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VOICE ONE:
This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about some of the important space newsof the past year.
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VOICE ONE:
The year two-thousand-two saw the end of the working life of oneof the most successful spacecraft ever launched from Earth. OnOctober eighteenth, nineteen-eighty-nine, the American space agencylaunched a spacecraft named Galileo from the Kennedy Space Center inFlorida. It weighed two-thousand-two-hundred-twenty-three kilograms.Galileo carried more than twenty science instruments and cameras toexplore the planet Jupiter and its moons.
Galileo would not arrive in thearea near Jupiter for six years. But it began sending valuableinformation to scientists on Earth before then. Galileo was thefirst spacecraft to fly near two huge space rocks called asteroids.It flew near the asteroids Gaspra and Ida. And in July ofnineteen-ninety-three, Galileo aimed its powerful cameras tophotograph the crash of the comet named Shoemaker-Levy with theplanet Jupiter. It sent back photographs of the huge explosionscaused by the comet.
Galileo began working near Jupiter in December ofnineteen-ninety-five.
VOICE TWO:
Last month, NASA scientists began receiving some of the lastrecorded scientific information from Galileo. For some days,however, NASA officials thought that perhaps Galileo was no longeruseful.
In early November, Galileo hadmoved closer to Jupiter than ever before. The radiation from Jupiterdamaged Galileo’s recording equipment. However, NASA scientists usedradio signals to carefully repair the damage. Galileo once againbegan to broadcast the recordings of scientific information it hadmade about its last and closest flight near Jupiter.
VOICE ONE:
Galileo has been working for five years longer than its designershad planned. It was expected to have a working life of about twoyears. Yet, it was still doing useful work at the end of last year.Galileo has sent back thousands of photographs of Jupiter and itsmoons Europa and Io. It also has sent back huge amounts of recordedscientific information.
Galileo has provided scientists with information about theatmosphere of these moons. It also found possible evidence of anunderground ocean on the moon Europa. Scientists believe there mayeven be some kind of life in the underground ocean.
Galileo also made photographs of huge volcanoes exploding on themoon Io. Galileo has been an extremely useful scientific instrument.However its long and useful working life will soon come to an end.Galileo has almost used up the supply of fuel it uses for pointingits radio equipment toward Earth and for controlling its flightpath.
While it can still be controlled, scientists have put it on apath that will cause it to crash into Jupiter next September. Thisflight path prevents Galileo from crashing into the moon Europawhere it might damage any possible life in the underground ocean.
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Also last year, NASA scientists made the final tests on twovehicles that will soon explore the surface of the planet Mars. Thevehicles are two Mars Exploration Rovers.
NASA’s Mars Odyssey spacecraft also made news last year. Itarrived in orbit around Mars in October of two-thousand-one. Itsuseful work began in February, two-thousand-two.
That is when the Mars Odyssey began sending back the firstimages. They are part of a two-year plan to make the most completemaps ever made of the surface of Mars.
In May, the Mars Odyssey surprised scientists by finding hugeamounts of ice water just under the surface. It did this usingseveral of the special instruments on the spacecraft.
William Boynton is the chief researcher for the Mars Odyssey.Mister Boynton says the evidence supplied by Mars Odyssey shows muchmore ice than was expected. The water ice was found near the redplanet’s south pole.
And, scientists say the discovery of this amount of water is justthe beginning of huge amounts of important information that will besupplied by the Mars Odyssey in the future.
VOICE ONE:
In October, NASA began releasing Mars Odyssey information andphotographs to the scientists of the world. Stephen Saunders is theOdyssey project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory inPasadena, California.
Mister Saunders says that scientists who study Mars consider therelease of the Mars Odyssey information to be extremely valuable. Hesays the information is free to any scientists who can use acomputer to link with the Internet communications system. MarsOdyssey information is available on your computer by linking withthe Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The address is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV. Theaddress again is WWW.JPL.NASA.GOV.
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Only five space shuttle flights took place duringtwo-thousand-two. No flights were made between June nineteenth andOctober seventh.
NASA temporarily suspended the launch of its shuttle spacecraftbecause of fuel line damage to the main engines of the shuttlesAtlantis and Discovery. These are two of the four vehicles that takeastronauts into space and to the International Space Station.
James Hartsfield is a spokesman for the Johnson Space Center inHouston, Texas. He said NASA’s main concern was the possibility thata piece of metal in the fuel line would separate and move into theengine area. This would damage the engine and cause it to shut down.
The shuttles began flying againafter a long investigation and many repairs to the shuttle fuellines.
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The flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour in June made news withthe return of the fourth crew of the International Space Station.Two of the crew members set a record for Americans in space.American astronauts Carl Walz and Dan Bursch had been members of theSpace Station’s crew for one-hundred-ninety-six days.
This record added to Astronaut Walz’s time in space for a totalof two-hundred-thirty-one days. That is more than any other Americanastronaut.
Cosmonaut Valery Korzun, Cosmonaut Sergei Treschev and NASAAstronaut Peggy Whitson worked on the International Space Stationfor one-hundred-eighty-five days. They returned to Earth on Decemberseventh on the Space Shuttle Endeavour. That flight was theone-hundred-twelfth successful shuttle flight into space.
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Four of the space shuttle flights last year were launched to takenew crew members, scientific experiments, food, supplies and newparts to the International Space Station. These flights greatlyexpanded the size and power of the Space Station.
The first flight to the Space Station took place in April. Theshuttle delivered a thirteen-meter long part called the S-ZeroTruss. It now serves to hold together the major parts of the spacestation. The December flight of the Endeavour carried more thanone-thousand-nine-hundred kilograms o equipment to the SpaceStation.
NASA plans seven shuttle flights this year. Six will go to theInternational Space Station. These flights will continue to expandand place equipment on the Space Station.
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VOICE ONE:
The crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia made the first shuttleflight of the year in March. The seven astronauts completed aten-day flight to renew and rebuild the Hubble Space Telescope.After the flight, NASA officials said the crew of Columbia had madethe Hubble into a much more valuable space science instrument. It isnow doing ten times more work than it could before. The spacetelescope immediately began sending back hundreds of photographs ofspace objects millions of light years away.
NASA plans one more flight to provide service to the Hubble SpaceTelescope. That flight is expected to take place intwo-thousand-four. NASA plans to use the Hubble untiltwo-thousand-ten. At that time, NASA scientists will decide if theHubble will return to Earth or be raised to a high orbit where itcannot fall back to Earth.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written and produced by PaulThompson. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Mary Tillotson. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.