Informational Standards

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” why did NASA most likely build a more advanced rover to explore Mars?

• Curiosity would be able to navigate a more effective landing on Mars.

• Curiosity would eliminate the need for future rover missions to Mars.

• The older rovers had stopped transmitting information from Mars.

• The older rovers’ solar batteries ran out of power on Mars.

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” why NASA most likely built a more advanced rover to explore Mars?

• “Mars Science Laboratory, aka Curiosity, is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term program of robotic exploration of the Red Planet.” (paragraph 1)

• “Other innovations enable a landing within a smaller target area than previous Mars missions.” (paragraph 3)

• “Other instruments include mast-mounted cameras to study targets from a distance. . . .” (paragraph 4)

• “Each of Curiosity’s six wheels has an independent drive motor.” (paragraph 5)

Which statement expresses a central idea of the article in “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover”?

• Landing a rover on Mars requires years of preparation.

• Sending a rover to Mars requires the teamwork of many scientists.

• The Curiosity rover is being assisted by many rovers in the robotic exploration of Mars.

• The Curiosity rover is more highly developed than previous rovers sent to explore Mars.

How does the author develop the central idea over the course of the article in “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover”?

• by explaining what NASA learned from previous rover missions sent to Mars

• by outlining the steps Curiosity will follow in examining the surface of Mars

• by arguing that more money should be made available to fund future missions to Mars

• by describing the newer features of Curiosity and how they will benefit the Mars mission

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” how will NASA’s creation of the Mars Curiosity rover help with the study of possible life on Mars?

• The rover will conduct experiments using advanced features.

• The rover will provide information about how the Gale Crater was formed.

• The rover will determine what type of equipment will be needed for future explorations.

• The rover will examine why earlier robotic explorations were not as successful.

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” which sentence from the article supports how creation of the Mars Curiosity rover help with the study of possible life on Mars?

• “This method allows landing a very large, heavy rover on Mars (instead of the airbag landing systems of previous Mars rovers).” (paragraph 3)

• “A laser will vaporize patches of rock from a distance, and another instrument will search for organic compounds.” (paragraph 4)

• “Each of Curiosity’s six wheels has an independent drive motor.” (paragraph 5)

• “The two front and two rear wheels also have individual steering motors.” (paragraph 5)

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” why does the author include analogies in paragraph 2?

• to help the reader visually compare two of the rovers

• to emphasize the weight of Curiosity

• to prove that Sojourner was a superior device

• to show the reader the rovers’ characteristics

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” which quotation from paragraph 2 demonstrates how the author includes analogies?

• “The Mini Cooper-sized rover is much bigger than its rover predecessors . . . .”

• “Curiosity is twice as long . . . .”

• “. . . four times as heavy . . .”

• “. . . landed in 1997 as part of the Mars Pathfinder mission.”

In “Five Things About NASA’s Mars Curiosity Rover,” which claim is supported by information in the article?

• The increased size of Curiosity helps to make landings easier on Mars.

• NASA expects Curiosity to be the final rover to land on Mars.

• NASA is planning on using rovers like Curiosity for other space explorations.

• Curiosity is different from other space rovers that have been built.