"Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds . . . to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation." Such is the aureate mindset of Lt. Colonel Ellison Onizuka, the astronaut-poet who gave his life to space travel in the Challenger explosion. More pragmatic arguments for extraterrestrial exploration exist as well, such as Earth's imminent overpopulation, and the threat of planetary disaster. It is the cross-section of these and other motivations that drive the astronautics discourse community.
Though they come from different backgrounds and countries, those in the astronautics community hold in common some distinct speech patterns. These include technical terms borrowed from scientific fields, borrowed military terms, and idiomatic regional slang from the areas where pockets of astronautics professionals gravitate to.
Similarly, those in the astronautics field abide by a common set of procedures and behaviors that govern their actions. These procedures apply to everything and lead to maximized safety and success for all involved.
Those in the astronautics field are driven by a variety of motivations, but are generally out to improve mankind in some way, and agree on several goals and protections such as minimizing contamination of space and other planets, so as to more effectively study extraterrestrial conditions.
Men and women in the astronautics community communicate through a variety of forms of correspondence, including email and other, more secure communications mediums. The genres popular in the field are myriad.
To be a member of the astronautics community, traditionally one would get a degree in aerospace engineering, or work his way up through the air force or navy. However, working for a space program, space company, or an area of academics devoted to space is the only requirement for full membership, and can be accomplished through several alternative paths.
I'm considering using that first paragraph in my actual essay, so thoughts on that would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteHi Cian,
ReplyDeleteFor that first paragraph, introduce and contextualize the quote before launching into it. Try something like this: Astronaut-poet Lt. Colonel Ellison Onizuka, before his death in the Challenger explosion, stated, "...." In general, we want to contextualize the quote before we launch into it with some kind of signal phrase. Also, avoid too much floweriness in your language – "died" is preferably to "gave his life" (less wordy). If you want to be poetic about, maybe "perished." Other than that, I think that's a solid opening to your paper, which would then, I assume be followed by defining discourse community and moving into a thesis statement that states your response to Onizuka and Swales regarding how this community defines ethics and why they define it that way.
Beyond that, your discussion within the rest of the post looks promising. I note that you don't talk much about the ethics yet, which is fine. Maybe you still need to think about it a bit more first. There are a lot of ethical issues surrounding astronautics, from the environmental aspect of space travel to the safety of those who work in space to the ethical impact of scientific discovery. Think about what the core, fundamental beliefs motivating the ethical codes of astronauts happen to be.