Chapter Five: Five begins with an interesting perspective of Earth. It asks you to imagine yourself as a alien explorer come to observe the planets of our solar system, in specific, Earth. You aren't permitted to land on Earth or any other planets. You are using spectrometers to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere and notice excessive amounts of O2, unlike anything you have ever seen before. You come to find out that all this oxygen exists because there is definitely some life on Earth. Chlorophyll from these plants on Earth absorb the sunlight and produce oxygen as a result. Another sign of other forms of life is methane. Methane doesn't last long in an oxygen rich environment unless there is immense amounts of it. Methane can be produced by bacteria as well as everyday processes we perform. The last sign of intelligent life you find is radio transmissions not produced by electrons in magnetic fields. These transmissions are created by technology constructed by the unknown life on Earth.
Chapter Six: NASA is a historical company with many accomplishments. But recently, they have been criticized for their mistakes more then ever. People today believe that there really is no need of astronauts anymore except for making repairs to space machinery. These people believe that robots are instead the future of the space program but they neglect what astronauts and NASA have accomplished in the same time period. An example of this is the repair of the Hubble Space Telescope while it was still in orbit. This was a tough but rewarding accomplishment. Many tools of science have been developed in the form of satellites and other systems. Satellites that observe the Earth can tell us about our global climate and its change. GPS can help you get across the country as well as keep you from getting lost. Satellites can also look outward into space, revealing to us galaxies, starts, and other planets never seen before. NASA's technologies allow us to do so many things that we don't normally think of it, so why focus on a small list of negatives?
It very much seems that chapter six was the more interesting of the two. It really is a shame that most people don't acknowledge just how important NASA really is. The amount that NASA has learned and discovered for the human race really is tremendous, and as you said, NASA should really not be ignored due to a few errors.
ReplyDeleteI always find it fascinating that people are so quick to criticize NASA, and to call NASA programs money pits. When you look at what they have done and how often they have succeeded their failures aren't that important. Lessons to learn, sure, but its not as if NASA costs the average tax payer anything significant.
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