time of Wan-Hu, there have been several advances in space travel.  Up to the point which we are today.  You may think that America invented rocketry.  But actually, it was invented by a Nazi scientist.  Yes!  Nazi!  His name was Wernher Von Braun.   He developed the first rocket labeled the V2.  This was used by the Nazis as the last ditch effort in WWII.   Meanwhile, in America, they had their own rocket scientist.  His name was Robert Goddard.  He was America’s first rocket scientist.  The story goes that American Robert Goddard felt the urge to fly to space while climbing a tree as a teenager.  17 years later in 1926, he launched the first liquid fuel rocket.  With many to follow reaching speeds just below the sound barrier.   The rocket was launched in New England and crashed into a field of cabbages.

The V2 rocket that Von Braun invented was a missile and it was used by Nazi Germany against the allies in Britain and France.  Unfortunately the rocket wasn’t very effective and barely hit any targets.  After the war, Werhner Von Braun and other scientists were captured by the USSR (or the Soviet Union) and the United States to use in their space programs during the Cold War.  These two rockets were considered to be “Space Bombs”. 

The first V2 rocket entered space in 1944.  Soon after, these bombs were attacking England, France and Belgium.  The rockets did indeed strike fear into the hearts of Hitler’s enemies but were not very effective weapons.  Each one killing an average of 2 people. 

            In the evening of October 4, 1957, a rocket took off from site Number 1 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in what was then deep in Soviet territory.  Within a few minutes, the first artificial satellite was in orbit around Earth.  The spacecraft was called “Sputnik 1”.  This is simply the Russian word for Satellite.  It might also be translated as companion or fellow traveler.   It weight 176 pounds and orbited every 90 minutes, 300 miles above the surface.   It’s signature sign was beep… beep… beep… which could be picked up by any amateur radio.

LANDMARKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION

            The first animals in space were fruit flies and they were launched in 1947.  They were launched in a captured US V2 Rocket.  November 3, 1957, soviet dog Laika was the first animal to orbit the earth.  Sadly the dog died 6 hours into launch after overheating.

            The first person in space was Yuri Gagarin a soviet cosmonaut.  This was April 12, 1961. 

            May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard was the first US astronaut to fly in space.   Shepard was in sub-orbit trajectory.

            February 20m 1962, John Glenn becomes the first astronaut to orbit earth.

            June 16, 1963, Soviet Cosmonaut, Valentina Tereshkova was the first woman in space.

December 24, 1968 Apollo 8 becomes the first craft to orbit the moon carrying people.

            July 20, 1969, US Astronaut, Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to walk on the moon.

            July 17, 1975, the first time a US and Soviet spacecraft dock together.  Signaling the end of the Space Race!!

            In my opinion, many people see this as a waste of money while one country tries to beat the other, but we need to look at this from a different perspective.  These programs were some of the best in America history even though we were enemies back then, we must look beyond that into a better understanding of ourselves and our universe.

THE EXPLORATION OF PLANETS

            If you have read page 1, you know that space travel was in its infancy.  However, that started a domino effect which led us to greater and better projects. This page will focus on our exploration of the solar system and it’s planets.

            We start on August 17, 1958.  Pioneer 0, aka Thor Able 1 was launched by the United States, is the first attempted launch beyond earth’s orbit.  The mission lasted only 73.6 seconds.  Unfortunately the vehicle failed at a maximum altitude of 16 km.

January 4, 1959, the USSR launches Luna 1, a lunar flyby.  It is a partial success.  The first spacecraft in the vicinity of the moon.  It contained radio equipment including a tracking transmitter and a telemetry system and five instruments to study the moon and interplanetary space.

Pioneer 4 was launched by the USA on March 4, 1959, achieved distant flyby of the moon and the first US probe to enter solar orbit.

Luna 2 was launched on September 14, 1959 by the USSR.  It was the first impact on the moon.  On board Luna 2 were 5 different instruments to conduct various tests while on its way to the moon.  A lot of the tests had to do with the Van Allen radiation belt.  The Van Allen radiation belt is a zone of energetic charged particles captured by the planets magnetic field. 

