This lesson is from 2014. How could you find out what has happened since?
India
succeeded
this week in sending a spacecraft to Mars, a move that some Indians are celebrating as a step forward for science while others are critical of its price tag.
The spacecraft joined the NASA MAVEN spacecraft from the U.S. on Sept. 24, where they will collect data about Mars' environment.
Today, Mars has a thin atmosphere and an average temperature of -80 degrees Fahrenheit, but some evidence suggests the planet could still support life, PBS NewsHour correspondent Miles O'Brien said.
Studying Mars could answer important questions for scientists such as whether other life exists in the universe. And finding how Mars' climate evolved could help us understand more about our planet's climate change, O'Brien said.
Landing on Mars is an extremely difficult process that requires precise calculations. A spacecraft on a 1999 mission crashed because the two teams working on the project were using different units of calculation.
This marks the first time India has attempted to send a spacecraft to Mars. The cost of the mission, $75 million, is relatively low compared to other space missions, but critics said the funds could have been used instead to help the 300 million Indians who live in poverty.
"Here on Earth, in my country, there are children dying every day because they have no food to eat," Brinda Adige, director of Global Concerns India, said.
But the cost of the mission could
serve
as a good example to NASA of innovation, O'Brien said.
"They had lean budgets and so they had to build lean spacecraft in novel ways," he said.
Warm up questions
- Where is India?
- Where is Mars?
- Do you think there might be life on other planets in our solar system or beyond? What would your definition of “life” be?
Critical thinking questions
- Why might it be important to study the environment of Mars or other nearby planets?
- The distance between Earth and Mars ranges from 33,926,867 miles to 249,169,848 miles away. What do you think causes this distance to be a range instead of a constant number?
- What kind or how much fuel would you need to get somewhere millions of miles away?
- What are the risks and benefits of spending money on space exploration instead of on domestic issues like poverty? How would you decide where to spend the money?
