Consider Idea Development and Cause and Effect
While it's essential to identify the ideas, keywords, and inferences in a text, it's equally important to understand how a text is structured. Cause and effect is an organizational structure used in many fields, from arts and humanities to science and technology. When we're able to examine how a text is structured, we can look for connections and see how the author develops relationships between ideas.
Cause and Effect
One way readers can determine meaning in a text is by identifying the structure used by the author. There are a variety of ways an author can organize, or structure, a reading, and a common practice in many disciples in cause and effect.
Cause and effect is simply setting up a reading by explaining the reasons behind what caused or effected something to happen.
Read the following article and think about what cause and effects occur. Annotate, or take notes, as you read to help you remember the key points in the article. Then answer the questions that follow.
NASA's helicopter Ingenuity survives its first night at Mars |
On Sunday, NASA announced on twitter its man-made helicopter Ingenuity survived its first freezing night on the surface of Mars. Ingenuity is a part of Perseverance's mission, which primarily focuses on astrobiology, and Ingenuity is planned to fly and explore Mars and gather rocks samples looking for signs of life. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter can be seen here with all four of its legs deployed before dropping from the belly of the Perseverance rover on March 30, 2021, the 39th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Ingenuity has previously been in the belly of Perseverance, a car-sized rover which landed on Mars' Jezero Crater on February 18. Perseverance charged Ingenuity and kept it warm. Ingenuity left the rover on Sunday, after which the rover moved away to expose Ingenuity's photovoltaic array to direct sunlight.  The NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory released a statement saying this was the first time Ingenuity survived the night by itself while being exposed to the planet atmosphere directly. In the statement NASA wrote this has confirmed they have "the right insulation, the right heaters, and enough energy in its battery to survive the cold night, which is a big win for the team". The temperatures could go as low as -90 °C (-130 °F), the statement said. The helicopter used the energy from its solar array to power a small heater and protect its electronics from the cold. Mars just has 1% of atmosphere as compared to Earth. Ingenuity's propeller had to rotate about three times faster for flight on the Martian atmosphere as compared to flying on Earth, ABC News reported. Ingenuity has been designed to be light to make the takeoff easier. Its mass is about 1.8 kilograms. Tim Canham from NASA said "The processor on the helicopter is about 100 times more powerful than the processor on the rover itself". The next step would be a blade movement test scheduled for today, CNN said. If successful, it would be followed by first flight test, which can take place by Sunday. That would be the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. Five flights were expected to occur in the next 31 days. If successful, they would be followed by further movement of the helicopter, as it would collect samples of rocks, and collect photos of its observations. Throughout the entire duration of research, Ingenuity would also measure its temperatures and battery recharge performance. Perseverance rover is to deliver images from Ingenuity to Earth, reportedly a few hours after they were captured. NASA said the rover travelled a distance of 471 million km to reach the crater. |
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Questions:
- What causes led to Ingenuity being successful?
- What effect will the success of Ingenuity have for NASA?
Think about your answers:
Did you notice that keping the helicopter warm is considered a major reason Ingenuity was able to survive the night? Look back over your annotations, what kept Ingenuity warm? How will the helicopter get energy now?The article points out that Ingenuity will be able to collect rock samples and take pictures. This will have a positive effect on NASA’s mission.
Go back over the reading and your annotations. Did you catch the important details? If not, read over it again and see where you missed something.
Source: Saylor Academy
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