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.
Summarize the points made in the lecture, being sure to explain how they challenge the specific points made in the reading passage.
There are three main points made in the lecture that challenges each of the viewpoints made in the reading passage. First, in response to the argument that the low gravity produced by asteroids is beneficial for colonization, the lecture states the fact that having low gravity can actually have its own risks. Astronauts who live on space station, where there is low gravity, for several months have been shown to have loss of muscle mass and bone density. These health concerns would also happen if people try to live on asteroids. Now only that, the effects would be more detrimental since people are expected to live on a colony for longer periods.
The lecturer further questions whether mining valuable metals on asteroids would be profitable. He states two main factors that the reading passage failed to examine to show that mining on asteroids may not be necessarily beneficial. First of all, the cost of supporting a colony on asteroids and to transport valuable metals back to earth would be very large, this alone highly reduces the profits gained by mining these precious metals. Second, if people starts to ship these precious metals from asteroids back to earth, the value of these metals may decrease. The abundance of these precious metals may drive the price of the metals down seriously and precious metals may be no longer precious.
Finally, in response to the claim that asteroids are easy to reach, the speaker acknowledges that it may be difficult to return from it. Most asteroids have a largely irregular path, and though they may come close to earth at some point of time, they would then travel far away from earth. As a result, we reach these asteroids with ease at a cost, it would be very difficult for the space ships to return back to earth from these asteroids.
Although in the reading passage it seems very plausible to colonize on asteroids instead of our Moon or the planet Mars, the lecture clearly gives concerns and points out drawbacks of each argument in the reading passage. To sum up, the lecture provides in great details why colonizing on asteroids would be impractical.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 5, column 400, Rule ID: RETURN_BACK[1]
Message: Use simply 'return'.
Suggestion: return
...e very difficult for the space ships to return back to earth from these asteroids. Altho...
^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
actually, also, finally, first, if, may, second, so, then, in fact, as a result, first of all, to sum up
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 14.0 10.4613686534 134% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 5.04856512141 277% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 6.0 7.30242825607 82% => OK
Relative clauses : 10.0 12.0772626932 83% => OK
Pronoun: 26.0 22.412803532 116% => OK
Preposition: 56.0 30.3222958057 185% => OK
Nominalization: 5.0 5.01324503311 100% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1766.0 1373.03311258 129% => OK
No of words: 361.0 270.72406181 133% => OK
Chars per words: 4.891966759 5.08290768461 96% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.35889894354 4.04702891845 108% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.46852486251 2.5805825403 96% => OK
Unique words: 186.0 145.348785872 128% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.515235457064 0.540411800872 95% => OK
syllable_count: 542.7 419.366225166 129% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 6.0 3.25607064018 184% => OK
Article: 9.0 8.23620309051 109% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 1.0 1.51434878587 66% => OK
Preposition: 3.0 2.5761589404 116% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 15.0 13.0662251656 115% => OK
Sentence length: 24.0 21.2450331126 113% => OK
Sentence length SD: 39.4241888524 49.2860985944 80% => OK
Chars per sentence: 117.733333333 110.228320801 107% => OK
Words per sentence: 24.0666666667 21.698381199 111% => OK
Discourse Markers: 6.93333333333 7.06452816374 98% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 8.0 4.33554083885 185% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.142575343099 0.272083759551 52% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0510952913263 0.0996497079465 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0319984658238 0.0662205650399 48% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0925109797465 0.162205337803 57% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0338358902989 0.0443174109184 76% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 13.6 13.3589403974 102% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 55.58 53.8541721854 103% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 11.5 11.0289183223 104% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.38 12.2367328918 93% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.84 8.42419426049 93% => OK
difficult_words: 69.0 63.6247240618 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 10.5 10.7273730684 98% => OK
gunning_fog: 11.6 10.498013245 110% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Write the essay in 20 minutes.
Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 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.