Robert Schetlick
Earth Science CEven
Current Events Review
3/27/15
The Experimental 1-Year Journey to the ISS
Experienced astronaut Scott J. Kelly, 51, is set to break records all having to do with time in space, starting from launch at 3:42 pm EST Friday March 27th. He will be in orbit around earth for about a year and is expected to return around the same time in 2016. Scott will break the record for the longest NASA mission ever, as well as 2 other records for accumulative space time against other americans. Until now, International space station missions have always been no more than 6 months, with the russians usually staying for longer on the mir in the 1980’s and 90’s. However, the purpose of this mission is far from just breaking records. Julie A. Robinson, NASA’s chief scientist for the mission, plans to study the physical and mental effects of space, radiation on bones, weightlessness, and more on the human body after long missions. During a conference in January about the effects on astronauts bodies she said, “ “They(the astronauts) push them(their bodies) to something not at all unlike aging on Earth, where their balance is disrupted, their hearts are weaker, their immune system isn’t functioning as well, their muscles are weaker and their bones are being lost.” Astronauts have to live in tough conditions while in zero gravity, that humans were never ready to face. All these factors will be collected as data from the space station, and compared back down on earth with the control group being Scott’s twin brother. This physiological and physical data will be used to improve and work on many of NASA’s other huge projects, such as the mission to get humans on mars, which makes this mission a very big deal.
Everyone at one point in their life has either wanted to go to space or be an astronaut, and even in today’s amazingly technologically advanced world people are still just as fascinated by the stars. The discoveries that could be made on this mission will improve our knowledge on the effects of space on humans, which brings us one step close to achieving our childhood dream of visiting the stars ourselves. This data will be used in the mission to mars, then in the next big mission, and so on and so forth until everyone can start going to space, and possibly even live their all because of the data that could be discovered within this one year period of time. Society should definitely be tracking this mission, because it could be the ticket to the stars.
The article written in the New York Times was very well written for the general public, but could used a few slight improvements. The article was clear to any reader, it was a decent length, and it is an interesting topic that directly relates to today’s society, all of which make it a very strong article. However, the article is weak in providing raw evidence to prove some of their points, it could use some more interesting vocabulary, and it gets a little off topic when it includes the section about the Russian records. The article could be improved if it includes more quotes to back up some of its weaker points. It could also advance the reading level a tiny bit, and finally cut out the part about the Russian records, because it is off topic and a bit too lengthy. Overall, this article was a fun read and has set expectations for the mission very high.
I commented on Robby’s review of “Off to Space for a Year, an American’s Longest Journey”. Overall, I thought that Robby did a great job reviewing. One thing I really liked about his review was took about the positive impacts that Scott J. Kelly’s mission will have on the study of space. He did a great job of including details on what specifically we will learn from this space mission. Another thing I like that Robby did was his critique of the article. He made sure to include both positive and negative comments about the article. This made him appear unbiased and made his opinion more valid. A third thing I liked that Robby did was include a quote in his article. This helps the reader to understand more about this article and what the experts are saying.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Robby did an excellent job selecting his article, as I learned much from reading it. I learned that being in space can have many large effects on the body. For example, I learned that in space, one’s muscles become weaker, their bones become lost, and their hearts become weaker. I also learned that this year long mission will set the record for the longest mission in space. This long stay in space will help researchers to learn if they can spend longer times in space. With this knowledge they will be able to launch missions that are longer and go farther than orbiting the Earth.
Even though Robby did an excellent good reviewing the article, there were some ways he could have improved his review. One way he could have improved his review was to talk about the risks of the mission. It would have been interesting to learn about what could possible happen to Scott J. Kelly while in space. I would imagine that with their hearts weaker and their immune system isn’t functioning as well, some serious consequences could occur. I would have enjoyed it if Robby learned about this and talked about this in his review. In conclusion, I found both Robby’s review and the article interesting and well written, but both still had areas that could have been improved.
Robbie did a really great job with this review. Many of the articles that I reviewed when choosing my own article lacked a level of relevance and intrigue. Robbie’s review stood out compared to the rest because the article he chose was on a topic that was already fascinating in itself and I appreciated that. He kept my interest up throughout his synopsis by keeping it concise and focusing on the relevance of the mission as opposed to the details of the actual journey. He did this while also not ignoring the overall purpose of the mission, which was very helpful in my understanding. He also included an aspect on how the mission was not only relevant for the future, but also the past. Advancements in space travel and technology are usually deemed important based on the relevance they have for our future and Robbie talked about that in depth, but he also discussed the pre existing records and how the data collected from this mission relates to our pre existing knowledge. I was overall very impressed with this article. I learned a lot, but did not feel overwhelmed by facts. Robbie’s explanation of how the bodies of astronauts are broken down, for instance, was fascinating. The effect space has on the human body is so drastic and so rarely discussed. I also had not realized how the data collected could be used in future missions in order to make space travel more accessible to humans. We are sending a lot of technology into space, but not very many people and this mission could potentially change that. My only suggestion for Robbie would be that he could have discussed the possibilities of failure for the mission. Even if the article did not discuss how the mission could go wrong a personal inference as to what could occur would be have made this a really well rounded analysis.
ReplyDeleteRobby did a great job of reviewing his article, " The Experimental 1-Year Journey to the ISS" from the New York Times. He did a great job of summarizing the article without reciting the entire article; I think that he smart in what he decided to include and what not to. I especially liked how he connected the article to society, explaining how the space mission could provide us with knowledge to help us make life outside of our planet possible. Robby also did a good job of pointing out areas where the article needed work like when he stated that the article didn't "provide enough raw evidence to prove some of its points". I was interested first just by the topic of the article, that there is a one year ISS space mission. I was also found it interesting that they are using the subjects twin as the control group to compare all his data to. I thought Robby did a good job overall with his review although I would have liked if he would have given his thoughts on what might occur during the space mission and what we could possibly learn from this mission which we did not before.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Robby’s current event review of the article, “Off to Space for a Year, an American’s Longest Journey,” I think that Robby did a very good job with his review. Robby did a lot of things well in his review that made it easier to read and more engaging. For example, Robby’s opening sentence was very engaging, and it did a very good job of getting me interested in the topic. Robby did not just start his response by telling us what he was writing about, but he started with a very cool fact that makes people want to keep reading. Another thing that I liked about Robby’s response was that he did a very good job of choosing an appropriate quote, and integrating it into his response. The quote showed precisely what the article that Robby reviewed was abut in a concise way. Also, Robby put the quote in his review without interrupting the flow of his writing, and this is hard to do. Sometimes when people use quotes, it does more to hurt their writing than to help them, but this was not the case with Robby. The last thing that I liked about Robby’s review was the section where he showed the importance of the article he read on society. In this part of his writing, Robby once again interested me by connecting the article to normal people like myself. By doing this, he made his review more relatable, and therefore more likeable.
ReplyDeleteRobby’s review was also very good because it included a lot of important information from the article he read. I learned a lot of interesting things such as the fact that no astronaut has ever been in space for even a year before now. I was not aware of this, and it surprised me, as I thought people stayed in space for much longer than a year. I also learned about the many detrimental health effects that being in space has on a person, and they surprised me because I did not know that going to space was so bad for humans. Therefore, I learned a lot from Robby’s review, and I was impressed by the level of information he provided.
Despite liking all of these things about Robby’s review, I felt he could have done one thing better. I felt that Robby could have provided more backstory on the story he was talking about. I think I would’ve understand the topic better if I knew why the astronaut going to space for a year was endangering his health in such a drastic way. Other than this, Robby did a great job with his review of the article he read.