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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember withExplorations in VOA Special English. Today we tell the latest newsfrom the International Space Station. We tell about new evidence ofa black hole, one of the most powerful objects in space. We reportabout problems that must be solved before people can be sent to theplanet Mars. We begin our report with news about the two vehiclesthat are now exploring that planet.
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VOICE ONE:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has set a newrecord. On February nineteenth, NASA reported it had received morethan six-thousand-million “hits” to its Internet Web site. A hit isrecorded for every piece of information a computer user receivesfrom a Web site. All of these hits were to see the NASA photographstaken by the two Mars exploration vehicles, Spirit and Opportunity.
Glenn Mahone is the assistant administrator for NASA. He saysthis huge number of hits makes this the biggest Internet event inthe history of the United States government. Mister Mahone says itcould be the biggest single Internet event in history by the timethe Mars rovers’ ninety-day exploration is completed.
VOICE TWO:
NASA says its Web sites have recorded at least one hit for everyperson on Earth since the first rover landed on Mars at thebeginning of January. Public excitement about the Mars explorationwas immediate. NASA says there were two-hundred-twenty-five-millionhits within the first twenty-four hours after Spirit landed. NASAsays the huge number does not really represent that many computers.
NASA officials say they believe about fifty-million individualcomputer users around the world have linked with NASA many, manytimes. Some of the computer users move from page to page withinNASA’s Internet Web site. Each of these movements counts as a hit.That is the reason the number of hits is so large. NASA says manypeople are following the daily progress of the two rover vehicleswith the aid of the Internet.
VOICE ONE:
What are all of these people seeing on the Internet? They areseeing the thousands of photographs taken by the two vehicles. And,they are reading the reports NASA releases about the explorationrovers.
For example, a recent photograph shows Spirit’s mechanical armlowered into a long hole the rover dug in the surface of Mars.Scientific instruments on the arm are inspecting soil and rocks.
The Opportunity rover is doing similar work on the other side ofthe planet. It is also inspecting soil. It has found strong evidencethat water may have been extremely important in the ancient historyof Mars.
If you would like to follow the progress of the two vehicles andcan link with the Internet, type the letters WWW.NASA.GOV and followthe links that are provided.
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All the recent excitement about Mars has again raised thequestion: When will people be able to visit the Red Planet? NASAscientists are working on one of the major problems that must besolved before such a trip can take place. The problem is the extremeamounts of radiation in deep space.
Frank Cucinotta works with NASA’s Space Radiation Health Projectat the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. Mister Cucinotta saysscientists know how much radiation is out in space. However, theyare not sure how it will affect the human body.
NASA measures radiation danger in amounts that create a risk ofcausing cancer. For example, a healthy forty-year-old American manhas a twenty percent chance of dying from cancer.
That is the risk for a man who stays on Earth. The risk increasesif he travels to Mars. The main problem is that scientists do notknow how much the risk increases.
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Mister Cucinotta says the risk for women is even greater becausefemale breasts and ovaries can be harmed by radiation. He says therisk of cancer is almost two times greater for women than for men.
Mister Cucinotta says NASA does not want to send astronauts toMars and have them come home only to die of cancer. He says theSpace Radiation Health Project is working on different methods toprotect astronauts while they make the long trip to Mars. He saysexperiments with some kinds of plastics show they offer betterprotection from radiation than the metal aluminum that is found inspacecraft.
Mister Cucinotta says the Health Project is working with a verylight and strong plastic that provides twenty percent more radiationprotection than aluminum. He says plastic could become the choicefor building a space craft that will go to Mars.
Mister Cucinotta believes that people can travel safely to Marssometime in the future. He says scientists must find out how muchradiation our bodies can stand and what kind of spacecraft we needto build.
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VOICE TWO:
Scientists have long suspectedthat one of the most powerful objects in space is a black hole.Black holes create huge amounts of gravity. The gravity produced bya black hole is so strong it can even capture light. Black holespull everything into them. Recently, NASA experts releasedinformation and a photograph that shows a black hole slowlydestroying a star.
The powerful gravity of the black hole is tearing the star apart.Observations from two x-ray telescopes show evidence of this.
VOICE ONE:
The telescopes are NASA’s Chandra and the European Space Agency’sX-M-M-Newton X-Ray. They were combined with earlier images from theGerman Roentgen Satellite. Scientists have been observing the blackhole for more than ten years.
Stefanie Komossa works at the Max Planck Institute forExtraterrestrial Physics in Germany. She is the leader of aninternational team of researchers. Mizz Komossa says stars can bendor be stretched a small amount. However, evidence shows this starhas been stretched so far it is now breaking apart. She says thestar moved too close to the black hole.Scientists say the black holethey are observing has a mass of about one-hundred-million timesthat of the Sun. They believe the star that was destroyed was aboutthe same size as the Sun. The black hole and the star are in agalaxy about seven-hundred-million light years away from Earth.
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VOICE TWO:
Last week, for the first time,both crewmembers of the International Space Station left the safetyof their home. After preparing their safety equipment, AmericanAstronaut Michael Foale and Russian Cosmonaut Alexander Kaleriopened the door and stepped into space.
This was the first time there was no crewmember inside who couldtake immediate action if equipment inside the station failed.
The two crewmembers were expected to spend about six hoursworking outside of the space station. However about half-waythrough, Russian Cosmonaut Kaleri reported a problem with his spacesuit. At first he said he was becoming very warm.
Then he told Russian Mission Control in Moscow, “It is amazing. Ihave rain inside the helmet.” Russian space officials called a haltto the spacewalk and ordered both men back inside the Space Station.
VOICE ONE:
The spacesuit’s cooling system caused the problem. The system issupposed to take water out of the atmosphere of the suit. It failed.Once back inside
the Space Station, the two crewmen inspected the spacesuit.
The men quickly discovered a bend in the tube that provides waterto cool the suit in the area of the stomach. Cosmonaut Kaleristraightened the tube and it began working correctly.The two crewmenwere able to complete about half the planned work before theyreturned to the Space Station. They replaced devices that study thelack of normal gravity. They placed a special device which willprovide information on how radiation affects the human body duringspace flight.
They also worked with several devices that are part of anexperiment by the Japanese Aerospace and Exploration Agency. Thisexperiment studies the effect of small meteors hitting the researchdevice. The work they were unable to complete may be performed inthe future.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It wasproduced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.