Max Clark
2/28/2015
Earth Science Current Event
Castro, Joseph. "What Would It Be Like to Live on Mars? | Space.com." Space.com. N.p., 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 27 Feb. 2015. http://www.space.com/28557-how-to-live-on-mars.html
Humans have speculated about living on mars for nearly two centuries now, starting from its discovery potentially thousands of years ago till this very day, though it has only become within reach in the previous 50 years. However, ignoring the many sci-fi depictions in modern media, what are the actual circumstances that future space colonists would meet if they were to attempt to inhabit the red planet? With NASA planning a manned mission to mars by the 2030's, this is becoming a much more prominent question in the minds of scientists. First off, if a manned mission were to even go to mars, the best place to settle and conduct experiments would likely be in the “low northern latitudes," said Ashwin Vasavada, a deputy project scientist for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory. Mars has a tilt upon its axis, hence it has seasons similar to earth, but as a side effect of its elliptical orbits, weather and temperature can go into the extremes. Mars’s winters around the poles can go down to as much as - 195 F, but has cool summers at 60 F around the equator. However, Mars is infamous for its spectacularly large dust storms, which can envelop the entire planet within a matter of days, and while they are unharmful to people, they can easily interfere with electronics and signals. Speaking of internet signals, it takes approximately 15 minutes to send one from Mars to Earth on average, making communication fairly difficult for any actual messages to go back and forth, putting astronauts in extreme danger if there is a major crisis. However, the most dangerous threat is radiation from space, which due to a lack of an atmosphere can easily harm life. It may all be worth it for the view, as scientists cite that stargazing would be amazing on the red planet, and there are certain areas that would become nature parks due to their clarity of the sky if Mars were colonized. Indeed, there are some areas with incredible natural beauty, such as Olympus Mons, the tallest volcano in the solar system, or Valles Marineris a massive valley that is nearly the size of the width of the US. Gravity is only 38% of Earth’s but is easier than the moon to navigate with.
This article has profound impacts on any potential future ventures from Earth to Mars. Many people are aware of the fact that Mars is potentially habitable, but very few know the finer details of what life would be like on mars. Indeed, this article may not be relevant to the layman, but it still is full of fascinating facts and information which is invaluable to scientists researching on the colonization of Mars. This also gives hope that perhaps the colonization of Mars isn’t as abstract a goal as scientists may have previously thought, and this could have profound implementations, not only for astronauts but for the future of humans as a whole.
Although this article manages to excellently state the many difficulties that would be encountered, but also the beauty of what life on Mars would be like, it does have its faults. For example, it completely abstained from mentioning any information on exactly how easy it would be to get on Mars, and how soon that this could occur. It gives little to no thought on any of the grand details we receive, which is irritating as it fails to mention itself the gravity of its information. It definitely could have improved itself by expanding on its information, and by giving more detailed accounts of the many issues we would face if we were to live on Mars. Other than these issues, it is an excellent article, and I hope to see more of the like quite soon.
Hi Max, I really enjoyed your current event about Mars! Being that I just presented a project on Mars, I found your information very interesting and it really expanded my knowledge. There were many aspects of your review that were very well presented. For one, the way you introduced your review with some history about Mars made a great opener. It made the tone of your review ultimately fun, yet factual. Also, the way you led the history of Mars research into a rhetorical question was a brilliant way to hook anyone’s attention. Another awesome feature about your review is that you mentioned what the future of Mars might be like. You really backed up your ideas with interesting facts, other information about Mars travel, and what the future of Mars travel might develop into, realistically speaking. There were also some amazing facts you talked about. For example, I found it surprising how Mars has dust storms so large that they can envelop the planet in just a few days! I also found it interesting that it would take approximately fifteen minutes to send a message from Mars to earth. If I had to make some constructive criticism on your review, I would just recommend choosing a different article next time, just because it was only a few paragraphs long and could have expanded more. Also, I would have loved to have heard more about the natural beauty of mars, since youre conclusion mentions that the beauty of mars was the main purpose of the original article. Other than that, I could tell that you put in further research about mars to find your information. I can also tell by the tone of your review that you have a real interest in the planet, Mars, and therefore made your current event spunky and fascinating. Overall, your review was quite stupendous and helped to lengthen my knowledge on Mars even further.
ReplyDelete-Sasha
Max’s review of “What Would it be like to Live on Mars?” by Joesph Castro, covers the daunting question of what living on a different planet would be like. He opens up with some history of Mars, quickly bringing the reader into the actual point. So while he begins in a funny manner, he does not dwell on it longer than need be. Max also gives us a bit of information about Mars that is both relevant and interesting. He uses this to his advantage as it brings up possible dangers or obstacles in trying to live on Mars. Those would include the facts about space radiation and dust storms. Both of these things would be problems the human race would have to encounter in order to thrive there. Another aspect that was well integrated is that he tied together the idea of living in space. That may sound odd, but Max was able to question the idea while supporting his own ideas with evidence that he found in the article. That makes his review more than just a simple summary of what the article said.
ReplyDeleteThis article brings up many new facts about the planet Mars that I never really knew before. Things such as the dust cloud creating signal interference, the climate of Mars, and the radiation aspect were all new things to me. While being new, they were also particularly interesting as the manner that Max introduced them made them flow very well. As for what could have made the review better, maybe if he gave his own opinion on the idea, it would have strengthened his case. By clearly saying what he thought Max would be able to make a somewhat debate in his article. However besides that he did a really nice job.