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Aimee Crook
Dr. Rand
UWRT 1102
26 March 2015
Life in our Universe
Could there possibly be life in our universe? There are so many biased questions to this
one topic. Everybody wants to know if there could be life in our universe, if aliens exist, and
where this life occurs. But my questioning derives not from aliens but more of if there is life,
what could we do with it or how could it benefit us? I found a whole lot of research on this topic
and the curiosity on this point is beyond what we could ever imagine. For example, The
MarsOne Project could be our one and only breakthrough for advanced technology and even
discovering new things out in our universe on other planets. If we discover aliens or some other
form of an organism this could lead to other possibilities in our future.
The MarsOne Project is a project that a Dutch company came up with and it is a nonprofit foundation. It is set for in the future have groups of four astronauts every two years, be
sent up to mars and make settlement there for the rest of their lives. Over 200,000 people have
applied for this organization and they will only choose about 24 people in total to go. The first
step for them was to look over the applications in 2013 and choose people to start training in
2015. The chosen applicants will then go under training for about eight years or so for this
mission. They will undergo many medical tests as well as psychological tests, and will be
isolated from their loved ones for a couple of months. Then in about 2020, MarsOne will set the
cargo on mars and habitat settlements for the team of astronauts to live in. They will be living in
small pods and will have to learn to cook their own food, bathe, exercise daily, and collect data

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and tests on mars three times a week. The scary part about this to me is that they cannot return
back to Earth for the rest of their lives. So this means no social media, no interactions with
anyone else but your team members, and no more breathable fresh oxygen. The advantages to
this project would be that if we find life there; this will answer so many questions about science.
The disadvantages would be if there is nothing there we will have wasted billions and billions of
money on this one project and this could hurt us terribly economically. However, this project is
genius in my opinion because us humans have the curiosity of figuring out what is out there in
our universe and not just limiting ourselves to Earth. We need to expand our possibilities and
horizons to much greater lengths because this project could be our ultimate breakthrough to
science and even mankind. This could be our answer to all of our questions about the planets and
galaxies. If we find any signs of life this will help us to advance in our lives here on Earth and
could open many doors. Even if we dont find anything on mars we will still have created history
with this first settlement of humankind on another planet. In the near future you never know, we
could eventually all be travelling to mars and living there. Mars has always been the top
candidate for a planet other than Earth where life might be found. Could Mars be our answer to
finding new evidence of our human evolution? Since Mars is the top candidate for finding life
elsewhere could this be our one and only chance?
Europa is one of the many moons of Jupiter. This certain moon though is a special one
because it could also possibly hold forms of life. It has shown signs that it has held water before
on its surface. When we mix water and energy together it creates life. I believe that as soon as
this happens we will have organisms there and then it could form into human life eventually just
like it did on Earth. We will probably all be dead by the time other forms of life can form on
other planets but if this happens our entire Earth will change forever. We need something like

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this to happen on other planets so that we can use that other life to benefit for us. I know that
NASA does not nearly have as much money to fund for us to go and search for this, but if we
could advance our technology in the near future and save up money this could really create
something new for all of us. Not only will we have discovered life but we will have created
opportunities as well.
Complex life may be possible in only 10% of all galaxies. This was a fact that I found
online from many astrophysicists describing that we could find life but not for over a billion
years from now. How will our generation ever know if there was life or something else out there
just like us? We wont. But for those that come in the future may be the ones to find out. I
believe that as our galaxy gets older and older, new galaxies will arise and could be closer to us
therefore providing evidence that other complex life could possibly be living on other planets.
Although it is hard for us to find out if this is true or not we may never know if we are alone or
not. There are so many possibilities and theories out there that we need advanced technology to
help us answer our many questions about space. NASA is one of our many space organizations
that we look up to for answers about our universe. They use satellites and other spacecraft to
figure out some of our questions. However, we cant fund all of the equipment that we use so for
our questions that we ask that are held billions and billions away we cant afford to find. We may
or may not be alone in this universe, how will we know if we are? Or not? If we can find the
money and funds to build more spacecraft and make it more advanced than before, for example
spacecraft that can shoot into space billions and billions of light years away and collect data then
come back, this just might help us prove the theory of if we are alone or not.
There are dozens and dozens of stories online that talk about if aliens exist or not; stories
on how people have seen UFOs or mysterious objects in the sky and even stories on abduction

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cases. I believe in some of the stories about being abducted or going missing for a long time
because if these people were just kidnapped they would know the difference. However, I dont
believe in mysterious objects in the sky because NASA has confirmed these to being spacecraft of
their own or weather balloons. But how can we figure out if aliens really do exist? Back in
1961, astronomer Frank Drake devised an equation by which he could estimate the likelihood of
the existence of alien life. This leads to the fact of ancient evidence and why the history of it is
so important for us to learn and know about to help prove alien existence. Different paintings that
were found long ago have dated back to either whether there are aliens out there or that those
theorists had conspiracies as well. There have been sightings in the Bible as well as Sanskrit
scrolls. I think that if there is ancient evidence that has dated back long ago that shows there
could be alien life, then there is defiantly something there. But aliens could be other beings just
like us and not understand who we are or what we are doing here too so this could be a reason as
to why we havent seen them.
Could NASA be keeping secrets from us as well? When the astronauts from Apollo 11
released that they had sightings of a mysterious object flying next to them on their mission this
arose many questions. The secrets that NASA has kept from us are now opening up and they
explain that astronauts see all the time mysterious spacecraft just like theirs around their satellites
all the time. I think that if this could be true then how come we havent gone up to those things
or looked at them and studied on them more? This could open many doors as to, are we being
watched? Are we alone? Why are these mysterious objects near our equipment and satellites? If
they belong to something else we can figure out who it is, what it wants, and understand more
about why it is there. The story talks more about how they thought it could have been just part of
their ship and the detached part of it. But, mission control confirmed that the object was about

