EXPLORATIONS - Space in 2001

By Paul Thompson
VOICE ONE:
This is Bob Doughty¹.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Doug Johnson with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some

of the important space news of the past year. We begin with the first permanent human home in space.
((THEME)
)
VOICE ONE:
Last year was the first full year that humans lived in a permanent place in space. On November First, Two-

Thousand, an American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts took their places as the first crew of the
International Space Station. The commander of the first crew was American Bill Shepherd. The other members
were Russian Cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev.

The three were launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodome in
Kazakhstan.

Now, the fourth crew of the International Space Station is in orbit. They arrived at the
International Space Station December Seventh on the American Space Shuttle Endeavour. The
crew commander is Russian Cosmonaut Yury Onufrienko. American Astronauts Daniel
Bursch and Carl Walz are the flight engineers.

VOICE TWO:

During the past year, the four crews of the International Space Station have been a mix of American astronauts
and Russian cosmonauts. One American woman, Susan Helms, was a member of the second crew to live in the
space station.

NASA says future crews of the space station will be a mix of astronauts from the United States, Russia, the
European Space Agency and Japan.

VOICE ONE:

The International Space Station is a cooperative² effort by sixteen nations. When it is completed it will provide
more room for space research than any spacecraft ever built.

In the past year, the space station ’s ability to perform useful work has been greatly expanded. During Two-
Thousand -One, six space shuttle flights arrived at the International Space Station. The Russian Soyuz rocket also
flew to the space station.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis carried the huge United States science laboratory named “Destiny³”
that will be
used for experiments in space.

VOICE TWO:

Since the International Space Station was first placed in orbit, seventy -nine people have visited or worked there
as crew members. These men and women have built the space station into a one-hundred-fifty ton powerful
device.


Odyssey⁴
In the past year, the International Space Station has become an extremely important research center. Experiments
are being done there that could not be repeated on Earth. This is because of the extreme lack of gravity in space.
Future research plans include experiments in biology, chemistry, physics, ecology and medicine.

VOICE ONE:

The International Space Station is one of the brightest objects in the night sky. Sunlight shines off huge structures
that look like wings. They were added to the space station to gather energy from the Sun. They are the largest and
heaviest structures to be carried into space. The sun shines on these wing-like devices making it very easy for
people on Earth to see where people are living in space.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

The National Aeronautics⁵ and Space Administration ’s Mars⁶ Odyssey spacecraft successfully entered an orbit
around the planet Mars in October. It left Earth on April Seventh, Two-Thousand -One. It flew four-hundred-sixty
million kilometers to reach Mars. NASA officials said it reached its planned orbit with no problems.

In November, the American space agency received the first pictures of Mars taken by the Odyssey. The pictures
were taken from about twenty-two thousand kilometers above the South Pole of the planet. They showed areas of
carbon dioxide ice at the southern end of Mars.

VOICE ONE:

Beginning in February, Odyssey will start a two and one-half year science project.
The Odyssey spacecraft has several important tasks.

Odyssey does not carry instruments that can search for life on Mars. Yet, the
spacecraft’s instruments can search for information that will help researchers
understand if the environment of Mars can support life now. Or it will help them
discover if Mars ever could have supported life.

Evidence of water is extremely important for deciding if life could exist on Mars. Mars is too cold to permit
liquid water to remain on the surface. Yet, researchers say water on Mars may be trapped under the surface. It
may be ice, or possibly a liquid.

Instruments on Odyssey will let scientists measure any amount of permanent ice and how it changes with the
seasons. Odyssey’s instruments will also let NASA scientists search Mars for chemical elements. These
elements include carbon, silicon⁷, and iron.

Odyssey will seek evidence of radiation on Mars. It will look for possible areas that may be dangerous to future
astronaut crews. This information will help NASA know how to plan for a visit to Mars by human explorers.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE TWO:

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to be an extremely valuable tool for learning about space. In the past year
it continued to send back to Earth pictures and other information from the far areas of the universe.

