Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.
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.
The lecturer points out that colonizing asteroids is not practical, for each of the three points concerning the potential benefits of colonizing asteroids has a downside. The lecture presents each of these downsides to undermine the ideas presented in the reading, which substantially reduces the strength of the passage.
First, it is mentioned in the lecture that although low gravity on asteroids makes spacecraft landing and taking off easy, the same effect has detrimental effects on humans who will be stationed on these asteroids. Low gravity causes people to lose muscle mass and bone density, which are critical health issues. The lecturer explained that even a brief period of time in low gravity situation can greatly undermine the health of space crews, not to mention the long extent of time required for the asteroid workers to stay on them.
Then, concerning the prospect of profitability of asteroid mining in the passage, the lecture presents an alternative view that it may not seem as auspicious as it may sound in the passage. To begin with, operational costs, such as the cost of transporting the metal back to Earth, could be so costly that the profit made from selling these metals is greatly diminished. Furthermore, prices of these precious metal are prone to plummet as great quantities of these rare metals are put on market; these metal will not be as rare any more because of the increase in supply. Therefore, the profit of asteroid mining will decline even further as the metal prices decline.
Finally, the last point in the lecture points out that despite it being easy to send people onto asteroids, returning may not be an equally easy job. While asteroids may occasionally get close to Earth, they oftentimes depart from Earth after such occasion, owing to the fact of their irregular orbits. That means it would be extremely difficult for people to get back from these asteroids after they get on it. Therefore, the benefit of being close to Earth mentioned in the passage is greatly diminished.
All in all, the points made in the lecture supply an alternative view to each of the claimed benefits mentioned in the passage. Proving that there are more problems about asteroid mining than the auspicious views proposed in the passage, the lecture successfully demonstrates that colonizing asteroids is impractical.
| Post date | Users | Rates | Link to Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-10-07 | kenneth7883 | 73 | view |
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Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 3, column 355, Rule ID: PERIOD_OF_TIME[1]
Message: Use simply 'period'.
Suggestion: period
...he lecturer explained that even a brief period of time in low gravity situation can greatly un...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, first, furthermore, if, may, so, then, therefore, while, such as, to begin with
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 10.0 5.04856512141 198% => OK
Conjunction : 2.0 7.30242825607 27% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 62.0 30.3222958057 204% => Less preposition wanted.
Nominalization: 2.0 5.01324503311 40% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1976.0 1373.03311258 144% => OK
No of words: 388.0 270.72406181 143% => Less content wanted.
Chars per words: 5.09278350515 5.08290768461 100% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.43821085614 4.04702891845 110% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.69543766513 2.5805825403 104% => OK
Unique words: 187.0 145.348785872 129% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.481958762887 0.540411800872 89% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 615.6 419.366225166 147% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.55342163355 103% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 10.0 8.23620309051 121% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 25.0 21.2450331126 118% => OK
Sentence length SD: 42.037866528 49.2860985944 85% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.733333333 110.228320801 120% => OK
Words per sentence: 25.8666666667 21.698381199 119% => OK
Discourse Markers: 5.86666666667 7.06452816374 83% => OK
Paragraphs: 5.0 4.09492273731 122% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 4.33554083885 231% => Less positive sentences wanted.
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => 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: 0.194683863299 0.272083759551 72% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0681794542055 0.0996497079465 68% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.044171264535 0.0662205650399 67% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.114026674179 0.162205337803 70% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0360631727736 0.0443174109184 81% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.5 13.3589403974 116% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 46.1 53.8541721854 86% => OK
smog_index: 8.8 5.55761589404 158% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 13.0 11.0289183223 118% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 12.54 12.2367328918 102% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 8.7 8.42419426049 103% => OK
difficult_words: 94.0 63.6247240618 148% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 13.5 10.7273730684 126% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.0 10.498013245 114% => OK
text_standard: 13.0 11.2008830022 116% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 73.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 22.0 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.