8.TT.1.1

This is a research paper for the 8th grade exit project. This paper will be on the decade of The Roaring 90’s. For each year, there will be information on an important event that happened during that year. In the year 1990, the Hubble Telescope was launched. Hubble is a telescope that orbits earth, and is one of NASA’s most successful and long-lasting science missions. The Hubble Space Telescope was named in honor of astronomer Edwin Hubble. It cost $2 billion to build, weighs approximately 25,500 pounds, and measures 43 feet long by 14 feet wide, which is about the size of a school bus. Two months after it was launched, astronomers discovered that there was a spherical aberration in one of the mirrors. In 1991, two of the craft’s six gyroscopes failed, and a third failed in 1993. Astronauts and NASA staff spent 11 months training for one of the most complex space missions ever attempted. It was the first test to see if the telescope could be serviced and repaired in space. NASA successfully repaired the telescope during the 1993 mission of the Endeavour. In March of 2002, the fourth servicing mission brought Hubble a new power control unit, a powerful new camera, and solar array panels. Hubble’s final servicing mission was in May 2009. The Hubble Telescope is to be replaced in 2014 by the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope will have a primary mirror that is 20 feet in diameter, while the Hubble’s was only 8 feet in diameter. In the year 1991, two German tourists were hiking in the Otzal Alps near the Italian-Austrian border when they discovered Europe’s oldest known mummy sticking out of the ice. He was named after the Otzal Alps, which was where his body was discovered. His death was most likely caused by an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder, and had severed one of his arteries. Otzi had over 50 tattoos on his body, and was 5’2” tall and weighed about 134 pounds. He was in his middle 40’s when he died, had arthritis in his joints, and also had whipworm (which is a type of worm disease). Otzi wore a belt, loincloth, and goat-skin leggings with suspenders. He also wore a bear-skin cap, an outer cape, a coat made of woven grass, and moccasins. The blood of four people was found on his clothes and weapons. His weapons included a bow and quiver, arrows, a copper axe, a dagger, and sheath. In Otzi’s stomach, there was cultivated wheat which was possibly consumed as bread, wild goat meat, and dried plums. Otzi had fleas, no wisdom teeth, and was missing his twelfth pair of ribs. Scientists assume that Otzi was a sheepherder, and they also believe that he was born in Italy. In the year 1992, the Cold War officially ended. The Cold War was a period of tension and hostility between the United States of America and the Soviet Union from the mid-40’s to the late 80’s. It began with the end of the Second World War, and was called the Cold War because there was no fighting between the two nations. America’s refusal to share nuclear secrets, and Russia’s aim of spreading world communism, along with a feeling of suspicion, did a great deal to deepen the Cold War. Suspicion like America’s fear of a communist attack, and Russia’s fear of an American attack, lead to mutual distrust between the two nations. The Cold War wasn’t really a war, but simply an exchange of words and threats between Russia and America. The exchange of words were said in order to promote their ideologies (which were that America promoted democracy, while the USSR promoted communism). The East German government erected the Berlin Wall in 1961 to prevent check the flow of East Germans to West Germany. Berlin, specifically the Berlin Wall, became a symbol of the Cold War and the division of Germany and Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall was also called the shedding, or lifting, of the iron curtain. Mikhail Gorbacher became the leader of the Soviet Union and his policies, which was an openness towards other nations and an initiative that allowed limited market incentives to Soviet citizens, led to a change in he Soviet Union and finally to the end of the Cold War. Other things that lead to the end of the Cold War, were when in December 1991, the Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Russia, declared independence. The end of the Cold War occurred with the fall of the Soviet Union when around 20 new nations disintegrated from the Soviet Union and declared independence. The Cold War lasted for 45 years and an effect of the Cold War, was that it led to destructive conflicts like the Vietnam War and the Korean War. In the year 1993, a terrorist bomb exploded in the parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. It left a crater 60 feet wide causing the collapse of several steel-reinforced concrete