User:Carleydf/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Mars Organic Molecule Analyser

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I wanted to find an article potentially relevant to the current class I am in. The article is about an instrument that will be launched and deployed in the future to measure organic compounds in the soil on Mars. This instrument will search for molecules that indicate if there was past or present life on Mars. My preliminary impression of this article is that it is brief and talks primarily about the technology behind it only. This may not be a fair critique as it has not been launched yet.

Lead section
The introductory sentence in the lead clearly and briefly summarizes what the Mars Organic Molecule Analyser is. Within the lead section, there is no discussion of how the rest of the Wikipedia article will be organized. There is at least one piece of information included in the lead that is not included in the article, which is that Fred Goesmann is the PI on this instrument. Finally, the lead is brief and not overly detailed.

Content
The article contains information that is relevant to the page, such as the instrument's science goals, the technical specifications, development, etc. The content is not up-to-date as the launch date for this instrument has been updated since 2020. Content that is missing is how it works in detail and not just linking to other Wikipedia articles, other historical context regarding creation and launch, and some example molecules that the instrument has been calibrated to detect. Additionally, how is this instrument calibrated? How long is the instrument expected to operate? This article does not deal with an equity gap.

Tone and Balance
This article appears to be neutral. It does not claim that this instrument can detect life on Mars, but that certain molecules the instrument can detect could provide further insights about the history and chemical composition on Mars. This article makes sure to add qualifiers such as "may exhibit" and "assumptions." This article's goal is not to persuade the reader of anything.

Sources and References
The sources are not current. Here is a link to a recent ESA statement regarding the 2022 launch time delay (https://www.esa.int/Newsroom/Press_Releases/ESA_statement_regarding_cooperation_with_Russia_following_a_meeting_with_Member_States_on_28_February_2022). The links that are provided work. Most sources come from Harald Steininger or the ESA. The ESA articles make sense considering the ESA is heading this project. It appears that Harald Steininger is part of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research but is not the PI listed in the lead of this article. The sources used are relevant, thorough, and top-tier (not from random websites but right from the source).

Organization and Writing Quality
The article is well-written for the most part. In the lead section, the mention of the instrument's sensitivity seemed out of place. I did not note any spelling or grammar errors. This article could benefit from better organization as there are only two main sections, with one of them being an overview.

Images and Media
This article does not have any images, though there is an external link to a YouTube video found at the bottom of the article.

Talk page discussion
There are currently no discussions happening on this article's talk page. The article is rated as a C-class article and is a part of 3 WikiProjects (Space Flight, Science, and Solar System / Mars). I have no way of comparing how Wikipedia articles are discussed versus how we discuss topics in class.

Overall impressions
The article's overall status is C-class. The article's strengths are that the explanations are simple and succinct. The article can be improved by providing more of the missing content that seem pertinent to an instrument's description, such as predicted operation time. I believe at this point in time that this article is underdeveloped. I anticipate with the launch and publication of future scientific articles using data from this instrument that this article will be more fleshed out and its contributions more documented.