Duncan Colquhoun 2/21/10
Chemistry Current Event
Windows to Space
Ten years after astronauts first used the International Space Station it now has picture windows installed. The Italian built Cupola has seven large thirty inch windows centered around a central pane. NASA calls it “the largest window ever built in space.” Until now astronauts have had to use very small portholes to see outside the station. This will allow the astronauts to see the stations outside robotic arms and also to see the earth. The windows were opened for the first time and the astronauts were shown the great African Sahara dessert. The views brought tears to many of their eyes. Although many of the astronauts love these knew windows the engineers hate them. Windows are weaknesses for micrometeorite strikes. They do admit that the heat load increases which helps with the drastic weather changes. To address some these of these dangers the windows have shutters. Many astronauts say that seeing the earth is important to them “it keeps them going.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/weekinreview/21patton.html?ref=science
Duncan’s article is a very interesting one. One thing that I think Duncan did well is quote the original article to give us a better sense of exactly how important the window is. Another thing Duncan does well is to emphasize how much larger this new window is compared to the old small portholes. A third thing Duncan does well is to tell how this new window will effect what it is the astronauts see.
ReplyDeleteOne change that Duncan could have made to make his review of the article better is if he made it longer, his summary is rather short. Another change Duncan could make to make the article better is if he explained more about this window.
Before reading this article I did not really know much about what astronauts were able to see when they are in space, but now I no more about it.
Robert Petrasovits
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2/23/09
I thought that Duncan’s article was very interesting It never occurred to me that astronauts did not have windows. One of the things that I liked about Duncan’s article was that he went into great detail about the window of the space station. Duncan described the shape of the windows as well a describing the size of the windows which helps me to picture the window so that I can better relate to what he is saying. Another thing that Duncan did well was that he described the previous windows that they looked out of. Since he described the previous windows he gave us a sense of how important the windows were to the astronauts. A final thing that Duncan did well was that he stated the opinions of both the astronauts and the engineers. Since Duncan stated the opinions of the engineers I discovered that he the windows were not all good.
Although Duncan’s article was very interesting there were 2 things that I thought he could have done better. The first thing that I thought Duncan could have done better was to make the article longer, although the article went into good detail I thought that it could have been made longer. The second thing that I thought Duncan could have done better was that he may have stated more about why there were not windows built before this window. Overall I think Duncan’s article is very good.
One thing that I learned from Duncan’s article is that the space stations aren’t built with built with window. I would have automatically assumed that there were windows on space stations.
I think that the article Duncan has written about was very interesting. One thing I like about it was that it showed me how important the use of windows in space are. Also the fact the NASA has favorite it and is calling it the largest window ever built in space. I love the fact that these big windows enable astronauts to see everything including the whole earth. One thing that Duncan could have done would definitely be to put more detail into the article he is talking about. A second thing I would recommend doing is really go more into all the benefits and defaults with these giant windows. One thing that impressed me about this article is NASA's capability to keep on improving everything they work on in space, and how more and more information keeps coming like these new windows.
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