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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS from VOA SpecialEnglish. Today we report about the twenty-six-year flight of twospacecraft named Voyager. We tell about problems with a spacecrafton its way to the planet Mars. And we begin with China’s successfullaunch of a human into orbit around the Earth.
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VOICE ONE:
Last month, China’s first astronaut left Earth and returnedsafely after fourteen orbits of our planet. Yang Liwei landed withhis spacecraft in the Gobi Desert, in Inner Mongolia, on OctoberSixteenth. He was in flight for twenty-one hours.
China is now the third country after Russia and the United Statesto send a human in orbit around the Earth.
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China’s spacecraft is named the Shenzhou-Five. It was launchedusing China’s Long March Two-F rocket. The launch took place at theJiuquan Space Center, one-thousand-six-hundred kilometers west ofBeijing. After fourteenth orbits, the Shenzhou-Five slowed and beganto re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. The spacecraft was guided by fourships in the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean and southern AtlanticOcean.
A Chinese spacecraft communications station in the Africancountry of Namibia ordered the Shenzhou to fire rockets to slow itsspeed. It then flew over Africa and Pakistan. The spacecraft againfired rockets about two meters from the ground to soften thelanding.
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China’s first astronaut is a thirty-eight year old pilot in theChinese Air Force. He is from Liaoning Province, in northeast China.He joined the air force when he was eighteen years old. Yang Liweiwas one of more than one-thousand air force pilots who competed tobe China’s first human in space. Only fourteen were chosen fortraining.
American astronaut Edward Lu was a member of the crew of theInternational Space Station during Yang Liwei’s flight. Mister Lu’smother and father were born in China. Mister Lu spoke to theastronaut in Chinese. He said: “Welcome to space. Have a safejourney and I wish you success.”
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VOICE TWO:
The United States launched the Voyager One and Voyager Twospacecraft in nineteen-seventy-seven. Some scientists believeVoyager One is now at the farthest edge of our solar system. It hasbecome the first human-made object to travel past the influence ofour Sun.
Other scientists say it has not reached the edge yet, but isclose. Both groups say the evidence is confusing. In the pasttwenty-six years it has traveled more than thirteen-thousand-millionkilometers from our Sun. NASA scientists say it is now entering anarea called termination shock. That is an area at the edge of oursolar system. They say it is where the Sun’s influence ends and anarea between stars begins.In this area supersonic winds of chargedparticles from the Sun clash with gas and dust that fill the spacebetween stars.
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Edward Stone of the California Institute of Technology is the topVoyager project scientist. He says Voyager One may take as long asthree or four years to pass through the termination shock area andinto the area of space between stars.
Mister Stone says the first evidence that Voyager One had passedinto the termination shock area was received from Voyager in August.Scientific instruments on Voyager One sent information showingevidence that the spacecraft had entered a new environment.
This environment shows unusual solar winds and an unusualdecrease in these solar winds. Solar winds are a kind of energy.They come from the surface of the Sun and travel out into space.Scientists say the solar winds move the termination shock area outand then back. The area does not stay in one place. Some scientistssay the Voyager One has passed through the termination shock areawhile others say this is not permanent.
They believe the Voyager will re-enter the termination shock areabecause the area is moving out and back faster than the Voyagerspacecraft. One of Voyager One’s scientific instruments could solvethis argument. But that instrument has been broken sincenineteen-eighty.
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Mister Stone says that Voyager One will continue to sendinformation back to Earth until the year twenty-twenty if none ofthe equipment fails. Then it will lose power.
Voyager Two is more about three-thousand-million kilometersbehind Voyager One. It has more working scientific instruments.Scientists agree that when it reaches the area called terminationshock many more questions will be answered.
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The Voyager One and Two spacecraft were the first human objectsto fly near and send back information about the planets Jupiter,Neptune, Saturn and Uranus. The two spacecraft provided the firstclose photographs and much valuable information about these planets.The two spacecraft have finished their main work but continue tosend back useful information about the edge of our solar system.
Scientists say the Voyager spacecraft are traveling at a speed ofmore than sixty-one thousand kilometers an hour as they travel outinto space. In time, the spacecraft will pass other stars. However,space experts say that even at this great speed, it will be morethan forty-thousand years before either Voyager travels near theinfluence of another star.
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VOICE TWO:
In the past several weeks,scientists have been watching unusual activity on the surface of theSun. Three huge sunspots appeared. Each one was larger than theplanet Jupiter. The sunspots caused solar flares, huge explosions ofmatter near the sunspot. The explosions force huge amounts of energyinto space.
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Eleven solar flares were reported in only fourteen days. Thesolar flares caused problems with radio communications. The samesolar flares also entered Earth’s upper atmosphere. The energyproduced by the flares exposed astronauts and some air travelers toa small amount of radiation. This was about the same amount ofradiation that a medical chest-X-ray would produce.
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The European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft sufferedtemporary damage from the solar flares. The flares damaged theequipment that guides the spacecraft through space. The Mars Expressfinds it way through space by observing two stars. This equipmentkeeps the spacecraft traveling on its planned direction.
The Mars Express could not see the two stars for more thanfifteen hours because of the solar flares. Researchers with theEuropean Space Agency say the Mars Express mission is now back tonormal. The solar flares also prevented a study of the spacecraft’sMars lander, named the Beagle Two. The flares delayed the test, butcaused no damage to the Beagle Two.
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The Mars Express is to orbit the planet Mars beginning Decembertwenty-fifth. The Beagle lander is to fly to the surface soon after.The Beagle will look for evidence of water. The Mars Express is justone of four spacecraft from three countries that will arrive at Marsby January, two-thousand-four. Japan’s Nozomi craft is expected atMars in the middle of December. Then NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers,Spirit and Opportunity, are to arrive in January.
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In August, tests of the Mars Rovers showed that one of theirscience instruments was not working correctly. However, experts wereable to make the instruments use different methods of collectinginformation. The instruments will be used to find the mineral ironin rocks and soil.
Researchers say the instruments will return good information ifthey do not suffer any more problems. The researchers say theproblems may have been caused by the huge amount of pressureproduced when the spacecraft were launched.
The Spirit Rover is to land near Mars’ Gusev Crater on Januaryfourth. Three weeks later, the Opportunity Rover will land in anarea called Meridiani Planum on the opposite side of Mars. EachRover will examine its landing area for evidence about the historyof water on the planet. The information is needed for scientists todecide if life could have existed on Mars.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Paul Thompson and produced by MarioRitter. This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONSin Special English on the Voice of America.