MY Access Prompt: Manned Mission to Mars

7th Grade Fall Writing Benchmark

In the next few years, the United States plans to launch a manned spaceship to Mars to establish a human colony there.While some observers argue that such a mission is necessary for human knowledge to advance, others fear that the costs of such a mission are too high or that it may not even be possible with our present technology.Do you think this is a wise course of action or not?

Write a letter to the President of the United States that expresses your opinion of whether the United States should proceed with this course of action.

Important facts that may be relevant to your argument:

 The United States has sent several unmanned missions to Mars.With our present technology, it takes approximately nine months to reach Mars.The estimated cost of a manned mission to Mars is approximately 20 billion dollars.

 Mars is about half the size of the Earth.Its atmosphere contains no oxygen.It does, however, contain carbon dioxide.

 There is no liquid water on Mars today.However, there is abundant frozen water (ice) on the planet's surface.There is also evidence that the surface of Mars once contained oceans of water.

 It is currently unknown if Mars ever supported life.

As your write, remember your letter will be scored based on how well you:

 develop a multi-paragraph response to the assigned topic that clearly communicates your thesis to the audience.

 support your thesis with meaningful reasons and sufficient details.

 address the readers' concerns, opposing viewpoints, or counterarguments.

 organize your letter in a clear and logical manner, including an introduction, body, and conclusion.

 use well-constructed sentences and language that are appropriate for your audience.

 edit your work to conform to the conventions of standard American English.

Special Instructions:

Space exploration has become privatized, but in August 2012, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) successfully landed a science laboratory rover on Mars to begin surface exploration, and the world cheered along with Mission Control. The well-publicized event made headlines and sparked renewed interest in exploring "the Red Planet."

The following documents share information about possible plans for sending men/women to this interesting planet. Reading the articles will help you examine the feasibility of a mission to Mars, and thus provide information to include in your letter to the president that advises him to either involve our nation in this project or reject such an endeavor.

  • The first document is from Planet Facts.net and shares information about Mars.
  • The second document from SmartPlanet, a CBS News blogsite, shares the vision of "Mars-One," a company that would like to do more than explore Mars.
  • The third document lists reasons found on towhy the Mars-One company believes they can succeed in this endeavor.
  • The fourth document fromInternational Business Timesdiscusses whether the Mars-One plan is a pipe dream or a scam.

Document #1:"Mars Facts" from Planet Facts.org

Mars is the only planet whose surface can be seen in detail from the Earth. It is reddish in color, and was named after the bloody red God of war of the ancient Romans. Mars is the fourth closest planet to the sun. The diameter of Mars is 4,200 miles, a little over half that of the Earth. Mercury is the only planet smaller than Mars.

Mars Facts You Might Not Know About

  • Mars is red because it is rusty. There is a lot of iron in the soil, and the air on Mars has made it turn red-just like rusty iron on Earth.
  • One of Mars' moons, Phobos, is moving closer and closer to Mars. Scientists think that one day it will crash into Mars.
  • Mars has the tallest Volcano in the Solar System named Olympus Mons and it is 15 miles high which is three times the height of Mount Everest.
  • Like Earth, the poles of Mars are covered in ice. The ice becomes thicker in the winter.Mars orbits the sun every 687 Earth days.
  • The Martian “day” is about half a hour longer than Earth.
  • At its brightest, Mars outshines every other planet apart from Venus.
  • The thin atmosphere of Mars is made of mostly carbon dioxide.
  • A hundred pound man would weigh 38 pounds on Mars.
  • In 1996 NASA, while studying the ALH 84001 meteorite ofMartian origin found in Antarctica in 1984,announced that fossilized micro-organisms from Mars might be present in it.
  • Valleys and Canyons on Mars suggest that the planet once had large amounts of surface water.
  • In winter, nighttime temperatures on Mars can drop as low as -191°F.

Document #2:"Startup aims to colonize Mars by 2023"bySarah Korones, June 3, 2012, of Smart Planet

Forget the moon. A new startup is aiming to set up shop on an even more distant land.

Mars One, a private space venture from the Netherlands, hopes to send astronauts on a one-way journey to Mars. Announcing its ambitious plans on Friday, the startup has declared its intention to colonize the Red Planet by 2023.

