(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Phoebe Zimmermann with the VOA Special Englishprogram EXPLORATIONS. We have news about two exploration devicesthat will land on Mars. We tell about a new aircraft that can takepassengers into space. We tell about a new device now in orbit thatcan see thousands of millions of years back in time. And we tellabout the safe return to Earth of the crew of the InternationalSpace Station.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
Russian cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin and American astronauts KenBowersox and Don Pettit have returned safely to Earth from theInternational Space Station. They landed Sunday in Kazakhstan.Astronaut Bowersox told reporters everything was fine after what hecalled a normal return to Earth.
However, their Russian Soyuz spacecraft landed about four-hundredkilometers from the place where it was expected to land.
Search planes found the spacecraft, but could not land in thearea. The space crew waited several hours for helicopters that flewthem to the Kazakh capital, Astana. Then they were flown to Russia’sStar City space training center near Moscow. They will spend atleast two weeks there for medical tests and to learn how to dealwith gravity after more than five months in space.
VOICE TWO:
The three men left the Earth on November twenty-third,two-thousand-two. Their trip back was the first time Americanastronauts returned to Earth in a Russian spacecraft. This isbecause the American Space Shuttles have not been in operation sincethe Space Shuttle Columbia was lost in February.
The three were replaced in the International Space Station byRussian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, the Expedition Seven commander,and American astronaut Ed Lu. He is the crew’s new flight engineerand NASA science officer.
They arrived at the Space Station on April twenty-eighth.Malenchenko and Lu will be the crew of the space station untilOctober. They have already begun a series of scientific andeducational activities.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announcedthe successful launch of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite.
The explorer was launched April twenty-eighth, near CapeCanaveral, Florida. It was carried into orbit by a Pegasus rocketthat was launched from a jet aircraft. It will begin its researchwork in about one month.
VOICE TWO:
The GALEX (GAL-ex) satellite carries equipment that will be usedto observe more than one-million galaxies. A galaxy is a largesystem of stars. The explorer satellite will make these observationsfor the next twenty-eight months. Some of the galaxies it willobserve are millions of light years from Earth. A light year is thedistance light can travel in one year. Light travels at almostthree-hundred-million meters per second.
Because of the great distances involved, GALEX will be observingand photographing events that took place thousands or even millionsof years ago. The satellite will help space scientists learn whenthe stars we see today were formed.
VOICE ONE:
Scientists believe the universe began almostfourteen-thousand-million years ago with a huge explosion, calledthe “Big Bang.” Galaxies began to appear as the fireball of hydrogenand helium gas expanded and cooled. Recent observations suggest moststars in the universe were formed about eight toten-thousand-million years ago.
The GALEX satellite was designed to investigate this idea and tofind out why the stars were formed. The most important part of thesatellite is a fifty-centimeter telescope. It is equipped withseveral devices that permit it to gather images of galaxies.
The devices will study the light from the galaxies to measuretheir shape, brightness and size. The GALEX satellite will alsopermit scientists to gather information about when carbon, oxygenand other chemical elements were created inside burning stars.
VOICE TWO:
Christopher Martin is the chief research scientist for theproject. He is also an astrophysics professor at the CaliforniaInstitute of Technology in Pasadena.
Mister Martin says the GALEX satellite will provide the firstimportant map of a universe of galaxies. He says researchers will beable to observe how some of these galaxies were formed.
Mister Martin says this information will bring us closer tounderstanding how our own galaxy was created. The GALEX will alsomake the first complete study of the sky beyond our own galaxy.Information gathered will be shared with all space scientists.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Many of us here on Earth would immediately accept the chance tofly into space even if it was only for a few minutes. This may bepossible if airplane designer Burt Rutan (ru-TAN) is successful withhis new aircraft called White Knight and Space Ship One.
Burt Rutan is a world famous designer of aircraft. He designedthe Voyager — the first aircraft to fly non-stop around the worldwith only the fuel it carried. That flight took place betweenDecember fourteenth and December twenty-third, nineteen-eighty-six.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Rutan has now designed an aircraft that carries his SpaceShip One rocket plane. The aircraft is named the White Knight. It isdesigned to fly as high as sixteen-thousand meters. At this height,it will release the Space Ship One rocket plane. Space Ship One’spilot will slow the plane and point the nose almost straight up. Hewill then fire the plane’s rockets.
The rocket plane will reach speeds ofthree-thousand-eight-hundred kilometers an hour as it flies intospace about one-hundred kilometers above the Earth. This is an areaof space called sub-orbital.
Sub-orbital means the craft has left Earth’s atmosphere, but isnot high enough to orbit Earth. Space Ship One will then immediatelyreturn to Earth. The flight will take only about ninety minutes.
Mister Rutan says final tests are now being done on the SpaceShip One craft. The White Knight aircraft that will carry the rocketflew for the first time in August, two-thousand-two.
VOICE ONE:
Burt Rutan says he would like to fly the craft into space for thefirst time before December seventeenth. That is the one-hundredthanniversary of the first powered aircraft flight by the WrightBrothers.
Mister Rutan says the flight will only carry one person. But hehas plans to carry as many as three people into space in the nearfuture. He says it will be the first privately financed flight intospace.
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
NASA has chosen the areas where two exploring devices will landon the surface of the planet Mars early next year. The two areas arecalled the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum. The Gusev Crateris a huge area that scientists say appears to have once been a lake.The Meridiani Planum holds an iron oxide mineral that usually formswhen there is liquid water.
Both the Gusev Crater and the Meridiani Planum are south of theMartian equator. However the two landing areas are about halfwayaround the planet from each other.
VOICE ONE:
Peter Theisinger (TIE-sing-er) is the manager for the project. Hesays a huge amount of research was done before choosing the twoareas. He says the areas were chosen because they offered the bestpossible chance of finding water on Mars.
Photographs and measurements from two NASA spacecraft orbitingMars provided scientists and engineers with details of the twoareas. The two spacecraft showed powerful evidence of past liquidwater. Water is extremely important to any human exploration of Marsin the future.
VOICE TWO:
The two exploring devices that will soon be on their way to Marsare called the Mars Exploration Rovers. They are similar devicesthat can move across the Martian surface. Both will be controlled byscientists here on Earth.
Each rover carries several scientific devices. Each will belaunched to Mars on a Boeing Delta Two rocket. The first roverflight will be launched between May thirtieth and June Sixteenth.The second rover will be launched between June twenty-fifth and Julytwelfth.
(THEME)
VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byCaty Weaver. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week forEXPLORATIONS, a program in Special English on the Voice of America.