Luna 3 was launched by the USSR on October 6, 1959.  It was the first probe to have images from the lunar far side.  Otherwise known as “The Far Side of the Moon”, or Dark Side (that makes it sound more ominous).

            On May 26, 1951 President John F. Kennedy made a special announcement to Congress.  “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieve the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth”.  Thus began the Apollo program.  The most ambitious space program that America had ever seen!

            The Apollo program ran from 1961 to 1972.  Sadly, the first mission was a failure.  In 1967 the Apollo I test run caught fire, killing all the crew inside.  It was a major setback for the program. 

On April 14, 1970 Apollo 13 suffered a catastrophic explosion when one of its oxygen tanks exploded nearly killing all of the crew.  Thankfully, the crew survived and managed to return safely to the earth.

            The great success of the Apollo program was on April 20, 1969 with Apollo 11 landing the first man on the moon.  That was man Neil Armstrong.  His famous words were “That’s one small step for man.  One giant leap for mankind”.  Fun fact… Neil Armstrong intended to say “That’s one small step for A man.  One giant leap for mankind”.  You cannot hear this, because there was a glitch in the transmitting system.

            The last flight was Apollo 17 which the mission lasted from December 7^th to the 19^th in 1972.  This mission was NASA’s last man landing on the moon.  The last man on the moon was Eugene Cernan.

ROBOTIC PROBE MISSIONS

            Lets now look at other planets in the solar system.  Starting with Mercury, the first probe being the Mariner 10 Probe.  It arrived in 1974 and flew past the planet 3 times before its fuel ran out.           

            The Messenger Probe is an orbiter and it was sent to Mercury on March 18, 2011.  It’s mission is to collect images.  It also mapped the planet Mercury.  During its stay in Mercury’s orbit, Messengers instruments yielded significant data including characterization of its magnetic field and the discovery of water ice at the planets north pole.  Its mission was completed on April 30, 2015 by deorbiting the probe.

            Now we look to Venus.  The first probe to Venus was Venera 1 on February 12, 1961.  Unfortunately the spacecraft had a communications failure on May 19, 1961.  It’s arrival date is unknown. 

            In March 1982, a Russian spacecraft called Venera 13 parachuted onto Venus and photographed its surface.  The pictures showed an orange desert littered with broken rocks.  Possibly remains of lava flow.  The craft survived for 127 minutes before Venus’ atmosphere destroyed it.

            On to Mars.    One of the first probes to land on Mars was Viking 1, launched by the United States in July 20, 1976.  It was joined by the Viking 2 lander in September 3 of 1976.   

            Mars Pathfinder lands successfully on July 4, 1997.  Carrying with it, Sojourner one of the smallest rovers on Mars.  Pathfinders mission objectives were to prove that the development of faster better and cheaper spacecraft was possible.   Also, to show that it was possible to send a load of scientific instruments to another planet with a simple system.  Finally, to demonstrate NASA’s commitment to low cost planetary exploration.

            Spirit and Opportunity await!  Spirit, a Mars exploration rover launched on June 10, 2003.  It landed successfully on January 4, 2004.  Unfortunately its wheels became trapped in sand.  The last communication received from the rover was on March 22, 2010 and communication was cut on May 25, 2011.  Opportunity was launched on July 7, 2003 and landed successfully on January 23, 2004.  Currently it is still active even after all of this time.  The primary mission is to search for and characterize a variety of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars.

            Finally we have Curiosity.  The latest rover on Mars.  Curiosity was launched on November 26, 2011 from Cape Canaveral Florida.  The spacecraft landed in Gale Crater on August 6, 2012.  As of May 9, 2017 it has been on Mars for 1,736 days.  It’s primary mission is to see if Mars could have once supported life and to study the climate and geology of Mars which will help further human exploration on Mars.