floors in the vicinity of the blast. Although the terrorist bomb failed to critically damage the main structure of the sky scrapers, six people were killed and more than 1,000 people were injured. The World Trade Center suffered more than $500 million in damage. Muslim fundamentalists were convicted for the bombing, and one of the masterminds of the attack was Ramzi Ahmed Yousef. He had been in the Philippines, and in a computer he left, there were terrorist plans that included a plot to kill Pope John Paul II and a plan to bomb 15 Americans Airliners in 48 hours. The World Trade Center was a project started in 1960 by David Rockefeller, and the explosion destroyed five floors in the 110 story building. The second time the World Trade Center became world news, was on September 11, 2001, when two hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers, causing them to explode. The site became known as ‘Ground Zero’. Instead of rebuilding the twin towers, it was decided to create a memorial at the site and build five new towers around the memorial. One tower has already been completed, and the second is predicted to be finished by 2013. The memorial was dubbed ‘Reflecting Absence’, and has cascading waterfalls with site of the former towers. The names of the 2,977 people who died during the attacks that day (including those who died in Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.) as well as the victims of the 1993 bombing are inscribed around the edge of the waterfalls. In the year 1994, the Channel Tunnel, also known as the Chunnel, officially opened. There were a few efforts to build a tunnel prior to the Chunnel, but none on the scale of the tunnel that began in 1988. The Chunnel is a rail tunnel that runs under the English Channel. The Chunnel is a set of three 31.25-mile long tunnels that connects Folkestone, England with Sangatte, France, 31 miles away. It cut travel time between England and France to a swift 35 minutes and eventually between London and Paris to two-and-a-half hours. The Chunnel is the world’s longest undersea tunnel. It runs underwater for 23 miles, with an average depth of 150 feet below the seafloor. Each day, about 30,000 people, 6,000 cars and 3,500 trucks, journey through the Chunnel. Fifteen thousand people were employed at the peak of construction, but ten people were killed during the construction. The Chunnel’s $16 billion cost was roughly twice the original estimate, and completion was a year behind schedule. Freight traffic was suspended for six months after a fire broke out on a huge truck in the tunnel. The Channel Tunnel, which took six years to construct, is considered one of the greatest feats of engineering in the 20th century, and in 1996, the American Society of Civil Engineers identified the tunnels one of the seven wonders of the modern world. In the year 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult orchestrated a coordinated sarin gas attack on subway trains in Tokyo, Japan. The sarin gas killed a dozen people, injured thousands more, and is still considered the worst terrorist attack in Japan. Five members of the Aum Shinrikyo religious cult boarded separate subway trains in Tokyo, each member carried either two or three bags of sarin in liquid form. The sarin was tightly enclosed in plastic, and then wrapped in newspapers. Each member also carried an umbrella. The gas was released when the packages leaked. The effects of the attacks were felt immediately be the morning rush hour travelers. Some only had minor effects, but others were paralyzed, went into a coma, or died. Many victims suffered long-term effects that still haunt them. Within 48 hours of the attack, about 100 members of the cult were arrested, and 13 were sentenced to death, including the group’s leader. However, by 2010, none of the death sentences had yet been carried out. Post-subway attack raids led authorities to several tons of chemical which could be used to create gas masks, sarin, and $17 million in cash. Ultimately, it was estimated that Aum Shinrikyo had enough chemical materials to kill 4.2 million people. In the meantime, he had disappeared, leaving a trail of warnings about the end of the world, and in May 1995, the authorities found him and arrested him. In the year 1996, Dolly the sheep was born. She was named after singer Dolly Parton, and was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from and adult cell. Dolly was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian Scotland, and lived there until her death when she was six. Dolly was cloned in 1996 and was prematurely aged since she was cloned after a six-year-old ewe (which is a female sheep). Dolly was the only lamb born from 277 attempts, and even though she was a clone, she was able to reproduce in the normal way. She gave birth