英语听力：自然百科 行星旅行指南：火星 Mars—4（在线收听） |
There’re some basic things you should know about Mars before leaving home. Most days will be clear, and sunny and cold. The average temperature on Mars is as bitter as midwinter in Antarctica. And about half the diameter of the earth, Mars is a handy size. But it’s much less dense than earth with about a third of the gravity. Surprisingly, the actual surface area is almost exactly the same as all the dry land on earth, shrunk together without the oceans. Build a few freeways and you could drive around Mars in a couple of weeks. And driving around Mars is exactly what planetary scientist Steve Squyres has been doing since 2004, not in person, but via NASA’s two off-road robot rovers – Spirit and Opportunity.
“That’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before in my life.”
For all of us here on earth, the snapshots sent back by these forward scouts are the next best thing to standing on Mars in a spacesuit.
“We very consciously give these robots some human like qualities. All the cameras are about, / this high off the ground, as same height as human eyes. It’s…the visual experience that you get from looking at the rovers’ pictures are, is intentionally like what you would get if you were /looking at the visor of your helmet in a spacesuit on Mars.” |
| 原文地址：http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/zrbaike/2012/260574.html |