Integrated Writing
The reading suggests that asteroids are the best colonization option for a number of reasons, but the professor thinks it is not a practical idea because all the reasons in the reading have lots of downsides.
Firstly, the reading states that asteroids gain a lot of advantages from its low gravity, as spaceships are easier to take off and to land on the planet. However, the professor thinks that low gravity on the asteroids can cause health risks on the colonizers, for example, their bones will be less hard and they will get uncomfortable with losing mass.
Secondly, the reading introduced that there are a lot of precious valuable metals on the asteroids, and the colony and the colonists or businesses sponsoring them would profit a lot. On the other hand the professor think that this is not the whole picture. She thinks that the price of the metals might not worth the costs of supporting the colony, transportation on the colony, etc. In addition, if there are a lot of precious metals on the planet the metals will not be precious anymore, and their price will be lower on Earth.
Thirdly, the reading thinks that the asteroids are easy to reach when they orbit to a certain point. The professor agrees to that and that it will be easy for colonizers to get onto the asteroids. However, it might be very hard for the colonizers to get back onto the Earth as the asteroids might travel much further away from the Earth.
As a conclusion, the professor does not think that asteroids are the best colonization option because the reasons for human colonizing asteroids have lots of downside. She thinks it is not a practical idea to do it.
Independent Writing
To a large extent, I disagree with the statement that the rules that societies today expect young people to follow and obey are too strict.
Strict is only the word people use to comment on the rules when they are not willing to or think they are not able to follow the rules. However, the rules governments set on young people are all for the goods of the young people, which is not strict at all.
Firstly, all the rules that societies expect young people to follow are not usually strict. They are for the goods of the young people. For example, in Singapore, young people are not allowed to buy or eat bubble gums. Young people might found it hard to follow as the bubble gums are very yummy. However, the Singapore government laid down the rule for the health of the young people: bubble gums have many negative health impacts on people. Eating too much of it will cause health risks. These kinds of rules are not hard to follow at all when you think of the consequences of breaking the rule.
Secondly, and, even though some of them might be strict, they have their own reasons. For instance, young people under 18 are prohibited to drink. Some people might think that it is hard to follow as alchohol gives people good feelings. However, as young people cannot control themselves as good as the adults, it is probably more likely for them to drink too much, which would have health risks on the young people. Therefore, when they think about why the rules are set it will be much easier and will not seem to be very strict anymore.
As a conclusion, I disagree that the rules that societies today expect young people to follow are too strict, because the rules have their reasons to be followed.