            Voyagers I & II

            The Voyager spacecrafts were two spacecrafts launched in 1977 to explore the outer planets of the solar system, ie, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.  Voyager I explored Jupiter and Saturn.  Voyager II explored Uranus and Neptune.    Each one of the Voyagers carries a golden record.  It doubles as a time capsule in the hopes that extra terrestrial life or future humans will discover it.    Voyager I began photographing Jupiter in January 1979.  It explored the Jovian System, mainly Jupiter and its’ moons Io, Europa and Ganymede.    Voyager encountered Saturn in November 1980.  It also explored Saturns moon, Titan, along with photographing pictures of Saturn, it’s rings and moons, Mimas, Tethys, Dione, Rhea and Titan.  As we currently speak, Voyager has interstellar space and will travel for hundreds if not thousands of years until discovered by any kind of intelligence.

            Voyager II did the same thing as Voyager I except it explored Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune but we will focus on Uranus and Neptune.  The closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24, 1986.  It discovered the moons of Uranus. These are Cordelia, Ophelia, Bianca, Cressida, Juliet, Desdemona, Portia, Rosalind, Belinda, Perdita and Puck.  It also examined the Urania Ring System.  It discovered Uranus’ sideways rotation.  Voyager II’s closest approach to Neptune occurred on August 25, 1989.  It made a close flyby of Neptune’s moon Triton.  The Voyager probes were originally sent to explore Pluto.  But unfortunately the exploration of the discovery of the gas giant moons prevented the exploration of Pluto.

            Cassini probe is a robotic probe sent to study Saturn.  The spacecraft was launched on October 15, 1997 by NASA.  It entered orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004.  On December 25, 2004, the Huygens separated from the orbiter and landed on Saturn’s moon titan on January 14, 2005.  It was the first landing accomplished in the outer solar system and not one has been made since.  To this day it continues to orbit Saturn.  Sadly, on September 15, 2017 it is planned to deorbit in Saturn’s atmosphere.  To avoid contamination on some of Saturn’s icy moons.  Many of which seem to have life.  Just like Jupiters moon, Europa.

The Juno spacecraft is a probe sent to explore Jupiter.  The Juno spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011.  It entered a polar orbit of Jupiter on July 5, 2016.  The scientific objectives of the Juno spacecraft are determine the ratio of oxygen to hydrogen in Jupiters atmosphere, obtain a better estimate of Jupiters core mass and linking Jupiters formation to the solar system, precisely map Jupiters gravitational field to assess the distribution of Jupiter’s interior, including properties of its structure and dynamics.  Precisely map Jupiter’s magnetic field, map the variation and atmospheric composition, temperature, structure, cloud opacity and dynamics to pressures far greater than 100 bars at all latitudes. 

            New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe to explore Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.  On January 19, 2006, New Horizons was launched from Cape Canaveral Florida.  On January 15, 2015 New Horizon spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.  On July 14, 2015 the spacecraft arrived at Pluto.  It took almost a decade to reach Pluto.  It was currently the fastest spacecraft ever built.  The New Horizon spacecraft has maneuvered for a flyby of a Kuiper Belt object.  It is expected to arrive on January 1, 2019.

SPACE TOURISM

            By now you’ve read the articles above and you are thinking, Man I really want to go to space!  Unfortunately the only way to go to space is an astronaut or a billionaire.  Thankfully in your lifetime there could be a way for you to get to space.  S P A C E   T O U R I S MMMMMMMM!!!  You might think that is in the future, but no, these are actual companies that are wanting to take your money and put you in the next frontier.  Many companies like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic do have ways to get you into space for low cost.  But by normal standards, the price is outrageous.   For example, Virgin Galactic has Spaceship Two tickets selling for around $200,000.00.  Crazy right?!?  Well, there have been concepts to get you to space and enjoy yourself there.  Companies like Bigelow have attached inflatable module to the International Space Station to make affordable arrangements at no cost and for feasible travel to interplanetary voyages such as Mars.  It can also be a good spot for you to have your very own space hotel or rent one.  However, the price will still be very high.  Buy hey!!! It’s a space hotel!!   Currently only 7 people have been classified as space tourists.  Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, Gregory Olsen, Anousheh Ansari, Charles Simonyi, Richard Garriott, and Guy Laliberte’.    

