Esa and Nasa are planning to launch a satellite called the Exomars in 2016 to orbit around but Mars. However, they may not have enough funds to launch it. The Exomars is a satellite that is supposed to relay pictures from a rover that is supposed to launch in 2018. Because of the different orbits of Earth and Mars, the only chance they have to launch is every 26 months. If funds are not raised by then, it would have to be put off for over two years. One option that is being discussed is getting outside financing and one or two of the rockets from Russia. If this doesn’t happen then the plans will have to be put off for two more years. One of the main reasons for this mission is to put a rover on Mars to drill into the sub-surface and collect samples for analysis of life-bearing evidence. This would be useful in that it would help make it easier to someday put a human on Mars because it would give us a better understanding of what is on Mars.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Current Event #1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14916451
I was very surprised by this article. I didn't think it was possible to control the climate of Earth. I think that people should try fixing the problems that we are already dealing with instead of using a new technology that has the potential to cause other unintended environmental effects. Some people believe it is a solution to global warming which could lead to increased CO2 emissions because they no longer have to worry about global warming. However, it doesn’t remove any of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. It only reflects some of the sun’s radiation which won’t do much if we keep adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels. Instead of this, I believe that people should cut down on the use of fossil fuels and begin to use alternative fuels. This would decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and potentially stop global warming.
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