News Exercise #34

Questions:
1) What was the interviewers question about the success of the Curiosity Rover?
2) What does Mars ‘answer’ to the ‘question’ NASA is asking it “Are you alive?” (“It… It… but it …)
3) How, and why, might it be possible to unlock the question of life on Mars?
4) Who is keen to study Europa, and why?
5) According to the interviewer, what is President Obama’s hope?
6) How can the current problems between the US and Russia damage this plan?
7) What does he say they hope to maintain, and if they are unable to maintain it, can they succeed on the Mars mission?

Answers:

1) What was the interviewers question about the success of the Curiosity Rover?
Has Curiosity discovered anything which suggests that Mars could have supported actual life?
2) What does Mars ‘answer’ to the ‘question’ NASA is asking it “Are you alive?” (“It… It… but it …)
It keeps answering ‘Maybe’. It won’t say ‘no’ and it doesn’t say categorically ‘yes’.
3) How, and why, might it be possible to unlock the question of life on Mars?
We might have to bring pieces of Mars back to Earth, to study here on Earth with the full compliment of equipment and brains we have on this planet.
4) Who is keen to study Europa, and why?
Biologists at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Europa is covered with ice over a liquid water ocean, and that Europa is the most likely spot in our solar system to have life existent today.
5) According to the interviewer, what is President Obama’s hope?
That the US will have humans on Mars by the 2030s.
6) How can the current problems between the US and Russia damage this plan?
Due to the US sanctions on Russia, regarding the Ukraine troubles, Russia is unwilling to sell to the US technology required for this mission.
7) What does he say they hope to maintain, and if they are unable to maintain it, can they succeed on the Mars mission?
He hopes they can maintain an interconnected international partnership, but the US is very capable of going alone if they must.