Asteroids are large space objects made of rock and ice There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system Though we often hear ideas about establishing colonies of humans to live and work on our Moon or our neighboring planet Mars some think | TOEFL IELTS GMAT GRE SAT ACT PTE ESL

Essay topics:

Asteroids are large space objects made of rock and ice. There are hundreds of thousands of asteroids in our solar system. Though we often hear ideas about establishing colonies of humans to live and work on our Moon or our neighboring planet, Mars, some think that sending people to an asteroid would actually be the best colonization option for a number of reasons.

Low Gravity

To begin with, asteroids are often much smaller than planets, so they have lower gravity. When landing a spaceship, the craft would not be pulled as strongly or as forcefully toward the asteroid’s surface, making the landing safer than landing on the Moon or Mars; it would also allow a spacecraft to carry much more equipment needed to set up the colony. It would also be easier for the spacecraft to take off again, so the spaceship would need to carry considerably less fuel for the trip back to Earth.

Mining Valuable Metals

Next, some asteroids are rich in valuable elements and precious metals that are relatively rare on Earth, such as gold and platinum. An asteroid colony would be extremely profitable and a good source of these raw materials. The colonists or businesses sponsoring them could more than pay for the cost of their support by mining minerals and sending them back to Earth.

Easy to Reach

Finally, asteroids are a good option for colonization because some of them would be very easy to reach. There are a number of asteroids that periodically come within or near Earth’s orbit. Some of them actually get closer to Earth than our Moon. So these asteroids would be much easier and more affordable to get to and get back from than a planet like Mars, which would require a two-year trip in each direction.

In terms of whether colonizing an asteroid is a desirable option for humans or not, the arguments mentioned in the reading are all disputed by the lecturer.

It is first suggested that the low-gravity environment in the asteroid would make it easy for people to have a safer landing, carry more equipment, and use less fuel for the backing trip. However, the lecturer argues that colonizing asteroid has a downside despite those advantages.
As a matter of fact, people living in low-gravity environment are more likely to suffer from serious health problems, like the loss of bone density and muscle. In this case, the risk of contracting health problems make this colonization option less practical.

Second, as the reading points out, the available and rich metals can serve as a potential commerical opporturnity for those who conduct mining them. However, the lecturer contradicts this view. In fact, the cost of supporting miners and transporting those metals from asteroid to earth can be extremely high. What's more, hardly can the price of those precious metals remain high since as the supply of metals increase, the price of them will drop considerably. Therefore, due to those two facts, an asteroid colony fails to be lucrative.

Thirdly, the statement that asteroids are easy to reach and get back from them given the close distance to earth is also challenged. Although those asteroids are much more accessible for humans, they feature unusual paths, traveling further away from earth than earth's Moon. As a result, people who reach asteroids will find it difficult and challenging to return to Earth.

Votes

Essay Categories

Integrated TOEFL Writing

Comments

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 6, column 310, Rule ID: EN_CONTRACTION_SPELLING
Message: Possible spelling mistake found
Suggestion: What's
...steroid to earth can be extremely high. Whats more, hardly can the price of those pre...
^^^^^
Line 8, column 355, Rule ID: ALLOW_TO[1]
Message: Did you mean 'returning'? Or maybe you should add a pronoun? In active voice, 'challenge' + 'to' takes an object, usually a pronoun.
Suggestion: returning
... will find it difficult and challenging to return to Earth.
^^^^^^^^^

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, second, so, therefore, third, thirdly, in fact, as a matter of fact, as a result

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments

Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 6.0 5.04856512141 119% => OK
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 5.0 12.0772626932 41% => More relative clauses wanted.
Pronoun: 19.0 22.412803532 85% => OK
Preposition: 32.0 30.3222958057 106% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK

Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1362.0 1373.03311258 99% => OK
No of words: 264.0 270.72406181 98% => OK
Chars per words: 5.15909090909 5.08290768461 101% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.03089032464 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.70313391567 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 154.0 145.348785872 106% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.583333333333 0.540411800872 108% => OK
syllable_count: 417.6 419.366225166 100% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK

A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 4.0 1.25165562914 320% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 4.0 2.5761589404 155% => OK

Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 13.0 13.0662251656 99% => OK
Sentence length: 20.0 21.2450331126 94% => OK
Sentence length SD: 38.0970420818 49.2860985944 77% => OK
Chars per sentence: 104.769230769 110.228320801 95% => OK
Words per sentence: 20.3076923077 21.698381199 94% => OK
Discourse Markers: 8.15384615385 7.06452816374 115% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 4.19205298013 48% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 6.0 4.33554083885 138% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 6.0 4.45695364238 135% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 1.0 4.27373068433 23% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?

Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.0851254475896 0.272083759551 31% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0340079552103 0.0996497079465 34% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0264979877512 0.0662205650399 40% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0493725441629 0.162205337803 30% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0209355511198 0.0443174109184 47% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.

Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.0 13.3589403974 97% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 51.18 53.8541721854 95% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.1 11.0289183223 101% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.65 12.2367328918 103% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.52 8.42419426049 101% => OK
difficult_words: 65.0 63.6247240618 102% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 14.5 10.7273730684 135% => OK
gunning_fog: 10.0 10.498013245 95% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?

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It is not exactly right on the topic in the view of e-grader. Maybe there is a wrong essay topic.

Rates: 3.33333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 1.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.

Essay evaluations by e-grader

Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, first, however, if, second, so, therefore, third, thirdly, in fact, as a matter of fact, as a result

Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments