Why spend money on Space exploration?

Some of the most expensive things that the U.S.A invested on were tools and structures for space exploration. Many people wonder why they invest so much money on just space exploration, when they can invest so much more on trying to end world hunger, or not to invest money to help cure cancer. Those two problems, we can’t live with much longer unless we find a solution, but we can live without investing to much money on space exploration. I mean, we can throw up a couple of space probes or satellites to see what’s going on, but not so consistently. Some of our space “tools” that we invested in, were made in several different country’s. In all, imagine having to give the money to just transport the huge space device piece by piece back to the US to get it put together! Even thought we have the amount of money needed for Space explorations, some of it might be wasted money, because of all the things that could go wrong while creating a satellite in Space, instead we could divide the money so that it helps people who actually need the help instead of spending it all on space.

I agree with the fact that space exploration can help us decrease the amount of pollution and population of the Earth if we find a way for humans to survive in space. I like the fact that scientists are trying to find out new information about space because it is convenient. If there is anyone to blame for all the destruction, it's us, not mother nature, so instead of trying to blame other things for our mistakes, we should try to solve them. Even thought space exploration can be expansive, I think it is necessary because if we don’t have it, we wont be able to explore the rest of our solar system, and people wouldn’t be able to live up in space.

My opinion on sending other humans on to other planets is that they should go but only if they are doing test to see if we can do anything on those planets, meaning earth based research. The only thing I disagree on is sending so many of us, up there, and then if one thing goes wrong, there all gone, and then what? We will send up a couple other lab rats to risk their lives for science? These kind of scientists don’t just come and go, they either come and stay, or never come.  Sending us up into space is only worth the money and time if we actually collect some data about a planet/moon/ etc. Since science is a designed for humans to explore, having humans on more planets equals more science.

            Even though it is currently cost A LOT to research about other planets. Why are we then sending humans into space? To learn about how people survive long term up in space? Or are we just sending them up there so they can experiment on other things? There are some advantages. Machines can only relay data, where as humans can do more, like feelings and opinion. For example from the ISS astronauts take photos, many of them do because they consider the scene to be beautiful, but a machine could not do this. Also humans can react and adapt to situations. If something goes wrong on a mission where only humans are on aboard, they can do a lot more than machines to fix the problem or situation they are in. For example on mars the spirit rover got stuck and cannot be contacted any more and NASA have officially given up. If the rover was not there alone, the humans could help the rover, even if that required using equipment for a purpose it wasn't designed for.

Unlike robots, we can make intellectual decisions, and not decisions that we were made to do. Now, you might be thinking, why not just send a couple of robots or machines to help them up in space, well, the reason for this is, the speed of light. It takes about 16 hours to receive a message from voyager and about 1 day and 16 hours to send a message back. I found this which is very interesting “communications to mars take 10-20 minutes,” this is more than enough time for a rover to fall down a crater or cliff, so real time control is impossible. Although robots are cool, they still need some working on. They have a long way to go to get to our stage.

If I was to make a decision, was to make a list of my top priorities as a member of congress, this is a little what my list would look like,

1.    Health care/hospitals/medical research + facilities

2.   Providing a healthy learning environments/learning facilities for all students

3.   Providing food, water, shelter(housing) for every citizen.

4.   Having equal right

5.   Military

6.   Space exploration

The reason I would put health care/hospitals/medical research + facilities at 1^st is because I wouldn’t just set it aside for anything else. I mean, if anything we need more than just finding out new solutions to our new problems, we need to figure out solutions to our old problems first and then build up to the present problems. Like for an example, we haven’t found a cure for cancer yet, if we do, billions of people will be able to live a happy, stable, and secure life. Many people in the past have tried to find the solution t cure cancer and other harmful diseases, its not that they just didn’t want to find out the answer, they can, but they don’t have the right resources, facilities, and other tools to help them figure out the answer. This is why I want to put health care, medical research, and medical facilities at my number one priority.

Now, the reason that I put space exploration at my 6^th choice, is because all of the choices in the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th places are much more important than space exploration. Even thou I think space exploration is pretty cool and I think that it would be worth while spending a little money on it, I don’t think that it should be on the top 5 list of priorities for a government to decide on. It could definitely be in the top ten categories, because if you think about it, if there is any leftover money that the government wants to do something worthwhile with, I would spend it on space exploration. For an example, if I were a part of a government, I would have a budget that NASA could spend in 5 years total, then after 5 years they get a fresh budget! If they still have money in the budget then the 5^th yearly money will add on to it, so they can either save up for a big project, or take it slow. That would be my proposal to any government who has trouble with this.

