Christopher Hutchins
Mr. Ippolito - Current Event 15
2/5/19
Chang, Kenneth. “'This Could Be the End' for NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/mars-opportunity-rover.html.
As we enter the month of February, we may also be entering the end of a long journey. NASA’s Opportunity Rover is beginning to give signs of its death. The rover, which has lasted on Mars far longer than expected, became quiet after a giant storm of dust covered its solar panels in June. NASA continues to send signals, waiting for a response, but there are thousands of possibilities that lead to an end with the mission. Opportunity outlasted its projected life by 5,081 Mars days. Unfortunately, its partner, Spirit, disconnected in 2009, but 10 years later, Opportunity keeps rolling. At the last transmitted signal, Opportunity had been researching the gully, of what may have been waterflow. The rover was descending to the bottom, to find and examine the sediments.
This article is not extremely relevant to our understanding of the world today. It is just an alert about the impending death of the Opportunity rover. Although, by raising awareness to other space projects such as the Opportunity rover which has helped us have a much greater understanding of Mars, there becomes a public knowledge of the scapecraft and the work it is doing for the benefit of science and the origin of our planet. In the near future, when Earth becomes uninhabitable, we will need to find a new home, or face extinction. Having a stronger understanding of the planets around us will help us in the future.
After reading this article, I was very pleased with the structure, and the resources incorporated into the read. This article is separated by images. The writing of the article was slightly casual, which was effective to someone who may have previous knowledge of the mission, but to those learning about it for the first time, this may have been a mistake by the author. Other than readjusting the language to a broader target audience, this article was very well written and is important for people to educate themselves on.
ReplyDeleteCassidy Mullen
Mr. Ippolito
Current Event #16
February 12th, 2019
Chang, Kenneth. “'This Could Be the End' for NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/mars-opportunity-rover.html.
I think that Chris chose very interesting topic for his current event because I have not heard about the events on Mars in a very long time. I like that Chris explains not only the Opportunity rover but also what happened to the Spirit rover in his summary because it gave the reader necessary background information on the situation.
Chris writes, “Opportunity outlasted its projected life by 5,081 Mars days. Unfortunately, its partner, Spirit, disconnected in 2009, but 10 years later, Opportunity keeps rolling.” i like how Chris acknowledged the fact that this event “is not extremely relevant to our understanding of the world today.” Chris didn’t try to find connections that simply were not there, he was very blunt with his readers.
Although Chris did a very good job, I think that he could have provided more detail on the history of the opportunity rover because it was hard to fully understand without having background knowledge on the Rover. This missing information could have also been due to the way the actual article was structured but Chris mentions that he was “very pleased with the structure, and the resources incorporated into the read.” In addition, I feel that Chris could have explained how raising awareness for other space projects could help us better understand the origin of our planet.
I liked reading this article because I feel like I have not heard about many recent discoveries or updates about mars and space. I think that space exploration has become a slightly less popular idea but Chris’ article helped remind me that there could still be potential for a Mars colony in the future. It also made me curious about how far along NASA has developed this idea.
Chang, Kenneth. “'This Could Be the End' for NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/mars-opportunity-rover.html
ReplyDeleteIn Chris's review of the article “'This Could Be the End' for NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover.”, he did an excellent job of summarizing it's main points. After reading his article I feel fairly well informed on the topic yet not bored by too much detail. Additionally, I liked Chris's explanation of the article's significance. I agree that Mars iisn't something very significant in our daily lives, but like his connection to the possibility of humans inhabiting mars if we destroy our planet. Overall, this review was very well written. There are minimal technical errors and it is well organized.
I felt that Chris could have improved his work by giving more detail about how the Rover has been useful in the past. He focused on the fact that the rover may be 'dying' rather than what it accomplished during its life. While it was active, what discoveries did it make? How were these discoveries useful to scientist. Secondly, in his explanation of the event's significance, Chris could have explained what it will mean for space exploration in the future. Will more rovers be sent? Will focus turn to other projects?
Humans have been exploring space for decades and never cease to be fascinated with the possibility it holds. The mars rovers taught us so much about our neighboring planet. We have long wondered if Mars could house a human population. Through the rover we greatly deepened our understanding
of the planet and brought us several steps closer to this fantasy becoming reality. With the end of this project, new ones will have to take its place so we can continue our explorations of space.
Luke Freeman
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology Current Events 17 - Comment
February 15th, 2019
Chang, Kenneth. “'This Could Be the End' for NASA's Mars Opportunity Rover.” The New York
Times, The New York Times, 25 Jan. 2019,
www.nytimes.com/2019/01/25/science/mars-opportunity-rover.html.
This article, reviewed well by Chris Hutchins, gives the reader a decent insight into the life and inevitable demise of the Mars Rover. For starters, Chris does a great job of utilizing scientific terminology. Words such as “water flow” and “sediment” prove that Chris truly understood the issue. Secondly, Chris gave the reader context about the article. His summary is near-perfect in capturing the whole article, while keeping it brief. Finally, his analysis of the articles real-world implications are original and to the point.
Only two small things stood out to me when reading Chris’s article, the first being her critique paragraph. I think it is unfair to call out Chang for not directly stating the relevance of the research, as the purpose of the article is meant to describe how the Mars Rover has operated and its projected life span. Also, Chris saying that the article provided no insight and had few real world applications is unfair. The information that Chang is writing about is important as it discusses a topic that pertains to our future as a species. The Mars Rover has conducted invaluable research on what life on another planet would be like.
This article is relatively impactful as this issue affects every future human on the planet. The issue is interesting to me as I have always found research on another planet to be a cool topic. The article reminds us just how little we know about our universe, as well as how much better technology we need to expand our presence to other planets.