In this article, After a Two Year Trek, NASA’s Mars Rover Reaches Its Mountain Lab, by Kenneth Chang, it is described that the Mars rover, Curiosity, has reached its destination (a 3 mile high mountain called Mount Sharp) where it will begin to perform its main scientific experiments. The rover was launched in January of 2012 landed on Mars in August of 2012. Since then, Curiosity has been conducting minor experiments, taking photographs, and has been driving around the dust planet looking for the perfect place to begin its real research. The article stated that the arrival time to the mountain took slightly longer than scientists thought because they did not want to damage any part of the rover. Also, the author mentioned how this project has cost over $2.5 billion so far and in the upcoming year, it will cost around $59.4 million for operations alone. Though Curiosity conducted an experiment suggesting that a huge crater was once some form of lake and it has found rocks that contain high silicone levels, meaning that they have been altered by water, the article seemed to suggest that the focus of the last two years was about driving the rover and not as much about the actual experiments.
The Mars rover project is a huge leap in the discovery of space and science and could further inspire NASA and other space programs to dig deep into new discoveries of our our galaxy. This project could also spark ideas and theories created by future generations who are eager to discover more knowledge. Curiosity is also the beginning of a new era of exploring and observing other planets. This could mean we find some sort of life on Mars or evidence that there was life at one time. It could even mean just collecting more rocks. Unfortunately, I feel that the only thing holding us back from more space research is the price tag that comes along with it.
In my opinion, I think that this article was not very well written. Though it was very easy to understand for anyone who doesn’t know a lot about astronomy and science, it only provided decent information. It is clear that the author knows about the topic he is writing about and that the facts and quotes were carefully researched. However, I do think that this article was missing a great amount of facts and was lacking details about the true mission of Curiosity and what experiments they will be conducting. Usually I am very interested in these sorts of topics but this article just wasnt very intriguing.
Chang, Kenneth. "After a Two-Year Trek, NASA’s Mars Rover Reaches Its Mountain Lab." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 13 Sept. 2014.
Hey Hadley:
ReplyDeleteThis was a well written report of the article and I was able to gather much information from it. Because of my extended research with Mars through the planet presentations we did in class, I was curious as to what you had written here, and I decided to take a look. Although I did further research on Mars rovers, such as Curiosity, as mentioned above, I never got into depth about what research it conducted exactly, besides taking photographs in search for life forms. I am glad you were able to give other details on the minor research the rover conducted. Another aspect I took from this was the cost of the project. $2.5 billion is a lot of money to go around. I never would have guessed the extensiveness of price range concerning these kinds of space missions, so a big thank you for mentioning that. I completely agree with you when you say that the price tags on these missions are the main reason as to why we are being held back in space exploration. Lastly, I never knew about this crater with high silicone levels. Although I did have a significant portion of my Mars presentation related to signs of water/water canals, I guess I never came across this particular one you talked about. I'm probably as curious as the name of the rover when I ask what will the "real research" be centered on? Although you did mention that the article lacked much info thereof, was there anything else that could have been taken from this article concerning its true purpose on Mars? Besides this, I think you did an excellent job taking the information you were able to gather from this and setting it up here in the report. I'm glad that I was able to read this and I was able to take more information about a topic I already had gone into depth with. Keep up the good work.
David DiMolfetta
From this current event written by Hadley Barr and the article it described, I learned about the Mars rover, Curiosity. From Hadley's report I gathered that Curiosity is a very expensive rover that was launched in January of 2012 and landed on Mars in August of 2012. However, the rover has just recently arrived at the mountain where it will conduct its primary experiments. This is very interesting because the rover could give us insight into the mysteries of the planet and the possibility of life on Mars. However, I agree with Hadley when she says that the article didn't have a lot of information or detail on the plans for the rover. The reader isn't presented with this valuable information and Hadley finds an excellent way of pointing this out while not being incredibly rude. I also love how she takes the information and plans for Curiosity and draws the conclusion that the rover and its discoveries will "spark a new era of exploring and observing other planets." However, one question that Hadley's current event provoked was, what is the future of Curiosity on Mars once its reached the top of this mountain and how long will these experiments take? Overall, Hadley wrote a well-written report that contained valuable information and a thorough analysis of this information.
ReplyDeleteEva Cagliostro
Overall, Haley did a great job on her current event review. I learned about the very expensive rover, Curiosity, which landed on Mars about two years ago. It has recently reached its main location, where it is supposed to perform it's most significant experiments. Until now, the rover has only done some minor tests and gathering, but nothing major. Hadley did a really good job at providing the reader with great detail, but still keeping it concise. Her review was also very well written, as it was fluid and contained good vocabulary and grammar. Although her article was good, there was some areas for improvement.For instance, there were some places where I noticed a grammatical mistake or missed word, so in the future be sure to proofread.
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