In conclusion, I think that space exploration should be allowed, but to only give NASA a limited budget for so many years, that way, they have to be a little bit more careful with how they spend their money. Sometimes I wonder if we are actually making a good choice on weather we should cut NASA’s budget or not, weather we are making a good choice of taking peoples lives and putting them at risk for the sake of science. Although we might be making a good or bad choice, we will soon find out if we made a mistake or if we could change the future.

A Moonth of a phase

What causes the phases of the moon? What are they, why do they happen?

In order for us to see the moon it has to be in a curtain position so that the suns rays can hit the moon so it can "light Up"! When the moon is in-between the sun and the earth you cant see the moon, this is called a new moon. The reason you can't see it is because the suns rays were reflecting off of the far side of the moon where we can't see it.

When the moon is on either side (left or right) at a 90* angel with earth and the sun, then it is either going to be, First quarter or Third quarter. When the moon is in this position, Sun-----Earth-------Moon, then the moon will be completely visible, meaning it will be a full moon. You are probably wondering how, and shouldn't the earths shadow be casted on the moon? Well, the moon is elevated, so the moon doesn't rotate around the earth by the equator, it rotates hight enough for the sun to give off light and for its rays t hit the moon.

1. In your model what represents Earth? The Sun? The Moon?

In my model, there were three styrofoam balls, small, medium and LARGE!!!! You can probably guess it already by the colors which one is which :) , but i am going to tell you anyways! The WHITE and the smallest one is the moon, the GREEN and medium one is the earth, and the last one, the YELLOW and the biggest one is the sun!

2. Refer back to your 4 circles. How much of the lighted part of the moon did you see when facing the lamp?

If a person were to be looking at the lamp+looking at the moon, they wouldn't be seeing anything because the sun is reflecting off of the other side of the moon, therefore they can't see the moon. Hear is a diagram to show more!

3. Which drawing represents a full moon? A new moon? Which represents a waxing crescent? A waning crescent?

The drawing that would represent the full moon is number 3, the drawing that would represent a new moon would be #1. The drawing that would represent waxing crescent would be # 4 and last but not least, the waning crescent represents diagram #4.

4.How much of the lighted part of the ball did you see after each turn?

When you are looking at the moon from the earth you can see the moon every day/night except when the moon is in this position, SUN--------MOON-------EARTH, then we can't see it because the suns rays are hitting the moon out of our sight on earth. Also, when the moon comes around again, we could see it more clearly. However, the moon is constantly moving, and its constantly changing its phase.

5. Whether you could see it or not, how much of the balls surface was always lit by the lamp? Was the darkness of the new moon caused by an eclipse?

Although sometimes we can only see a part of the moon lit up(sometimes the hole thing and also sometimes nothing), half of the moon is always lit up. Because the moon is constantly moving/rotating, the phase of the moon is also always changing. No, the darkness of the moon was not caused by an eclipse because it all depends on how they are aligned. An eclipse is when the sun the moon and earth are all aligned.

MYSTERY RISING WITHIN MERCURY

MYSTERY

RISING WITHIN MERCURY

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun.

The evidence, collected by a NASA spacecraft orbiting the planet, is scattered all over Mercury, including a dramatic

finding that half of the floor of the gigantic crater has been lifted. New studies show Mercury's very big iron core and it is even bigger than

expected. With a previously unknown solid layer of iron-sulfide buried beneath the mantle. Convection is probably behind the mysterious rising of Mercury's surface, which in

some areas is now tilted. Mercury's massive iron core is even more massive than previously thought, thought to

be 85 percent of the planet. Gravity maps and computer models show that the core sports an extra solid layer of iron-sulfide.

Conclusion:

I chose this article because it thought it would be interesting to learn about how the surface could get so much bigger in a shorter period of time. What grabbed my attention was the picture of Mercury in the visual effect and really just what it looked like. I thought to myself, how could that be possible? Well, I was so interested in it that I decided to read the article. I found it while looking at the Discovery News website and was just skimming through the articles when I came to this one that seamed interesting and was screaming, READ ME, READ ME, READ ME!!!!!!!!!

