Summarize the current goals of the major commercial space flight companies and their plans for the future. Summarize one of the treaties currently in force and discuss whether or not you believe they should by updated

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Week 6 Homework: Space Policy Research Paper Outline

Instructions
This week, your homework is to create an outline for the research paper which is due at the end of week 7. The prompt for the Week 7 paper is:

“Choose one of the following topics:

The future of the commercial space industry (summarize the current goals of the major commercial space flight companies and their plans for the future) or
Space treaties (summarize one of the treaties currently in force and discuss whether or not you believe they should by updated).”

Make your outline as complete as possible; it should include at least one level of subtopics for each of the main points in your paper. The more detailed your outline is, the better the feedback I’ll be able to give. In addition to your outline, include at least 3 scholarly sources that you intend to use in your paper; the reference list does not have to be complete at this point.

Share some examples of how the freedom and support to do science has changed since then. Do you think more can be done? If so, how so. Do you think we could one day return to such difficult times? Explain. How can we prevent this from happening again?

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Cosmos – The Harmony of Worlds

Watch this video, Cosmos – The Harmony of Worlds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSHEJ-eoRE4

Share your thoughts (at least 200 words) concerning the lives of Brahe, Kepler, their relationship, and the difficulties and development of science in the world at that time (do not discuss the astrology at the beginning of the video).

Share some examples of how the freedom and support to do science has changed since then. Do you think more can be done? If so, how so.
Do you think we could one day return to such difficult times? Explain. How can we prevent this from happening again?
Additionally, ask any questions you have concerning the material in this video or related material from the text.

Share some examples of how the freedom and support to do science has changed since then. Do you think more can be done? If so, how so. Do you think we could one day return to such difficult times? Explain. How can we prevent this from happening again?

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Cosmos – The Harmony of Worlds

Watch this video, Cosmos – The Harmony of Worlds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSHEJ-eoRE4

Share your thoughts (at least 200 words) concerning the lives of Brahe, Kepler, their relationship, and the difficulties and development of science in the world at that time (do not discuss the astrology at the beginning of the video).

Share some examples of how the freedom and support to do science has changed since then. Do you think more can be done? If so, how so.
Do you think we could one day return to such difficult times? Explain. How can we prevent this from happening again?
Additionally, ask any questions you have concerning the material in this video or related material from the text.

Watch TEDx talk on the link below, then briefly explain why the Earth has seasons.

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Seasons

Watch TEDx talk on the link below, then briefly explain why the Earth has seasons.

https://ed.ted.com/lessons/reasons-for-the-seasons-rebecca-kaplan

Create a research topic based on a current event in astronomy. This project has two parts: A written 3 page paper, and a series of online discussions.

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Event in astronomy

For this class you will need to create a research topic based on a current event in astronomy. This project has two parts: A written 3 page paper, and a series of online discussions.

Here are the details about the project. (Links to an external site.) If you have questions about a possible topic let me know.

Here are a few good resources for topics:

Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy page (Links to an external site.)
Ethan Siegel’s Starts With A Bang page (Links to an external site.)
The Universe Today page (Links to an external site.)
Space.com (Links to an external site.)
Astronomy Picture of the Day

Select a topic dealing with life on other worlds. As examples you could focus on a specific world like Mars, Europa, or Titan, or look at conditions around other stars. Prepare a 3 page written report.

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Extra Credit Writing Assignment

I am offering the following as an extra credit assignment. This takes the form of an additional research paper that is focused on astrobiology.
Select a topic dealing with life on other worlds. As examples you could focus on a specific world like Mars, Europa, or Titan, or look at conditions around other stars. Prepare a 3 page written report.
It will be worth 50 points total. 10 for the introduction, 30 for the main body, and 10 for the conclusion. Points will be deducted for typographic errors (1 pt) and grammatical errors (2 pts).
• 3 full pages of content, not counting name, title, and references.
• Typed, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins (name & title may not take up content space)
• 12 point font
• Specific reference(s) utilized must be listed at the end of your paper. Plagiarism will result in a zero!
• Papers consisting of less than 3 pages of text will be deducted 5 points. This page count does not include the title information or the references. In addition if you don’t supply references that is a 10 point deduction. Let me know if you any questions!

Create a research topic based on a current event in astronomy. This project has two parts: A written 3 page paper, and a series of online discussions.

