Rate the following essay on its writing, argument, and language skills:
In the article, "The Challenge of Exploring Venus", the author presents the opinion that Venus is well-worth exploring, and well-worth the challenges that humans would have to face to pursue exploration. The author does a great job of explaining why Venus ought to be explored. They also do a pretty good job of explaining how we can explore Venus by bypassing the dangers and risks involved. However, the author does not do a good job on explaining why what we learn on Venus can help humanity. This shows that the author does overall, a nice job of supporting the idea that Venus is a worthy pursuit, although they could have done better.

The author uses many points to explain why Venus should be explored. They state that Venus is the closest planet to our own, and that because of its close proximity to Earth, several spacecraft have been sent to the planet already (although all were quickly destroyed). The article also states that Venus was once Earth-like and could have possibly supported life-forms. "Today, Venus still has some features that are analogous to earth. The planet has a surface of rocky sediment and includes familiar features such as valleys, mountains, and caters." In addition to providing this piece on how Venus is still similar to Earth, it also states that Venus may have once also harbored oceans. All of these key points help the author show why they believe humanity and NASA should continue our pursuits on Venus.

The author also does an exempliary job of descrbing how humanity can continue its pursuits on Venus. Although the pressure is intense and the temperature more than any human could handle, there are still ways we can get close to Venus accoding to the author. They describe that using a blimp-like vehicle, astronauts and scientists studying the surface can float safely 30 miles above the surface, where the pressure and heat are much more tolerable. Another solution the author presents gets us much closer to the surface. Although humans wouldn't be able to physically be in vehicles such as this, but old-fashioned computers could be used to help remotely control a probe. These old computers use gears and levers to make calculations, not electricity. As the author puts it, "Modern computers are enormously powerful, flexible, and quick, but tend to be more delicate when it comes to extreme conditions." These other computers can withstand much more, and could help create a probe resistant enough to study the Venusian surface. The author does a great job at explaining and exploring the possibilities.

However, the author is a bit off the mark when it comes to explaining why what we find on Venus can help humanity out. Although it states what we can find on Venus, and how it is Earth-like and the planet closest to Earth, that doesn't explain why we need to waste resources exploring such inhospitable territory. Venus is in fact Earth's closest neighbor, and our nearest option for a planetary visit, but why would we need to visit it in the first place? Venus may have once been simliar to present-day Earth, but why does that matter to us? How would a study of Venus's surface prove instrumental to NASA and the world? The article states, "The value of returning to Venus seems indisputable...", but besides the fact the they state that it is Earth-like and closest to us in our solar system, they do not back this claim up at all. The author does a poor job of backing up the benefits to exploring Venus, and cannot defend why we should travel there to any benefit of humanity.

In conlcusion, the author does a decent job of defending his/her claim that Venus should be explored, although it could have been much stronger. They do a fantastic job of explaining why Venus is so unusual and how we can explore, but neglect to provide any benefits or reasons why exploring Venus is so important to the human race as a whole. However, even though the author did not include this in his/her article, it is still a decent article and is (mostly) thorough on why and how to explore the second planet in our solar system. The author, overall supports his/her idea in an almost completely sound way.

Score: 6