When Giant Flees Roamed

FLEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!! :O

About 125 million years ago, in the middle of the Jurassic age, everything was super sized!!!! So their fore, flees were to! Scientists found a fossil of a flee that dates back about 125 million years ago, and that was recorded to be around 8 to 20.5 millimeters! That is about 6 times the normal flee size!!

The flees in that time were more 'muscular' and they had claws that allowed them to latch on to larger animals and to have the ability to latch on the any type of fur/feathers.

Moon

Moon

1. What causes the moon to shine?

The moon doesn't shine by itself, the light from the sun is reflected off it.

2. Why does the moon appear to change shape during the course of a month?

The sunlight hits it at different angles. When the Sun is behind us the moon looks fuller, when the sun is off to the side you see about half the disk, with the Sun out beyond the Moon you see just a sliver or even less.

3. What is an eclipse?

An eclipse occurs when one object gets in between you and another object and blocks your view. From Earth, we routinely experience two kinds of eclipses, an eclipse of the Moon and an eclipse of the Sun.

4. How is a solar eclipse different than a lunar eclipse?

A lunar eclipse occurs at night and a solar eclipse occurs during the day. There are only certain times when either of them can occur. A lunar eclipse can only occur when the moon is directly opposite the Sun in the sky/a full moon. Even though there is a full moon each month, obviously a lunar eclipse does not occur on a monthly basis because the Sun isn't exactly in line with the Earth and the moon. The moon's orbit is actually tilted 5 degrees more than that of the Earth. Otherwise, we would see a lunar eclipse each month.

5. Why isn’t there a solar eclipse and a Lunar eclipse each month?

The reason for why we don't have solar and lunar eclipses every month is because the Earth and moon's orbit, or revolution, is always tilted 5 degrees in some direction, meaning up or down, and so, the Sun, Moon, and Earth are not aligned. When aligned, it causes a solar or lunar eclipse.

6. What causes the tides?

The moon's gravitational force pulls on water in the oceans so that there are "bulges" in the ocean on both sides of the planet. The moon pulls water toward it, and this causes the bulge toward the moon. The bulge on the side of the Earth opposite the moon is caused by the moon "pulling the Earth away" from the water on that side.

Reasons for Seasons

Guiding Question: How does the tilt of the Earth’s axis affect the light received by Earth as it revolves around the sun?

Observations:

1. When the light is pointing straight towards the sun, close to the equator, the squares on the graph are squared and stretched out, while on the poles the shape is irregular.

Summer Observations:

· In the summer, I noticed the grids are more irregular shape at the equator than at the poles.

· I also noticed that the grid was more spread out at the south pole and at the north pole, the squares are more regular.

Winter Observations:

· In the winter, I noticed that the grids are more “square” in the South Pole and at the equator they were sort of the same but not quite.

· At the North Pole you can see that the squared are more irregular shaped.

The 7 questions:

1. When it is winter in the Northern Hemisphere is when the top of the axis is facing away from the sun. The area that gets the most concentrated light/sun/heat is at the equator. When its summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the most sunlight is concentrated more in between the North Pole and the equator. Likewise for when it is summer in the Southern hemisphere.

2. I observed during the summer at the North Pole the squares were more regular, but in the winter I noticed that the squares were more irregularly shaped. The reason for this is because in the summer the Northern Hemisphere is pointing more towards the sun than in the winter, therefore the sun is more concentrated/direct on the northern hemisphere.

3. It was cool, because where the light/heat was distributed evenly the squares were spread out more, and in the more concentrated places, the squares are more, square J.

4. The coldest areas are the poles because the light doesn’t reach all the way over to them so they have a much lower temperature.

5. The toothpick will have the longest shadow when it is summer, it will have its shortest shadow when it is winter.

6. The heat received at the equator is greater that the heat being received at the poles because the sunlight/heat is direct at the equator but at the poles the sunlight/heat is hitting at a greater angel than at the equator. Therefore, the sunlight is more spread out at the poles than at the equator.

7. The seasons are caused by the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis away or toward the sun as it travels through its yearlong path around the sun. The Earth has a tilt of 22.5 degrees. The tilt toward the sun is maximized during Northern Hemisphere summer in late June (the "summer solstice"). At this time, the amount of sunlight reaching the Northern Hemisphere is at a maximum. The tilt away from the sun is maximized during Northern Hemisphere winter (the "winter solstice"). At this time, the amount of sunlight reaching the Northern Hemisphere is at a minimum.