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.
Both the lecture and the article are talking about considering an asteroid as a colonization option. While the author argues that an asteroid is the best option for colonization for three reasons, the lecturer disputes the claim presented in the article. His position is that these three reasons all have downsides.
According to the article, asteroids have lower gravity due to their smaller size. The author asserts that the lower gravity can make the landing safer, carry more equipment, and take off easier. The lecturer challenges the argument. He argues that lower gravity means more risk. It could let people lose muscle mass and do harm to the bone, which can cause health problems.
Secondly, the author contends that asteroids have many valuable elements and precious metals, which is profitable. The article mentions that mining valuable metals can pay for the cost. The lecturer, however, put forth the idea that the transportation cost can be much high, which will reduce the profit. He goes on to say that there is no guarantee that the metals mined in asteroids have the same price as do on the Earth, which means the profit can be small.
Finally, the author suggests that asteroids are very easy to reach, because many asteroids periodically come within or near Earth. He mentions that these asteroids can get closer than Moon. In contrast, the lecturer says that it may be not easy to return from asteroids to the Earth, due to the fact that asteroids can move away from the Earth, and people have to travel a great distance home. Asteroids will not stay in the same position and move away.
Transition Words or Phrases used:
finally, however, may, second, secondly, so, while, in contrast, talking about
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 9.0 10.4613686534 86% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 11.0 5.04856512141 218% => Less auxiliary verb wanted.
Conjunction : 7.0 7.30242825607 96% => OK
Relative clauses : 17.0 12.0772626932 141% => OK
Pronoun: 22.0 22.412803532 98% => OK
Preposition: 22.0 30.3222958057 73% => OK
Nominalization: 8.0 5.01324503311 160% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1344.0 1373.03311258 98% => OK
No of words: 274.0 270.72406181 101% => OK
Chars per words: 4.90510948905 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.0685311056 4.04702891845 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.39885155537 2.5805825403 93% => OK
Unique words: 147.0 145.348785872 101% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.536496350365 0.540411800872 99% => OK
syllable_count: 409.5 419.366225166 98% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 3.25607064018 154% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 2.0 1.25165562914 160% => OK
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 13.0662251656 122% => OK
Sentence length: 17.0 21.2450331126 80% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively short.
Sentence length SD: 44.3337836757 49.2860985944 90% => OK
Chars per sentence: 84.0 110.228320801 76% => OK
Words per sentence: 17.125 21.698381199 79% => OK
Discourse Markers: 4.875 7.06452816374 69% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => 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: 4.0 4.27373068433 94% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.100061834251 0.272083759551 37% => The similarity between the topic and the content is low.
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0362761936278 0.0996497079465 36% => Sentence topic similarity is low.
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0327321582758 0.0662205650399 49% => Sentences are similar to each other.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0613305524656 0.162205337803 38% => Maybe some paragraphs are off the topic.
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0357647478934 0.0443174109184 81% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 10.3 13.3589403974 77% => Automated_readability_index is low.
flesch_reading_ease: 62.68 53.8541721854 116% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 8.7 11.0289183223 79% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 10.9 12.2367328918 89% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.94 8.42419426049 94% => OK
difficult_words: 60.0 63.6247240618 94% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 5.5 10.7273730684 51% => Linsear_write_formula is low.
gunning_fog: 8.8 10.498013245 84% => OK
text_standard: 9.0 11.2008830022 80% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 78.3333333333 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 23.5 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.