Founded by Dutch entrepreneur,Bas Lansdorp, Mars One lays out adetailed timetablefor human settlement on the planet:

The group will begin by sending a communications satellite to Mars in 2016. Two years later, the company will deploy rovers to scope out ideal settlement locations on the planet. In 2020, Mars One will send infrastructure for colonists to live on and finally, in the year 2022, the company will launch the colonists themselves in a journey set to take 10 months. After that, the startup hopes to send another few astronauts to the planet every two years.

While the mission’s presentation might raise a few eyebrows, the group does gain some credibility with the support of Gerard‘t Hooft, a Dutch theoretical physicist and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in physics. Lansdorp also claims to have letters of support from component suppliers and other private space companies.

To fund the mission, the company plans to garner hype and create a “media spectacle.”

“We will finance this mission by creating the biggest media event ever around it. Everybody in the world can see everything that will happen in the preparations and on Mars,” Lansdorp states in the presentation.

While Mars One’s plans to colonize the fourth planet from the Sun are certainly lofty, proposals like these only add to the excitement of the private space race and might just encourage others to do some exploring of their own.

Document #3:"Is This Really Possible?" fromMars-One

Mars One is not the first organization to ponder the idea of a manned mission to Mars. There have been many plans to do just this. And yet, none have come to fruition.Why should Mars One succeed?

There are several reasons, as described in some detail, below:

Emigration– The Mars One astronauts will depart Earth with the assumption they will never return. This radically changes the mission requirements, reducing the need for return vehicles associated with currently unavailable technologies and far greater costs.

·Solar panels– Through the use of this simple, robust, and plentiful energy source, we do not require development and launch of a nuclear reactor, thereby saving time and money while avoiding the risks and concerns for use of a nuclear power source.

·Simple rovers– Through the use of relatively simple rovers designed to conduct basic settlement construction prior to human astronaut arrival, saving both time and cost.

·No new developments– Our entire plan revolves around using existing, validated technology

·No politics– Suppliers are chosen on a balance of price and quality, not through political or national preferences.

Document 4:"Mars Mission Reality Show - Pipe Dream or Scam" by Roxanne Palmer, June 5, 2012

Dutch companyMars Onesays it wants to send people to the Red Planet after running them through the reality TV wringer - but appears to be ill-prepared for actual spaceflight.

Mars One says it wants to start selecting astronauts in 2013 and training them on a replica of the settlement out in the desert. The company says it will launch supplies in 2016, followed by the first four astronauts in 2022. The volunteer extraterrestrial settlers would all be traveling on a one-way ticket.

Several questions spring up almost immediately: how wise is it to select astronauts 10 years before a mission starts through reality show casting? Is any of this technologically feasible at this point in time? Is Mars One a hoax, a media stunt capitalizing on the fact that private spaceflights are in the headlines now thanks to SpaceX, or an overreaching pipedream?

The company lists only one engineer amongst its four-person team on its website, and trumpets the endorsements of Big Brother co-creator Paul Romer as well as Nobel Prize winner and physicist Gerard 't Hooft - though 't Hooft's expertise lies in quantum mechanics, not astronomy.

A man claiming to be Mars One founder Bas Landsdorp appeared Friday on the popular website Redditto take questions on the project, and was quickly met with a storm of skepticism.

Reddit users knocked Landsdorp, saying Mars One has not yet put out any concrete technical explanations of how they will get to Mars and support the proposed habitats. Some pointed out that NASA has had issues with solar panels on its Mars rovers because of dust storms that erode the panels' surfaces and block the sunlight for long periods of time, making Mars One's plans to use solar panels for energy generation unsustainable for supporting human life.

But the man claiming to be Landsdorp mostly steered clear of the more scientific questions and directed users to the company's website.

One user going by the handle “arcanosis” commented: This is almost certainly a publicity stunt. Your answers are nontechnical, imprecise, absurdly optimistic, even quixotic.

If Mars One turns out to be a hoax, it wouldn't be the first such stunt originating from the Netherlands in recent months. Dutchartist Floris Kaayk hoodwinked much of the media with hisHuman Birdwingsproject in March, in which he posted YouTubevideos purportedly showing a human-powered pair of mechanical wings.