Technology - Futurology and Space Beispielklausur
1. Comprehension
a) Beschreibe die Vorteile und Nachteile einer Mondstation.
b) Vergleiche die positiven Aspekte der ISS, die du bereits kennst mit denen, die im Text stehen.
c) Fasse die Pläne für die neue Raumstation zusammen. Nenne ihre Chancen und die Argumente, die gegen die Station sprechen
2. Analysis
a) Analysiere den Cartoon
3. Comment
a) Ist Weltraumforschugn ihr Geld wert?
1 a)
The main pro argument is that a station on the moon could strongly support the development of space exploration. It might be a station from wich you can start other missions f.e. to Mars. What is more is that this manned mission is able to attract the attention of the population. This is a great benefit as the public might be convinced to support NASA. Furthermore there are a few experts thinking that the scientific potential of this project is much higher than the potential of the Iss. The last point is that manned missions have greater success than unmanned ones.
The main contra argument is that this project is extremely expensive and that the possible results are not worth it. What is more is that the money could be invested into other projects which do not need such a long time to yield results. The last point is that there is no need to start a mission to Mars because humans can not populate it anyway.
1 b)
In this article the Iss is presented as a high-cost-project which did not support the development of space exploration strongly. The main problem is that the station is dependent on a space shuttle and so it has to stay next to earth.
But there are also some pro-arguments. The main pro argument is that scientists are able to do reserach on the way of life in space. For example they found out what food, which communication tools und which clothing you need in order to survive in space. Moreover they did research on gravity and other scientific themes.
In conclusion you can say that the project ISS itself was not very valuable but it will strongly support future space projects.
1 c)
NASA is going to build a space station on the moon from which they want to start a space mission to Mars and other planets.
The great chance is that this project might be able to support the development of space exploration strongly. In addition this mission is able to catch the attention of the population. The main argument which speaks against this mission is that it is extremely expensive. What is more is that a manned space mission is very dangerous for the astronauts. Another contra-argument is that there is no need to start a mission to Mars because humans cannot populate it anyway. The last argument against it is that there are other projects you could invest into. These projects do not need such a long time to yield results.
2 a)
This cartoon shows a conference at NASA. In the center there is a man standing in front of a blackboard. Next to his head there is a speech bubble in which it says "Ok, people, before we can geht to the moon and then Mars; there are a few alien worlds we need to conquer first..". He points to the blackboard on which these worlds are presented. They are the political world, the budget world and the technology world. Moreover they are located between the earth and the moon and the Mars. At the bottom you can find the audience and on the right hand side there is a door with a poster on it. It says: "Nasa manned space flight program".
The author tries to make the point that there are many problems which have to be solved in order to start a manned space mission. You have to convince politicans, you need extremely much money and the thechnology has to be good and safe enough.
Rupert Cornwell also mentions budget problems in his article. In contrast to the cartoon he does not speak of political or technological problems.
In conclusion you can say that it is really hard to start a manned space mission.
3 a)
Nowadays the discussion about space technology becomes very popular as NASA has just announced details of the planned moon station. Is space technology "value for money"?
On the one hand there are people thinking that space technology is wise. They argue that you might provide valuable scientific breakthroughs. Moreover they say that sooner or later humans have to live on another planet because the earth will be destroyed.
On the other hand I think that nowadays space technology is far too expensive. In my view we should solve the problems on earth first instead of starting to create new problems on the moon now. For example there are still millions of people who do not have enough food to survive. What is more is that it will take much longer than 100 billion years until the earth will be destroyed. I think it is kind of strange that it is more likely to have a space station on the moon than having enough food for everyone.
In conclusion you can say that space technology is genereally a wise and important science, but it is absolutely the wrong time to support it. That is why it is not worth the money nowadays.