to four lambs, one of their names was Bonnie. Dolly was a Finn Dorset sheep, and suffered from arthritis in a hind leg joint, and a virus induced lung tumor. Her chromosomes were a little shorter than those of other sheep, and she wasn’t a completely identical copy. Dolly was euthanized on February 14, 2003. In the year 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died after being involved in a car accident. Diana had been riding with her boyfriend, bodyguard, and chauffer, when the car crashed. The car had crashed into a pillar of the tunnel under the Pont De l’Alma Bridge in Paris, while fleeing from pursuing paparazzi on motorcycles. Diana’s car was traveling at 80 to 85 mph when the car slammed into the concrete. One cameraman was snapping photographs less than 15 seconds after the accident, and another beaten at the scene by horrified witnesses. Diana’s boyfriend and chauffer were pronounced dead on the scene, but Diana and her bodyguard were transported to a hospital. Shortly after she arrived at the hospital, she went into cardiac arrest. Diana died at the age of 36 at 4 a.m. Paris time on the operating table from internal bleeding stemming from major chest, lung, and head injuries, but her bodyguard survived. Prince Charles accompanied his former wife’s body on its return to Britain, while in London, people began gathering outside Diana’s Palace residence before dawn. In the year 1998, the grand opening for Disney’s Animal Kingdom was held. In 1990, Imagineering concept designer Joe Rohde met with Michael Eisner about a proposal for a new animal park. The project was announced on June 5, 1995. It cost nearly $1 billion to complete the 500 acre Animal Kingdom which is home to some 1,700 animals that represent 250 different species. The Tree of Life is the park’s icon. It is 145 feet tall, and has the images of more than 300 hand-carved animals in its trunk. A good portion of the Animal Kingdom’s growth came with the opening of Asia in 1999, and two other notable attractions, are the Maharaja Jungle Trek, and the Kali River Rapids. The Expedition Everest opened in 2006 in the Animal Kingdom. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is home to the largest groups of Nile hippos and African elephants in North America. One hundred and sixteen animals have been born in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Two Micronesian kingfisher chicks were hatched, raising the world population of these birds by 3%. Also, when a black rhino calf was born, it made him one of only 250, world wide. It takes about four tons of food a day to feed all of the animals. In the year 1999, the Euro was introduced. It became official in 12 countries that are known as the Euro zone in 2002. The 12 countries were Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain. The Euro countries all belong to the political organization called the European Union, or E.U. The Euro is available in seven different bills and eight separate coins. The bills are available in 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500 euro denominations. The coins are available in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 euro cents, and also in 1 and 2 euro denominations. Finland though, does not use 1 and 2 cent coins. While all the coins will have the same front, each country will have the national symbols on the back of the coins that are minted in that country. France was the first country to produce Euro coins. Banknotes are issued in €500, €200, €100, €50, €20, €10, and €5. All banknotes are different colors, but brown is not used. The Euro was first introduced in non-cash form in 1999. People in Italy had to buy purses when the Euro arrived, because they had almost ceased to use coins. The Greeks had been using their form of money for 2,000 years before changing over to the Euro. The lowest value of the Euro to the U.S. dollar was $0.85.
 * __ The Roaring 90’s __**

ROV PAPER In AIG we built ROV’s (Remotely Operated Vehicles). The challenge was to be able to get floats off the end of the ROV that my team made, and put them into buckets. When you put enough floats into the bucket (which is weighed down), and it floats to the top, you win. Our ROV had three motors, and three floats. It was originally longer than when we raced it, because for the race, we took off the end of it to make it faster. The problems we faced were that the float at the end of the PVC pipe kept sliding back towards the ROV, so we couldn’t get it off. We need weights on it to balance it, so we taped them to the PVC, and then the float couldn’t slide back anymore. We had a different competition to do though, which was to go down and back the length of the pool through weighted down hoops. We could have improved on maneuvering our ROV better through the hoops under water.