Dr. Rob Ambrose received his B.S. and M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Washington University. He also received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas. His publications include topics in robot design, space environmental modeling, actuator development, kinematics, kinetics, bio-mechanics interactive design software, and non-linear optimization. Robotics systems for space, micro electronics, nuclear and agriculture applications, including manipulators, force feed back, joysticks, gantries, walking machines, and wheeled robots. He is currently JSC's Robonaut Project Leader.

A rocket is a transport vehicle that carries satellites and astronauts up into space. The propulsion is created by burning solid fuel such as oxygen and nitrogen. The gas is then compressed and pushed out through the boosters. This causes a reaction and forces the thrust to move the rocket forward. Rockets don't need air like jet engines. This is good for the rockets to move in space because there is no air in space.

There are two different types of chemically powered rockets, which are solid propellant engines and liquid propellant engines.

Solid Propellant engines consist of a solid propellant, which is a compressed, solid mixture of propellant and oxidizer. Solid propellants are usually mixed in liquid form, and poured into a mold or the rocket casing, where it solidifies.

Liquid-propellent rockets use a mixture of liquid fuel and liquid oxidizer as propellants. Stored in separate tanks, the fuel and oxidizer are pumped into the combustion chamber, where they mix, ignite and produce thrust.

There are also two other types of rockets such as nuclear rockets and electric or ion rockets.

Nuclear rockets work by using the the incredible energy generated by the nuclear reactor to heat, a gas and force it through the nozzle to develop thrust.

Electric or ion rockets have not been brought to actual use yet, but they have been under development since the 1950's. They work by placing a positive charge on the molecules of a single fuel by removing some of its negative electrons.

Some of the missions robots were on were, November 17, 1970, the first unmanned wheeled vehicle was Russia's Lunokhod 1. Russia's Lunokhod 1 made history by being able to land on another world. It weighed 2,000 pounds, and was on the moon 322 earth days. November 14, 1971, Mariner 9 became the first man-made object to enter another planet's orbit. It identified about 85 percent of the planet including 20 volcanoes and Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system as one of them. December 4, 1973, Pioneer 10 was the first man-made object to Jupiter and took 300 pictures of Jupiter. Pioneer 10 got propelled on to the course of Saturn because of Jupiter's powerful gravity.

Credits:

http://sse.jpl.nasa.gov/history/index.cfm

http://eecs.vanderbilt.edu/ROMAN2005/Plenary_Speakers.pdf

http://library.thinkquest.org/C0126520/lessons/s1.htm

http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC030277/whatisarocket.html

Space Rocket Pictures: http://www.spacetoday.org/images/Rockets/XPrizeRockets/XPrizeCanadianArrow.jpg
Apollo 11 Rocket: http://yellowjacketsystems.com/alway/photos/Apollo11launchclr.jpg