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Event in astronomy

For this class you will need to create a research topic based on a current event in astronomy. This project has two parts: A written 3 page paper, and a series of online discussions.

Here are the details about the project. (Links to an external site.) If you have questions about a possible topic please let me know.

Here are a few good resources for topics:

Phil Plait’s Bad Astronomy page (Links to an external site.)
Ethan Siegel’s Starts With A Bang page (Links to an external site.)
The Universe Today page (Links to an external site.)
Space.com (Links to an external site.)
Astronomy Picture of the Day

RESEARCH BLACK HOLES, AND WRITE A 2 PAGE ESSAY ON HOW THEY ARE FORMED, WHAT DO THEY AFTER THEY ARE FORMED, ALSO ADDRESS IF THEY STAY OPEN OR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME OR DO THEY DIE OUT LIKE A STAR.

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Black holes

RESEARCH BLACK HOLES, AND WRITE A 2 PAGE ESSAY ON HOW THEY ARE FORMED, WHAT DO THEY AFTER THEY ARE FORMED, ALSO ADDRESS IF THEY STAY OPEN OR A LONG PERIOD OF TIME OR DO THEY DIE OUT LIKE A STAR.

Identify potential spikes or image artifacts, or if the image extends beyond the circles. Pay attention to the name of the telescope in the top of the image, as this will help you identify potential problems with the images.

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Project Plans

Your plan should be no more than 250 words for each project, so 500 words total. Hand your plan in on Quercus by uploading your DOC, DOCX, or PDF file to the Term Project Plan assignment submission page, where you will find full instructions. What you need to submit for your plan is in each project description (see below).

Project #1 Description
Use the Disk Detective project to identify the disks around nearby stars where planets may be forming.

Go to https://whttps://www.zooniverse.org/projects/ssilverberg/disk-detective/classify (links to an external site) (Links to an external site.)

Select the “Tutorial” tab. For each potential planet host, you will press the ‘play’ button to click through a few images of the same star taken with different telescopes. You can manually click through the images using the round buttons on the bottom. You will be asked to identify if the star has a suitable debris disk around it (if the disk is round and contained within the outer circle in all the telescope images), or to identify potential spikes or image artifacts, or if the image extends beyond the circles. Pay attention to the name of the telescope in the top of the image, as this will help you identify potential problems with the images.

After completing the tutorial, analyze 5 potential stars. Take screenshots of all the telescope images for your candidate star (12 per task), to help justify your classification of the potential debris disk.

 

What to Include in The Project Plan
Research debris disks and star formation and talk about how you will use Zooniverse. What resources will you use to complete this project? (Remember to include Zooniverse.)

Project #2 Description
Use the Radio Galaxy Zoo: LOFAR project to help find supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies and galaxies where stars are forming.

Go to https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/chrismrp/radio-galaxy-zoo-lofar/classify (links to an external site) (Links to an external site.)

Select the “Tutorial” tab. For each galaxy, you may be asked to place a “+” marker inside a blue dashed ellipse if it seems to belong in the same radio region (shown by the yellow lines) as the main solid blue ellipse. If there do not seem to be any dashed ellipses that match the radio region of the solid ellipse, you can move on.

For some images, you will also be able to match the optical image (shown as the background) to the radio emission (shown by the yellow lines and blue ellipses). If you think you can identify a single point (‘counterpart’) on the optical image that is generating the radio emission, mark it with a pink “+”. If there does not seem to be an optical source, you can move on.

The tutorials will give you some feedback on how you are doing before you start. After completing the tutorial, analyze 5 different images. Take before and after screenshots of each image that show the image before you have identified the centres of the matching dashed ellipses and the optical counterpart.

 

What to Include in The Project Plan
Research radio emission from galaxies and talk about how you will use Zooniverse. What resources will you use to complete this project? (Remember to include Zooniverse.)

There may be another Jovian planet past Neptune. Explain why it would be hard to find it. Similarly, why do you think it is so difficult to detect extra-solar planets?

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 Elementary Astronomy

Questions for your write-up:
1. Looking at the graph you made, is there a pattern? If so, what is it, and why do you think it exists?

2. Which sizes of your solar system were surprising to you and why?

3. There may be another Jovian planet past Neptune. Explain why it would be hard to find it. Similarly, why do you think it is so difficult to detect extra-solar planets?