            In February 2017, Elon Musk announced that substantial deposits from two individuals had been received by SpaceX for a moon loop flight using a free return trajectory.  This could happen as soon as late 2018.  Musk said that the cost of the mission would be about $70 Million US dollars. 

Attitudes Towards Space Tourism

            A web based survey suggested that over 70% of those surveyed wanted less or equal to two weeks in space ; in addition, 88% wanted to spacewalk. (only 14% of these would do it for 50% premium), 21% wanted to stay at a hotel or space station.  I wonder if you could rate these experiences on Yelp or Trip Advisor?

            So who wants to travel to space?!?

           

THE FUTURE OF SPACE TRAVEL

            There isn’t much to talk about with what might happen with the future of space exploration.  However, I have a few ideas of what might happen!  We could see a return to the moon and possibly making a moon base for exploration or tourism.  Another reason for building a moon base would be to mine a special substance called Helium III which would be necessary create fusion energy to provide unlimited energy to the people of earth. 

            Something else we could see is asteroid mining.  Asteroids already pose a gigantic threat to the earth.  Just remember, the dinosaurs didn’t have a space program.  There are two benefits of asteroid capturing.  One, we could redirect an asteroid that could pose a direct threat to life on earth and place the asteroid in low lunar orbit.  Two, mine the asteroid for platinum and other rate metals that will help make asteroid mining a really rich industry.  Another thing we could see is by the 2030’s we could see man on Mars.  This would be the greatest benefit in the history of mankind for multiple reasons.  For one, it could be a good refuge for humanity in case of a war or natural disaster that destroys life on earth.  Two, we could discover if there was ever life on Mars or if there was liquid water there or if life is still capable of living on Mars.  Three, this is a far fetched idea, but we could terraform the planet.  Terraform involves converting a planet into a second Earth.  This is unlikely to ever happen in the near future.  This might happen 10,000 or a million years from now.  Another thing we could see is missions to the Jovian System ie, Jupiter and it’s moons.  Preferably Europa.  One of the reasons we would go to Europa is because it is a icy moon.  Some theorize it is incredibly likely that there is an ocean with liquid water and possibly life!  So we would send a small probe with a heated drill bit, send in a small submarine and see what is down there.  If there is no life, then snowballs and ice cubes for everyone!  One last thing that could happen is we could see a lander on Pluto.  I’ve heard of this once or twice but I don’t know if it will ever get off the ground.   (PUN INTENDED). 

            No matter what happens, our curiosity and willingness to explore is what drove us to America or explore the furthest corners of the globe in the first place!  Space should be no different because it is there and it is something that is waiting to be seen.  It is within our grasp!  We should not let anything on this earth draw us away from what is and what will be.  Through all the conflicts and wars and natural catastrophe’s that could have killed us, it is truly a miracle that we have reached this far in a universe like this, where there is such beauty and such high possibility for life for us to make friends and hopefully have a greater understanding of the universe and where we are as a species.

New Year 2016

Hello Fellow Followers and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How has your past 13 days in this new year been?  (Please comment below, I am really interested in what you have to say.

Here are some of the things my family might do in 2016:

Visiting Florida, family weekend trips close to home, possibly another cruise (gulp), family reunions to local state parks and just being happy being together.

I was recently asked to join National Junior Honor Society.  I was pretty excited to be asked.  There was a couple of pages that I needed to fill out telling all about my life accomplishments up till now.  My mom kept really good records of all the great things I've done.  Among those things that I've done, this blog is one of them.  Some of the other cool things I've done are:  Organize a lemonade stand for the animal shelter, been in two church plays, PRIDE community clean up every year, Emcee of the 5th grade math concert and of course Voice of the Cougars.  If you have gone to any of the Middle School Football Games this past year, then you have heard me! 

