NASA Launches Sophisticated Rover on Journey to Mars
On saturday, the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer, known as Curiosity, was launched on an eight and a half month voyage to Mars. Its purpose is to explore the planet's surface in order to find evidence that would prove that Mars was once home to microscopic life. The Curiosity weighs one ton and consists of ten scientific tools that will sample Martian soil and rocks. The rover also holds a drill and a stone zapping laser. The rover has no actual life detectors on it because its true purpose is to find organic compounds that would once have been able to sustain life. The Curiosity has a radiation detector and a weather station, to test whether it would be safe for astronauts to land on the planet one day. The Curiosity is set to land next August, using a jet pack and tether system, which will be much more accurate then the previous air bag system. The rover will spend two years roaming the planet, and it is predicted to be the most successful of all of NASA's missions to Mars so far.
If Curiosity is able to successfully land on Mars, it will have a great impact on humanity. It may be able to discover the first evidence of extraterrestrial life in history. Curiosity will test the radiation levels and the weather on Mars, which could lead to NASA finally landing a human on Mars, if the conditions are suitable. Curiosity will help NASA to make discoveries that will completely change the way we look at other planets, and could eventually lead to even greater discoveries.
I thought this article was very interesting. It went into a lot of detail about the rover and how it works, which really helped me to see the importance of this mission. I also like how it gave exact dates and time periods as to when it took off, when it will land, and how long it will be on Mars. I think the article could have gone into a little more detail about the evidence that the rover will be looking for. I also would have liked it if the article had given some more quotes form different people who had worked with this mission. Overall, i found the article very intriguing, and I had no idea NASA was so close to making such amazing discoveries.
I think Jack did a great job summarizing this article. It was very organized and went straight to the point. I like that he included the dates because it made it very helpful as to understand how long this project would take. Another good aspect of this review is he explained the purpose of the mission clearly. Also the summary includes great detail, describing what the rover holds and its functions. A very interesting point that Jack mentioned was that if this were successful it would lead to discover the extraterrestrial life in history.
ReplyDeleteTo improve this article I think Jack could’ve included more detail to explain the functions of the systems. He mentioned the jet pack and tether system saying that they are better than the air bag system, but he never explained their purpose. I also believe that he could explain why Curiosity reaching Mars would have a great impact on humanity. It would be interesting to learn how this would affect us. Another thing that would be good to know is why NASA named this rover Curiosity. Overall, Jack summarized a very interesting article. I never really was to interested in NASA, but after reading this article I’m more interested in learning these new discoveries. It was a fascinating article to read, because soon people might be able to go to Mars, which would be a historic event.
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ReplyDeleteThomas Bremar
ReplyDelete11/29/2011
I thought that this article was very interesting because I never thought that anyone would ever try to go to mars. I really liked how Jack double spaced his current event it made it easier. I like how NASA is traveling to mars to search for life that really interests me. I liked how Jack made it easy and he didn’t waste time he got straight to the point.
I wished Jack would of included a link so I could look at a photo and better understand it. Also if jack had told us the day it left from where just the specific details from take off to how the shuttle is going to return home.
This article leads me to wonder, what will the discovery on mars lead to maybe it would lead to new expeditions. Also maybe from this mission to mars will lead us in the future to discover new life, because in the last 50 years so much has changed we are now so technology advanced who knows what will we see in the future.