DIRECTIONS:

Read the following two texts to answer the 10-question quiz on Edmodo.
These two texts offer different viewpoints about space exploration, specifically
whether robots or humans should be sent to space to research unexplored
planets, such as Mars.
Steps:
1) Read and highlight (& annotate if youd like to) the two texts
with the following colors:
a) CLAIM - students thesis statement that delivers the
point of view he/she is arguing throughout the essay (see
Introduction paragraph)
b) REASONS - reasons to support claim (see Body
paragraphs)
c) COUNTERARGUMENTS - where the writer addresses
counterclaims (opposing point of view)
2) Answer the 10-question quiz in Edmodo using your highlighted
argumentative essays below.

One Small Drive for Robots, One Giant Cost for Mankind
Imagine landing on Pluto staring out at the barren frozen landscape and then looking
to the left and seeing a pencil sharpener and your filing cabinets. You are not hallucinating;
you're just sitting at a desk, on Earth, watching this historic event on your computer being
broadcasted from a highly advanced probe on Pluto. The future of space travel lies in the
hands of robotic exploration, not humans. Humans are just too vulnerable to the harsh
conditions of space travel.
Humans have strived for new heights in space exploration, but should we take a step
back to let robots go instead of us? It is proven over and over again that radiation is bad for
any organism, and space is full of it. According to www.space.com, the Earths atmosphere
protects us from 99.9% of harmful gamma rays, but in space there is no protection. These
radiation particles cause many types of cancer, and it also causes a problem for NASA with
the law. Outside our magnetic field, radiation levels surpass the health standard. According to
the article An Ethical Guide to the Galaxy, So what does NASA do? Lower the current
standards? Change the standards for long-distance space travel? So to solve their problem
with the law, they change the standard. I wonder if NASA knows that even if they change the
tolerable amount of radiation, the astronauts still receive the same amount of harmful
radiation before the change?
Instead of underhanding the astronauts by changing the health standard, NASA and
other organizations could resolve their problem with another option that is safer and cheaper.
Humans have been utilizing robotics for some time now, from the car assembly line to the
bottom of the ocean. Space travel has also been using robotic probes to view planets, but
humans are still planning to follow the robots. I believe humans should be taken out of the
equation altogether. Humans are too vulnerable and expensive, In 2011, NASA sent a rover
called the Mars Science laboratory to Mars. The cost of this mission was about 2.5 million.
According to NASA, sending people on a similar mission would potentially increase the price
tag to hundreds of billions of dollars (Robots: the New Space Explorers).
Even though it is safer for people and less expensive to send robots to space, people
still say that space exploration is a job for humans, because of our awareness and reactive
skills. Take the jelly donut rock formation that suddenly appeared on Mars, for example,
which people thought was evidence of life on Mars. People considered that a false alarm
caused by a robot, but I see it as proof of the abilities of a probe. If a human were to come
across something like that, there is no telling what they would do, we are too unpredictable.
But when the robot came across it, it took a picture because that is what it is programmed to
do.
Although humans have been exploring space for many decades now, we approach a
new height that can only be reached by robotic exploration. Deep space travel is just too
costly and dangerous if humans are only involved.

One Giant Leap for Humans

Humans have landed on Mars! Well, actually, they havent. At least, not yet. But what
excitement would all people have if it happened? Now try this: Robots have landed on Mars!
Wow...Not as exciting, is it? Humans should be the ones exploring in space, not robots.
Humans should be used in space exploration because they have working brains that
can comprehend things no matter how far away they are from their homes. Robots, on the
other hand, are programmed to do exactly what their engineers want them to. Instead of
deciphering something they found that may be extremely important, robots might just treat it
as another sample of a random specimen. For example, in the article, The Importance of
Sending People to Space, it states, They [robots] cannot reason. They cannot think. A
human scientist who identifies a curious specimen on Mars would likely concentrate on
finding out everything possible about it. The unthinking robot would probably treat it as just
another sample (p. 1, par. 1). The robots are limited with that major flaw. They would never
be able to discover the differences between different types of interesting specimens.
Some people may argue that it is safer for robots to journey into space instead of
humans because there wouldnt be a risk of people losing their lives. It is true that machines
(any type of a robot) can go places humans cannot. By making use of robots, humans can
learn a great deal about our solar system and what lies beyond (Robots: The New Space
Explorers, p. 2, par. 1). But imagine how many discoveries would be lost without the
brainpower of a human! In addition, many scientists who are astronauts are ready to give
their lives and possibly even lose them to science! All astronauts have gone into space with
no certainty of coming back. And not all of them have returned after leaving. But the safety of
the astronauts is their own choice to make, and if a team of astronauts were to make it safely
to Mars, think of the possibilities and the scientific breakthroughs that would end up
happening!
It has been said that traveling in space is outrageously expensive. It is a wellestablished fact that it is cheaper to send robots into space than it is to send people (RobotsThe New Space Explorers, p. 2, par. 4). But the scientists must consider both sides in this
situation, addressing the benefits to this issue. Even if it costs less to send robots, there is an
endless supply of discoveries if humans are able to be sent. If sending one human crew to
Venus could advance our knowledge of the universe as much as three robotic space
missions could, even a much higher cost would be justified (The Importance of Sending
People to Space, p. 1, par. 4). We need to put more effort into figuring out how to safely send
people into the universe to find out even more about other things that live around us. With
these ideas, we can see if we can even lower the costs to make it easier for mankind to travel
into space.
The time will come that we hear the saying, Humans have landed on Mars! And
people all over the world will have great excitement. This is why humans should be used
more in space exploration as an alternative for robots.