I am looking forward to adding to my life accomplishments and this blog.  I like volunteering and helping others.  It makes me feel good about myself and knowing that I am making other people happy.  I've helped out at the food pantry recently.  I didn't know what to expect but we got the job done of course.  I helped put food in boxes and load them into people's cars.  The people there were very appreciative of my work there.  I was glad to help.  It made me realize how fortunate most of us are.  We ALL need to help others so they can benefit from our generosity.

One of the things I've done in 2016 so far is read the latest Diary of a Wimpy Kid series (#10 Old School).  So far it's the 10th one in the series and I recommend it because the series is funny and lighthearted with a little touch of comedy in there which is why I love it.  There are very funny pictures which help tell the story.  My favorite book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series was The Long Haul (#9) where Greg and his family go on a road trip.  It was really funny because there are many, many funny situations that happened while they were on the road.  When Greg throws a cheese doodle to a seagull, an entire flock then suddenly invades the whole car. 

Another thing that I am going to do this year is get new glasses.  You see, the ones I have now are children's sizes and are too small.  They have created a small raw spot on my temple.  So yesterday, my mom took me to pick out new frames.  We found a very handsome pair.  They make me look even smarter! 

Please comment on what you think of my blog but more importantly let me know what you would like me to blog about next! 

Goodbye and I'll blog again soon.

Your favorite blogger,

Brennan  Ison

New Horizons Space Probe

Dear all you viewers.... This is your favorite Blogger, Brennan!  Sorry I haven't been posting anything in a while.  I've had a hard time thinking of things to put on, (also I've been sick but I'll save that story for another blog), but today, I have something to talk about!!  THE NEW HORIZON SPACE PROBE THAT PASSED BY PLUTO ON JULY 14 OF THIS YEAR!

If you want to learn more about it, just type in New Horizons Space Probe on Google and look at the images that it has taken.  You may be thinking, did this thing orbit or did it send a lander..... NO!  The problem was that they needed the probe to be light and fast.  It took almost a decade (9 years) for it to get to Pluto.  Also, you may be thinking it was like the Cassini Space Craft that landed a probe on Saturn's largest moon, Titan.  And like the New Horizons Space Probe, it was launched by NASA.

Here are some things that I know about what the probe has seen and what I have heard in the news about it:

Pluto has 11,000 ft. high mountains of water ice.  Pluto also seems to be geologically active and scientists are wondering where the heat is coming from since Pluto is the farthest planet away from the sun.  And yes, I'm still calling Pluto a planet!!!  A likely theory about where the heat is coming from is that it's largest moon Charon is not orbiting Pluto in a way you think the moon orbits the earth.  It is actually referred to as a binary system since the objects are very big in mass, Charon and Pluto both orbit each other and in between them is a thing called the Barycenter.  This is not a black hole but a place that is in between both their planets where their separate gravities intersect each other and perpetually turn each other in an orbit.

About the heat from Pluto... Scientists propose that the gravity from Charon is possibly deforming Pluto causing it to maybe turn into an oval or pear shape.  This is referred to as gravitational bulging.  Look it up on Google.  What happens is, both objects have very large masses and because of this they both pull on each other.  It's like a tug of war where each team is pulling on each other and sometimes they bulge a little.  The extreme tidal forces from Charon and Pluto is possibly driving some sort of geothermal activity on Pluto which explains why the surface looks very new and there aren't many craters.  An example of this is the Moon Io in Jupitor.  Io is very close to Jupiter and Jupiter is very massive.  Jupiter's gravity is very strong and pulls on Io just like our moon drives the tides on earth.  But with Jupiter's large size, these tidal forces are very extreme. 

The New Horizons Space Probe did not drop a lander but this thing called a fly by.  There was no time to go into orbit because they didn't have any fuel left.  But they did get some fascinating data on the hard drive and it is still beaming back to earth as we speak or as you read this blog.  There are so many fascinating things about Pluto.  It is the furthest and least known about planet until now.  The man who discovered was named Clyde Tombaugh in 1930.  When Clyde died, his remains were cremated and a small portion of his ashes were sent on the New Horizons Space Probe.  NASA is carrying on his memory by sending his ashes on the fly by of Pluto. 

