The Mighty Mars Rover Main Idea

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.

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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)

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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.

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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

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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.

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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)

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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

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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.”

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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.

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