#11- Building a space station, in which astronauts would

[lsatmike]

Argument: Building a space station is essential because, for future Mars explorations, we will need the medical knowledge that the space station will give us about human limits in space.

A) Right answer. We don't need a space station and the medical knowledge about humans if robots are going to be doing the exploration.

B)Wrong. I chose this answer initially because I though that research done on Astronaut's capabilities limits was not representative of ordinary human beings. Doesn't matter since Astronauts will have limits different from a typical human.

C) too out of scope and language is strong.

D) Not relevant to argument

E) yes and? thats why we need to study it.

[Charlie Melman]

Hey Mike,

I agree with your reasoning here. If answer choice (A) isn't factually true—that is, if robots alone will go to space—then why do we care about the limits of human capacities?

[blade21cn]

I've difficulty analyzing the argument in the stimulus. The word "essential" in the first sentence creates a conditional statement: space station knowledge (successfully obtained or not) → build a space station with astronauts on board. The word "need" in the second sentence creates another conditional statement: explore Mars → space station knowledge (specifically, medical knowledge about the limits of human capacities to live in a space station/spacecraft). The transitive nature of these two conditional statements makes them function more like two premises and leads us to: explore Mars → space station knowledge → build a space station with astronauts on board. So where is the conclusion, as I'm looking for "explore Mars → build a space station with astronauts on board"? Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

blade21cn,

I don't think diagramming conditional statements is a useful approach for this question. For instance, although the first sentence uses the word "essential", which is often an necessary condition indicator, I don't see a sufficient condition in that sentence - for what is building a space station essential?

"We have to go to the store."

"We have to go to the store in order to prepare for the party."

The second quote of mine is more clearly a conditional here, because it tells that one thing requires another. The first quote of mine just says that going to the store is essential, for doesn't answer the question "for what is it essential?"

Getting tangled up in trying to interpret the stimulus as involving conditionals is causing you to lose the forest for the trees - focus instead on what the stimulus is trying to prove. It's trying to show that building a space station is essential. So the first sentence is the conclusion.

Robert Carroll