New Horizons will also be joining some of the few space craft that have left our solar system.  These include Voyagers I and II, Pioneer 10 and 11.  Which means that they will not be coming back to earth and they will keep going to Infinity and Beyond until they are possibly discovered by a race of intelligent creatures likes us.

In conclusion, this moment in history is something great for all of us and for NASA with more data on how binary systems interact with each other and possibly how they are formed.  There is still a ton of data left on New Horizons hard drive which is still streaming from his long range antenna.  And will possibly conclude by the end of the year or more.  Until then, there is still so many mysteries about Pluto that we have yet to see or understand.

This has been your favorite blogger, Brennan Ison.

To Infinity and Beyond

Look at the images from Pluto on Google.

RIP Clyde Tombaugh  1906-1997

Brennan Ison, Voice of the Cougars

This is Brennan Ison here, making another blog.  I know you all have been desperate for me to make another one, so here it is!

I have been chosen to be the "Voice of the Cougars" !

 The "Voice of the Cougars" is the announcer for the Cougars JV Football games for the Middle School.

I show up at Cougar Stadium a few minutes early and take my seat and get my headphones on to block out any echos.  I sit in the "press box" but I like calling it the "voice box".  My dad comes with me and we wear our Morgan County Football shirts!!

Wen I am ready to start announcing, here is my opening statement:  "Hey all you Cool Cats, this is your man main on the microphone, Brennan Ison.  Coming to you LIVE from the voice box here at Cougar Stadium.  Lets hope we have a great game today and win.  But we all know winning isn't everything, so lets just have a clean good game and hope no one gets hurt".  Some of the other things I say are "Lets hear it for these cheerleaders.  Great job ladies", also "visit the snack bar for some good treats", "Go get yourself a wold famous hot dog at the snack bar, they are better than the ones in Chicago".  I also call plays during the game.

It's not easy keeping up with the updates the game has because I am not a fast talker, because sometimes my tongue gets in a twist.  It echos up there a lot and it's hard to not listen to myself come back into my ears.  That is why I wear headphones so I can concentrate on the words.  My dad helps me get the plays right.

During halftime, I go to the concession stand and get nachos or a hot dog or a Kit Kat.  I see a lot of my friends as I go to the concession stand and everyone says "Hi Brennan.  You did a good job".

When I am at school, and my friends tell me "I heard you at the game.  You did a good job", it makes me feel a little bit like a celebrity.  I enjoy being the "voice of the cougars".  You should come out and see the game and listen to me call it.  I hope that in the future, I will probably become a famous voice of the cougars microphone talker and probably end up in the history books.

Though it's not my goal to become like that, I just think that maybe if I do a really good job, I might become famous all around our town.

Go Cougars!


Until next time,

Your Blogger, Brennan

SIM CITY 5

Dear Blog Readers aka My Fellow Fans

Have you heard of SimCity 5?  SimCity is a game where you are the mayor and you can create your own city.  SimCity is a game about endless choices.  We can focus on growing your population, increasing your wealth or making a city that looks like your home town.  If you want to look up more about SimCity you can go to www.simcity.com where you can find out everything about SimCity and   In fact, update 7 has been just released.  You have more choices.  You can put down churches in city specializations and you can raise and lower roads with a new road tools.  You can make giant suspension bridges or deep subway tunnels.  You can even put trees on sides of roads and in parks in the nature section.

