Justin Scrivens

Professor Guenzel
ENC 1102
March 24, 2021

Rhetorical Analysis
My paper discusses the effects of the pandemic on the space industry, and in it, I
use multiple sources to support my findings. For this analysis I will be analyzing on of
the articles I used. In the article, "Coronavirus outbreak shakes the space industry: Here
are the biggest effects so far" the author, Mike Wall discusses the effects of the recent
global pandemic on the space industry. The exigencies of the article can clearly be
interpreted from the title of the article, but to put it explicitly the exigence is the
damaging effects the global pandemics has caused the space industry. Before
becoming a writer for space.com in 2010, Wall was a wildlife biologist and had a Ph.D.
in Evolutionary Biology. While when you think of biology you do not think of space, all
fields of science have a role in space travel. 
This article was not meant to scare people of the damages to the industry or get
people to rush to solve these issues, it merely presents facts to rationally explain that
like so many other industries, the space industry has fallen upon difficult times during
this pandemic, and the article even acknowledges that people already have a lot of
more pressing concerns about the world's situation. I don’t believe his essay is meant to
inspire people to make change it meant to inform people. Wall demonstrates this intent
when he states, "The economic impacts of COVID-19 are already significant, as anyone
who keeps an eye on the stock market has surely noticed." To support his purpose of
explaining the negative effects the space industry is feeling at the moment, Wall uses
facts of events and dates, and to make his information more reliable he presents the
readers with information about different space companies around the world. He finds
the intertextuality between the events of these companies and other space events in
order to support his argument. He talks specifically about NASA, SpaceX, ESA
(European Space Agency), and Russia's space agency, and connects each companies’
hindrances to support his argument that the pandemic has shaken the space industry.
Through this article Wall mainly focused on using logos to support his arguments. Of the
three appeals (ethos, pathos, logos) logos is the strongest so I believe that by
supporting his arguments with facts and data Wall made his article a reliable source.
Although he focuses on logos Wall did use some ethos. It is beneficial to throw in ethos
when you are using other sources the write something, so the reader can know that the
information is reliable, and Wall does this because he often explains where he goes the
information he is reporting from and they were all reliable.
Wall presented his arguments in order of cause and effects, obviously the main
cause is COVID-19 but in the article, he first describes the direct effect of the pandemic
and then describes its indirect effect. For example, in the article, Mike explains that
currently, NASA has its employees working from home, which is the direct effect of the
pandemic. He then explains, "...the agency has temporarily halted most production and
testing of its Space Launch System (SLS) mega rocket and Orion capsule, which
together will help get astronauts to the moon and Mars." The fact that NASA employees
are working from home is significant because engineering is a very collaborative
subject. Engineers often bounce ideas off of each other, test what works and what does
not. While the NASA engineers can still communicate and collaborate with each other
via zoom, skype, or calling each other, it is much less efficient and productive than
when people meet and talk in person. Through face-face communication, people find it
easier to converse and support their message. 
To add even more support to his argument, Wall explains, “The Event Horizon
Telescope (EHT) project, in contrast, was not able to power through the outbreak. The
EHT, an international consortium of about 200 scientists who last year revealed the first-
ever direct images of a black hole, had to cancel its 2020 observing campaign.” This is
just another example of how the pandemic halted another company's developing
understanding of space. Furthering our understanding of space is very important to the
development of our society. It is through observation of natural phenomenon and
experimentation that humans make discoveries and create new technology, and this
article is not saying that no new technologies will be invented during the pandemic is
simply discussing the hated progress in space related discoveries and their
advancements to the industry. 
To show that is not just individual companies that are being affected but the
industry as a whole, Wall explains how, many science conferences were canceled,
which is a big deal.
This article not only use the Aristotle mode of argumentation he uses a mixture of
other to support his claim. To put this article in terms of the Toulmin Model of
argumentation, the claim, would be that the space industry has been hurt be the
pandemic, the grounds would be, there has been some halt in space technology testing
and researchers have less opportunities to share their work and findings, the implied
warrant would be that scientist make discoveries through building off and expanding the
idea of others and there is not backing or rebuttal, but I believe this does not change the
effectiveness of the argument presented. I believe that because the Rogerian mode of
Argumentation does not have a single form of presenting argument, this article could be
interpreted as following this method. The basis of the Rogerian argumentation is
establishing common ground of those with opposing views and understanding their
point of view. As mention previously in paragraph two, Walls explain that he
understands that people have more pressing concerns about the pandemic, but while
they are focused on their immediate problem, they should not think that the problems
the space industries are having will have no effect on them.
While this article does have many strong points, it does not contain everything I
need for my paper. The areas where this article is lacking is why the hurting space
industry is bad and how is damage could affect the average citizen. Therefore, writing
my final paper, I will use this article to support my claim that the space industry has
been negatively affected by the global pandemic, but I will also be using other articles in
addition to this one, and in doing that I will find the intertextuality between the articles.
Before the pandemic, the human race was taking great strides in building our
presence in space. Since the 1960s our space-related discoveries and advancements
have been increasing exponentially, but if we hit a roadblock who knows when we will
pick back up again. It is our job to find a way to continue our research and exploration of
space in these troubling times.