EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest

EXPLORATIONS - Space Digest
By Paul Thompson

Broadcast: Wednesday, June 23, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft. It will soon be in orbit around the planet Saturn¹. We also tell the latest news from the two vehicles that are exploring the surface of the planet Mars. We begin with a report about the first attempt by a private company to launch a vehicle into space.

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VOICE ONE:

 
Space Ship One.
A rocket plane called Space Ship One has completed the world's first privately² financed manned space flight. The rocket plane was launched into space Monday from the Mojave Civilian³ Aerospace⁴ Test Center near Mojave, California. It flew to the edge of space, one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. It landed like an airplane ninety minutes later.

Sixty-three-year old Michael Melvill was the pilot of Space Ship One. Mister Melvill said he had a problem with one of the devices on Space Ship One, but he was able to control the aircraft. He said looking down at the Earth from space was almost a religious experience. Thousands of people watched the event in California.

VOICE TWO:

 
Aviation designer Burt Rutan.
The rocket plane was built by the Scaled Composites company of California. Aviation designer Burt Rutan (roo-TAN) planned the project. Mister Rutan is already famous for designing and building the first airplane to fly around the world without stopping for fuel. The plane called Voyager did this in nineteen-eighty-six.

Paul Allen helped pay for the fight of Space Ship One. He is one of the founders⁵ of the Microsoft computer software company. Mister Allen says he spent more than twenty-million dollars on the project. He says he has wanted to be part of space research ever since he was a small boy.

VOICE ONE:

Space Ship One was carried into the air by another airplane designed by Mister Rutan. An aircraft named the White Knight⁶ carried the smaller Space Ship One to an altitude of fifteen kilometers. It then released Space Ship One. Pilot Melvill then fired the rockets that gave it the power needed to reach space.

Space Ship One was designed to reach an area of space called sub-orbital. This is just below the area where a spacecraft would enter an orbit around the Earth.

VOICE TWO:

Mister Rutan and Mister Allen say they believe the successful flight of Space Ship One is proof that privately financed space flight is possible. They say it is also proof that private companies can work in space in the future without government help.

Mister Rutan says this first successful flight of Space Ship One is only the beginning of many more flights in the future. He says some of these future flights may include passengers who might pay about ten-thousand dollars each for a flight into space.

 
Space Ship One landing in California.
The flight of Space Ship One was a step toward an international competition called the Ansari X prize. The competition is to create a reusable aircraft. The aircraft must be able to launch a pilot and two passengers into sub-orbital space and bring them back safely two times within two weeks. The prize is ten-million dollars. At least twenty-seven teams from several countries are reportedly working to compete for the prize. It must be claimed by the end of this year.

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VOICE ONE:

 
The Cassini spacecraft.
On July first, the Cassini-Huygens (HOY-guns) spacecraft will arrive at the planet Saturn. It will move toward Saturn from below the famous rings that circle the planet. As it passes through Saturn's rings, it will turn its cameras down to photograph the rings. The rings are made of dust and small rocks.

Cassini will cross through a large space between two of the huge rings. Just after the spacecraft passes through the rings, it will fire its rocket engines. This will cause it to slow its speed, permitting the spacecraft to be captured by Saturn's gravity. In this way, the Cassini spacecraft will enter an orbit around Saturn.

VOICE TWO:

Cassini has already sent back important information. On June eleventh, it passed within two-thousand kilometers of Saturn's moon, Phoebe. NASA scientists say the photographs of Phoebe showed evidence of large amounts of ice.

The photographs showed the ice was covered with a thin amount of dark material. It also showed huge holes in the surface of the moon.

Torrence Johnson is the Cassini imaging team member at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He says the photographs of Phoebe are very unusual and important. Mister Johnson said the photographs show the moon may be a rock from the beginning of our solar system.

He says Phoebe may have been formed about four-and-one-half-thousand-million years ago. Mister Johnson says it is important to use all of the instruments that Cassini carries in an effort to learn all possible information about this small moon. Scientists plan to use the information gathered by Cassini's eleven instruments to understand what Phoebe is made of and its size.

VOICE ONE:

When Cassini flew by Phoebe, it completed its first task in a four-year exploration of Saturn. Cassini is to pass near and gather information from seven of Saturn's thirty-one known moons.

The most important moon it will investigate is the huge moon Titan. It will pass by Titan forty-four times to gather information. It will do this during seventy-four orbits of Saturn.

 
An artists picture of the Huygens Probe exploring the atmosphere of Titan.
On December twenty-fifth, the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft will separate into two parts. The Huygens part of the spacecraft will begin its twenty-one day trip to the surface of Titan. It is to land on the surface of Titan on January fourteenth of next year.

Titan is a big moon. It is larger than the planet Mercury and our own moon. It is of extreme interest to scientists because it is the only moon in the solar system with its own atmosphere.

The Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in the southern state of Florida on October fifteenth, nineteen-ninety-seven. Seventeen nations took part in building the spacecraft. The American Space Agency, NASA, built and controls the Cassini orbiter. The European Space Agency built the Huygens lander. The Italian Space agency provided some of Cassini's communications equipment.

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VOICE TWO:

In April, the two NASA vehicles on the surface of Mars completed their three-month exploration of the Red Planet. NASA officials decided⁷ to extend the working life of the two vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity. NASA reports that both Spirit and Opportunity are still working successfully.

Spirit has driven more than three kilometers since arriving on Mars five months ago. It now has reached an area called the Columbia Hills. Scientists think rocks in the Columbia Hills may provide information about how hills form on Mars. The hills may hold information that will tell scientists if this part of Mars was wet.

Scientists have seen the Columbia Hills before. In nineteen-ninety-seven, scientists could see the hills with the cameras of the Mars Pathfinder vehicle. But they could not be reached by the Pathfinder.

VOICE ONE:

Half way around the surface of Mars, NASA's Opportunity vehicle is also still exploring.

Earlier this month, Opportunity began exploring a large area called the Endurance Crater⁸. The crater is about the size of a large soccer football field. It may have been made by a huge object that hit the Martian surface many years ago.

Scientists who are controlling Opportunity moved the vehicle into the crater very carefully and slowly. First they moved Opportunity a short way down the side of the crater. Then they moved it back out. They wanted to make sure its six wheels would be able to climb back out of the crater. Opportunity has already used many of its instruments to study the inside of the crater.

VOICE TWO:

NASA officials who control Opportunity have begun to use a special command to shut down the vehicle during the Martian night. The command is called "deep sleep." This method saves energy and permits the vehicle to work as much as three times longer during the Martian day. However, the "deep sleep" command is not without risk. NASA scientists say it is possible that a device on the vehicle called the thermal⁹ emissions¹⁰ spectrometer may be damaged. They say this has not happened yet. However, as Mars moves into its winter season, officials say the spectrometer will be lost.

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VOICE ONE:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. This is Phoebe Zimmermann.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program in VOA Special English.

1 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

2 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

3 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

4 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

5 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

6 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

9 thermal   

adj.热的，由热造成的；保暖的

参考例句：

• They will build another thermal power station.他们要另外建一座热能发电站。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

10 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。