Here are some of the things you can do in a normal city.  You can draw roads, zone for commercial, residential and industrial.  Plop down a power plant to provide your city with power, plop down a water tower to supply your city with life sustaining water and even plop down a sewage outflow pipe where you dump your poo.  But you need to put this in a location where the Sims will not get sick.  Sims are the people in SimCity which make your city possible.  For money, you have simolians.  Simolians is the money in SimCity and you need enough to buy the stuff you need.   You can also plop a garbage dump or a recycling plant as long as you have a town hall you can plop other expansions, like the department of transportation or department of Safety.  The department of transportation allows your Sims to go to and from work or home.  You can do a street car station so they can travel by boat, plane, train or bus.  You can plop down a hospital, police force and have a fire brigade.  You also have to be very careful where you build your stuff.  If you put a sewage outflow pipe inside your residential zone, you would make all the Sims sick and you would have to make more hospitals to treat them, which you don't want.  Then Sims would be in lower value  which would lead to the Sims moving out.  Causing abandoned buildings and building fires which would make you increase your fire brigade which would be a big handful.  You can even put down parks to increase your land value and so much more.

You can also do great works where the city's work together to build one giant great work.  You can do a space center, do archaeology where more Sims can live which creates more money, students, tourists and workers.  You can plop a solar farm where you can supply power for your whole region.  A space launch center is great for launching satellites into orbit so people can watch TV.  It also supply's workers, education and lots of places for the students to work at and also it gives tourists a place to go. An international airport for city's to trade tourists to your city and trade their goods.

Here are some of the specializations that you can do; you can become an oil tycoon, become a mining master.  Be a man of technology in electronics.  Plop down culture for your tourist city and be a gambling maximizer.  You can trade in the city specialization.  You can trade things on the global market in SimCity (not the real global market or black market) to increase your simolians.

Did you hear about the new expansion pack called City's of Tomorrow?  It will launch on November 12 of this year!  In order for the SimCity to work, you need to have an 8 gigabyte computer.  I don't have SimCity yet, but I will for Christmas.  Tell me if you have SimCity!

I'll write another blog eventually.

PERPETUAL MOTION MOTOR

Ladies and Gentlemen of Science,

You will be happy to know that I believe that I have found the key to making the first perpetual motion motor.  What is a perpetual motion motor you may ask?  Simply, it is a motor that once started, produces enough energy to power itself and therefore would run forever because it would never run out of fuel.  It keeps itself powered up because it is running.  This is a mystery that has been around for hundreds of years.  A perpetual motion motor will solve the carbon dioxide emission problem.  Though this contraption has yet to be built, I have made the design of what I believe it will look like.

Here are some reasons why we should make this and use it around the world.  One, it does not produce CO2 emissions, thus no more global warming.  Two, this will solve the problem of cheap or free energy.  Three, there would be clean air to breathe and no more pollution.  Four, the technology will make the inventor (me) a lot of money!  And finally, it will make global happiness because the inventor (me) will share the technology around the world.

These are really great reasons to make this machine, but here are some of the downsides.  One, starting the motor when the motor is not in motion by using wind, solar, steam or geothermal.  This would be a problem because the motor will not be able to run by itself.  It would need a jump start.  Two, the build up of friction could stop the motor from working.  It would stop any rotating or moving parts.  Though we can oil the pieces, it would be a problem to keep it oiled.  Three, the build up of heat would cause the motor to overheat and stop.  The motor will produce its own heat and if that happens, the magnets will heat up causing the iron ions that create the magnetic field to come out of their straight lines.  This would cause the magnetic field to stop working.

Four, the wear and tear of the motor over time could cause the motor to stop working.  The motor overheating, the boiler cracking, the wires short circuiting, the heater overheating itself, the turbine gears coming loose and the pipe that carries the steam to the turbine could come off.  But if we found out that these problems happened, we would have to replace the parts and start all over, beginning with problem number 1, starting up the motor.  We could replace the motor but it would cost a lot of money to get the new motor fixed.  Finally, we would need quite a bit of start up money to even build this machine.  We would also need money to keep it working and replace any parts that wear out.

In the end, if we bypass all these problems, we could create world peace and stop emissions from happening.  We could replace every coal or oil power plant from ever existing and replace that with my perpetual motion motor station.

This is why I believe we should build a perpetual motion motor.

Until next time.....

Your favorite Blogger.....  Brennan!

