Geography

Instructions: Answer the following question in a short, coherent, well-written paragraph. All answers should be written in Times New Roman font with 12-point type and be left-justified.
All written submissions should be submitted in a font and page set-up that is readable and neat. All essays must be prepared in Microsoft Word and uploaded to the appropriate online assignment. Please include your name, course number, week number and assignment name at the top of your submissions.

Submission Instructions:
Please cite your references for this and all essays with a URL or proper MLA or APA bibliographic citation. You may use the APUS on-line library to look for scholarly sources. Your essay should be new and freshly constructed in your own words. Also, take care not to plagiarize, credit your references.

Assignments completed in a narrative essay or composition format must follow the citation style cited in the American Psychological Association (APA).Students are encouraged to read/understand the Basics.
See attached grading rubric for scoring guidelines.
Also please make sure that you don not submit your essays as drafts. Instructors cannot grade and assign credit to drafts.

Assignment:
Here is this week’s essay question:

NOAA vs NASA
Recently NASA sent a rocket to hit the Moon (at a cost of how many millions of dollars?) to see if there was any water ice in a crater near the Moon’s South Pole. Meanwhile down here on Earth there a few trillion gallons of water that have not been completely explored. In addition, the tsunami that devastated Japan which has the best tsunami-warning system in the world, yet they only had 20 mins warning. If you were testifying before Congress as the head of NOAA ( the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) how would you make your case for more money for your research programs?
In the era of ever tightening Federal budgets should we be spending more money to research space or the worlds oceans? Support your viewpoints with references and specific areas of the oceans or space that we haven’t explored or oceanic phenomenon that are not yet fully understood.
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/noaa-head-weather-forecasts-at-risk-over-budget-cuts-15621

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/noaas-proposed-move-raises-questions-about-its-role/2012/01/20/gIQANNPYJQ_story.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasas-science-missions-bring-the-universe-into-sharper-focus-even-as-agency-struggles-with-manned-flight/2012/02/10/gIQApIqT7Q_story.html
Here’s an irony (and I like a good irony) just about everything we’ve learned about keeping people alive in space we learned keeping them alive UNDERWATER. Look at a space-suit and a “hard-hat” dive suit, the living quarters on the space shuttle and a decompression chamber. Astronauts train in swimming pools! Also NOAA owns and operates the weather satellites, NASA just launches them.Recently movie director James Cameron built and dove his own submersible to the bottom of the Marianas Trench. He is now 1 of only 3 humans who have ever been there and he paid for it himself (with the profits from the Avatar and Titanic movies) Check out the attached articles before writing your answer.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/25/james-cameron-mariana-trench-dive_n_1378507.html