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6,000 miles away from them which is uncommon for a spacecraft to detach and float that far
away. The questioning of this mysterious object goes back to my research findings on how there
could possibly be other life forms in other galaxies.
Many abduction stories talk about how people get abducted by aliens and then are
missing for days or weeks and come back feeling confused. Then these stories go on to explain
that the people who get abducted have gone through tests from strange looking creatures and
then were placed back onto Earth a few days later. Im not sure yet if I believe in many of these
stories because of how they explain that they were taken up in the sky and then returned a few
days later. How would that work? You cant just be thrown up into the air and go missing then
come back not even knowing what happened to you while you were gone. Maybe you could
though. I read this one specific abduction case on the Betty Andreasson abduction and this made
me to think differently about it. She explains in her story that she was cooking in her kitchen one
evening when all of a sudden the lights in the house began to blink and then this red beam of
light shone down into the house. Then out of nowhere, appeared five strange beings that hovered
through their wooden door and put the whole family into a trance. The family explained later on
what these beings looked like and what had happened to them. The whole explanation about
being in a trance is interesting to me because these so called trances are sort of like
hallucinations to make the victims forget about what had happened. Why would aliens want to
do this? Why would they take us for examinations and tests but then make us forget where we
were? Are they trying to hide something from us? Even though some of these cases still can
recall scenes of what happened, they still have blurry moments of when they were aboard the
ships and how they returned. So with this being in mind, could these cases be fake and people are
just making up stories for money or even fame? Or could they be real and there really are other

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life forms out there similar to us? How will we ever know if these things could be real if victims
keep forgetting how they got on the ships and then how they returned back home. We need more
evidence on aliens and with this it will help answer our many wonders and uncertainties about it.
No real evidence of an actual alien being has been found, although people will fake it and say
they found strange creatures throughout the world. But, until we actually find real evidence of
them this will always be just a conspiracy. We can always believe and hope that there is
something else out there that is just as complex as us because then we can communicate with it
and make our world better in the end. We may never know whether or not there is something else
out there in our universe that could be living lives just like us. The question is how do we find it?
Where can we look? What will it do for us? And will this change the future of our science
forever? I believe that once we get the most new and improved advanced technology, we may
never find the answers that weve been looking for. But if you really think about it; we could
possibly have complex life that is similar to ours way out in another universe somewhere or in
another galaxy. We just never really know because the universe is so big that it is impossible to
try and find an end to it since we can only live for so long. All we can really do is hope that there
is something else out there like us so then we can communicate with it and combine things that
we have with what they have to expand our horizons.

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Works Cited
Booth, Billy. "1967-The Betty Andreasson Abduction." About Entertainment. Billy Booth,
n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Booth, Billy. "Story of the Apollo 11 UFO Sighting." About Entertainment. Billy Booth,
n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Jones, John. "Complex Life May Be Possible in Only 10% of All Galaxies." Complex Life
May Be Possible in Only 10% of All Galaxies. Adrian, n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Berger, Wolfgang. "Life on Other Planets?" Life on Other Planets? Wolfgang Berger, n.d.
Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Lavalle, Amy. "Do Aliens Exist? Most Compelling Evidence of Alien Existence."
HISTORY. History, 21 Aug. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.
Lansdorp, Bas. "Mars One." Mars One. Onno Groen, Mar. 2011. Web. 31 Mar. 2015.

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Reflection
1.

The most interesting thing I learned in the inquiry process was how to start my
paper with a good thesis statement/question. I never really know how to start
my papers and make them sound interesting but it helped with the notes you
gave us and examples. I found it to be interesting that we were allowed to write

2.

about whatever we found the most interesting to us.

I struggled with things to write about throughout my paper and the whole
analysis part of it as well. I had quite a few topics to discuss in my paper but
didnt know where to start and analyzing it was difficult. I knew more about the
research I had found and couldnt figure out how to incorporate my ideas into

3.

it. But once I started writing, it was like those ideas I had just came to me.
My inquiry question sort of developed into more about NASA and how we
dont have the funds to just go out in space and find life. Then I got into talking

4.

about aliens and how ancient evidence was found.

It is important to look at the historical views for your paper because then it
gives you research for your topic and gives you more ideas to talk about. You
can reference back to those historical views and go into more depth to how they

5.

change others viewpoints about your question.

I think my views have changed ever since I researched about my topic because
I would have never known certain facts about our universe and galaxy that I

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know now. For ex. About how life couldnt really be possible elsewhere
because there is no liquid and energy on other planets like ours for life to form
and grow. But my beliefs are still the same, we dont even know if there is
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something out there so we cant just come to conclusions yet.

I am most proud of my analysis part of the paper. I really talked about how I
thought about the issue and what my beliefs were on the topic. I then talked

7.

about the research I found and incorporated my ideas into it.

I wish we had more sources and evidence on this topic. If we had hard evidence
it would be more easier to talk about the topics facts. I would like to research
more into aliens and abduction stories because I find them to be very
interesting and relatable to my topic.