Winter Break 2012

Hello, it's BRENNAN AGAIN!!!  It's great to be back.  Let me tell you about my Winter Break.

We had a Winter Break and it lasted all the way through January 2013.  Today was supposed to be my first day back, unfortunately I had a doctor appointment, which is good for me.  So I only have 2 days of school before the 2 days of the weekends.

Anyway, enough about school.  Let me tell you about what happened on my Winter Break.

One of the first things I did on my winter break was go to a railroad museum!  Me and my grandmother and Tammy and my brother Brody, were going on a railroad trip.  When we got there, I suddenly remembered that I had been there before.  We got on the train, and who do you think showed up?  Santa!  I told him what I wanted for Christmas.  As there is an interesting fact, the conductor told us about the highest tressel in Kentucky (but we didn't go over it)   There was a model of it in the museum, it was O scale (Lionel).  Once the train stopped, we got off a saw some of the model railroads, but they weren't working.  Anyhoo, we went into another room and it showed what railroading was like in Kentucky back in the 1800's.  My favorite part of the trip was riding on the train.  But in the gift shop in the museum, was a telegraph machine that you could really work on.  I told my grandmother to get on the other telegraph machine.  I telegraphed her a telegram that said "I love you" but she didn't understand it.  So I told her anyway.

Soon it was CHRISTMAS!!!

Here is what I got for Christmas.  I got some clothes, Ship Simulator Extremes, Train Simulator 2012 (but it actually uploaded as 2013), Diary of a Wimpy Kid Dog Days, a Lego Garage, Mining Truck, Mini figs, Helicopter Rescue and a Master Builders Set.  I also got an x-box 360.  So if you play Minecraft, let me know and maybe we can play together now.  We ate lots of good food at my grandmothers house.

You see, the greatest part about this Winter Break is when I went to Columbus Ohio where my mom was raised and we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters.  We got a VIP room, which was like First Class.  We had great food, Papa John's pizza, chicken fingers, plenty of water and soda, hamburgers, cookies, brownies, chips, anything you could imagine, and 1 GIANT pretzel!  We got the best seats in the house.  Joining us at the Harlem Globetrotters were my friends Kaley & Erich and their parents.  There was a lady there with her husband who were our hosts.

After the Harlem Gobetrotters, we went back to our hotel and Kaley & Erich came over to hang out for a while.  We watched some TV, and ate candy.  The next morning, we woke up and saw a winter wonderland in Columbus Ohio.  It was like Christmas again!  It snowed 6 inches overnight!  We ate breakfast at the hotel and we could see the Ohio Capitol building out the window.  My dad told us about the history of Ohio.

After breakfast, we went to a science museum.  It's called COSI.  It's a science museum.  It had very cool stuff in it about space, the body, and other scientific things.  A very cool thing was a giant pendulum proving that the earth rotates.  You know one of those pirate ship rides, it swings back and forth like waves on a ship, if we had that ride at the north pole and the earth was straight, but rotating, if you had dominoes around the ride and if the ride was going like a pendulum the earth would slowly rotate beneath and every time it hits a domino, the earth would be rotated to make the ride hit the domino.

After COSI, we then went to mom's old home and she showed us where she used to live.  Right behind her house where mom used to live, there is a railroad line which made her love trains.

After we saw mom's old home, we got some food at McDonald's and we stopped at a few places for shopping.  We then drove home.  The coldest temperature we saw was 26 (f) degrees!  Once we got home, we cranked up the heat and fell into a deep sleep.

Then it was the New Year of 2013!  New Year's Eve is also the day my brother was born! He is now 5 years old!  We had some friends over to celebrate with us.  We had lots of food and played.  Then we all chanted together 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!  We even lit off fireworks in the driveway.  It was a great time.  John Tyler was there.  We played tag, but mostly I played Minecraft on the Xbox.  John Tyler gave me a few tips.

In conclusion, this is about my winter break.  I wonder what Winter Break is going to be like next year.

From your best blogger, this is Brennan Ison signing off.