Jack Deasy
This article is about the failed launch of NASA’s satellite Glory. The article talks about how this satellite would have provided the intensity of solar energy reaching Earth’s upper atmosphere and measure airborne atmospheric particles that affect how much of that energy reaches the surface. If the scientists where able to receive this data it would have helped them a lot in understanding the Earth as a system. It was suppose to be one of the most important satellites in ages.
This affects us because now we are not any closer to understanding what this satellite was going to record. And now we are not able to understand this information for a while. The reason being is that this is the second time this has happened. And NASA has to try and figure out what is wrong with the launching system and fix it and then build another satellite.
I think that overall this was a very good article. The information it gave us was a little skimpy and did not explain it clearly. Otherwise I found that this was a very interesting article.
Matson, John. Raze of Glory: NASA Earth-Observing Climate Satellite Fails to Reach Orbit. N.p.: Scientific American, 2010. Web. 6 Mar. 2011. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=glory-observatory-crash>.
2 comments:
* 3 aspects of the review that were particularly well presented;
* 2 suggestions on how the review could have been made even better;
* 1 were you impressed by/ or learn from reading the article and its review.
This review was direct, explanatory, and interesting. The topic being discussed was one I was previous unfamiliar with, so it was interesting to find that such a mission was set to launch, and yet failed. The review was also direct in its description of the purpose of the satellite, and the reasons it failed to launch, including the important details.
To improve the review, I would have included more details of the technology being used in the satellite. I also would have explained what steps will be taken in the future. Will there be a solution to the problem? Will the shuttle launch eventually?
I was surprised to find that the technology being described was even in existence today. It seems like it is the stuff of science fiction, yet it is key to understanding Earth not only as a planet, but the part of a much larger system.
The reasons why I enjoyed Jack’s article was because he was very concise in explaining the purpose and possibilities of the satellite. I really liked that he picked an article that concerned NASA and space exploration because it has been very rare that we see articles like that on the blog. I also thought Jack did a very good job of explaining why this failure to launch, not the Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker romantic comedy, is so crucial to our understanding of our world. The two glaring disappointments of this article are that he does not delve into the original failure on NASA’s part and, although it is concise, I think the review should be a little bit longer.
Overall I enjoyed learning about this plan and failure that NASA had because it shows that while not too many noticeable advancements have been made in space exploration NASA is still trying to gain intelligence about the world and space around us.
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