One of Hubble’s most interesting tasks this year was making the first direct examinations and chemical tests of
the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. The lead researcher for the project is David Charbonneau of
the California Institute of Technology and the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Mister Charbonneau says his team used the Hubble Space Telescope to find sodium⁸ in the planet’s atmosphere.
He says the research team found much less sodium in the atmosphere than expected. The work done by Hubble
shows that it is possible for the space telescope and other telescopes to measure the chemicals in a planet’
s
atmosphere.


Artist's image
The planet that the space telescope examined is about two-hundred-twenty times the size of Earth. It orbits a
yellow Sun-like star called H-D two-zero-nine-four-five -eight. The star is about one-hundred-fifty light years
away in the constellation⁹ Pegasus. NASA says almost anyone can find the star by using a small telescope.

((MUSIC BRIDGE))

VOICE ONE:

NASA scientists also heard from an old friend last year. In May, NASA scientists
sent and received radio messages from the Pioneer Ten Spacecraft. Pioneer Ten was
launched more than twenty-nine years ago on March Second, Nineteen-Seventy-
Two. It is now more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers from Earth.

Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to pass through a huge area of space rocks
called the asteroid¹⁰ belt. It was also the first to take close pictures of the planet Jupiter¹¹. In Nineteen-Eighty -Three,
Pioneer Ten became the first human-made object to leave our solar system. It did this when it passed beyond the
orbit of the planet Pluto¹².

VOICE TWO:

Larry Lasher¹³ is the Pioneer Ten Project Manager for NASA ’s Ames Research Center at Moffett Field,
California.

Mister Lasher said NASA engineers decided¹⁴ the only way to get a signal from the spacecraft was to send a
message and wait for an answer. He said Pioneer received the message and answered with a very weak signal.

Radio messages to the spacecraft were sent from a special radio telescope in Madrid, Spain. Pioneer Ten is so far
away that radio signals traveling at the speed of light still took almost twenty-four hours to reach the spacecraft
and return.

VOICE ONE:

NASA scientists who built Pioneer Ten knew it would pass out of our solar system and into the far reaches of
space. They placed pictures of a man and a woman on the spacecraft. They also placed information about Earth
and recordings¹⁵ of human voices and the sounds of animals.

Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the star group Taurus, at almost forty -five thousand kilometers an hour. It will
pass the nearest star in the constellation in about two-million years.

((THEME))

VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer
was Dwayne Collins. This is Doug Johnson.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Bob Doughty. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of
America.

Email this article to a friend
Printer Friendly Version

1 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

2 cooperative   

adj.有合作意向的，合作的；n.合作社（企业）等

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• We decided to set up a cooperative.我们决定开办一家合作社。

3 destiny   

n.命运，定数，天命

参考例句：

• Nobody knows his own destiny.没有人知道自己的命运。
• It was her destiny to become famous.她命里注定出名。

4 odyssey   

n.长途冒险旅行；一连串的冒险

参考例句：

• The march to Travnik was the final stretch of a 16-hour odyssey.去特拉夫尼克的这段路是长达16小时艰险旅行的最后一程。
• His odyssey of passion, friendship,love,and revenge was now finished.他的热情、友谊、爱情和复仇的漫长历程，到此结束了。

5 aeronautics   

n.航空术，航空学

参考例句：

• National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
• He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。

6 Mars   

n.火星，战争

参考例句：

• As of now we don't know much about Mars.目前我们对火星还知之甚少。
• He contended that there must be life on Mars.他坚信火星上面一定有生物。

7 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

8 sodium   

n.（化）钠

参考例句：

• Out over the town the sodium lights were lit.在外面，全城的钠光灯都亮了。
• Common salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.食盐是钠和氯的复合物。

9 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

10 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

11 Jupiter   

n.木星

参考例句：

• Jupiter is unlike the Earth in almost every way.木星与地球几乎完全不同。
• The astronomers were taking an observation of Jupiter.天文学家们正在观测木星。

12 Pluto   

n.冥王星

参考例句：

• Pluto is the furthest planet from the sun.冥王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Pluto has an elliptic orbit.冥王星的轨道是椭圆形的。

13 lasher   

n.堰，堰下的水溏，鞭打者；装石工

参考例句：

14 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。

15 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