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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 a space rock that has the sameorbit around the sun as Earth. We tell about three new moonsdiscovered near the planet Neptune. We tell about the launch of twonew satellites. And we tell about the current flight of the spaceshuttle Columbia.
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VOICE ONE:
The space shuttle Columbia waslaunched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Januarysixteenth. The seven crew members include the first astronaut fromIsrael. Columbia is expected to return to the Kennedy Space Centeron February first after sixteen days in space.
Columbia took into orbit eighty science experiments. Theseinclude a study of Earth and space science and advanced technologydevelopment. Other experiments deal with cancer cell research andastronaut health and safety.
One experiment includes two special cameras built in Israel. Theyare being used to measure the amount of dust in the desert and inthe atmosphere over the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.University scientists in Tel Aviv were interested in learning howclouds of dust affect weather.
Columbia’s crew formed two teams because of the large number ofexperiments. This permitted work to be performed twenty-four hourseach day while the Columbia is in space. Most of the experimentswere carried into orbit in the SPACEHAB research module. This large,round vehicle fits inside the Columbia’s cargo area.
VOICE TWO:
The SPACEHAB was designed as a very modern scientific vehicle. Itis two times the size of former scientific study areas carried bythe space shuttles.
This new size permits four members of Columbia’s crew to work inthe SPACEHAB at the same time. It also permits the shuttle crews tocarry larger and more difficult scientific experiments into space.The SPACEHAB vehicle also has new and improved life support systems.These include temperature controls and better control of theenvironment inside the shuttle.
The new SPACEHAB also carries new high-speed communicationsequipment. This permits scientists on Earth to better control andobserve the experiments. NASA says the new SPACEHAB laboratory meansthat new and exciting experiments can be done in space.
VOICE ONE:
Thousands of young students from six countries are closelywatching the experiments on Columbia. The students are part of theSpace Technology and Research Students program, called STARS.
This program permits experiments designed by students to be takeninto space on shuttle flights. Students worked for the past twoyears developing the experiments that were carried on Columbia.
These experiments were designed by students from the UnitedStates, Japan, China, Australia, Israel and Liechtenstein. Each ofthe students’ experiments needs to be done in space where there is alack of gravity.
For example, students in Japan believe that a small fish calledthe Medaka will develop faster in an environment with no gravity.They think this is true because the small fish would have to expendless energy to swim while in space.
Students from Australia called their experiment “Astrospiders inSpace.” They want to learn if a spider would build a different kindof web in space than it would on Earth. They want to learn if theshape and material of the web would be different because of a lackof gravity.
VOICE TWO:
Chinese students designed an experiment that tests the idea thatyoung silkworms, or larvae, would develop differently in anenvironment with no gravity. Students from the United Statesdesigned an experiment to see if ants would create tunnels moreslowly in space than on Earth. Students from Israel studied thegrowth and structure of crystal fibers developed within a chemical.They want to see if the fibers would grow differently with a lack ofgravity.
And, students from Liechtenstein designed an experiment withcarpenter bees. They want to learn if a lack of gravity would causeeating, working and social changes among the bees. Liechtenstein’sgovernment has been so excited about the experiment that they issueda special postage stamp to honor their students.
Results of the experiments are not expected until the studentsstudy the information collected in space.
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VOICE ONE:
NASA successfully placed two new satellites in orbit around theEarth on January twelfth. One is called the Ice, Cloud and LandElevation satellite, or ICESat. The other is the Cosmic HotInterstellar Spectrometer, called CHIPS. Both satellites werelaunched on the same rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base inCalifornia.
A NASA spokesman said the ICESat satellite will be carefullymoved to a height of six-hundred kilometers above the Earth to itsfinal orbital position. The ICESat satellite is the newest in aseries of satellites used to observe the Earth. ICESat will observethe increase or decrease in large areas of ice around the world. Itwill provide information about Earth’s climate system. It will alsoobserve climate change and changes in sea level.
VOICE TWO:
The CHIPS satellite will study the gas and dust in space.Scientists believe this gas and dust are the building materials thatmake up stars and planets. The CHIPS satellite weighs onlysixty-kilograms. It is about the size of a large suitcase. It willorbit above Earth at about five-hundred-ninety kilometers and isexpected to work for about one year.
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VOICE ONE:
Space scientists have discoveredthree new moons that orbit the planet Neptune, the eighth planetfrom the sun in our solar system. There are now eleven known moonsaround Neptune.
The discovery was announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The team of astronomerswas led by scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center and theNational Research Council of Canada.
Each moon is about thirty or forty kilometers around. Scientistsfound the moons by using two telescopes, one in Chile and one in theAmerican state of Hawaii.
VOICE TWO:
Another moon-like object is also in the news. NASA scientists saythe first space rock discovered to orbit the sun in almost the sameorbit as Earth came close to Earth this month. The space rock, orasteroid, was discovered about one year ago. It is called AsteroidTwo-Thousand-Two A-A-Two-Nine. The asteroid is only about sixtymeters across. It never comes closer to our planet thanfive-point-eight million kilometers.
However the asteroid is extremely unusual. It comes near Earth onone side and then escapes to travel along our planet’s orbit aroundthe sun. It then approaches Earth from the other side and then itgoes back again. It takes almost one-hundred years to make thistrip.
VOICE ONE:
Paul Chodas is a space scientist with NASA’s Jet PropulsionLaboratory in Pasadena, California. Mister Chodas discovered theasteroid’s unusual orbit. He says the Earth moves near the asteroid,and their combined gravity forces the asteroid to speed up and moveaway.
In ninety-five years, the asteroid will have traveled all the wayaround the orbit until it nears the Earth from behind. A similarreaction with gravity from both the Earth and sun will then push theasteroid back into a slower obit and the action will be repeated.Don Yeomans is the manager of NASA’s Near Earth Objects program. Hesays there is no danger of a crash between the Earth and theasteroid. He says the asteroid and Earth take turns moving towardeach other, but they never get too close.
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VOICE TWO:
And this space news story: President Bush has awarded theCongressional Space Medal of Honor to American astronaut WilliamShepherd. Mister Shepherd was the first astronaut to command a crewon the International Space Station.
As the commander of Expedition One, Mister Shepherd and the twoother members of his crew spent one-hundred-forty-one days in space.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written and produced by PaulThompson. This is Mary Tillotson.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.