Date: 1-3-01
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Ray Freeman with the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell what the American space agency is planning for the future.
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VOICE ONE:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration has many plans for the year Two-Thousand-One and beyond. Some of the most important plans involve the International Space Station. Officials say this year at least six American space shuttles and one Russian Soyuz rocket will visit the International Space Station.
NASA plans a January Eighteenth launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis to begin the new year. It will be launched from Cape Canaveral in the southern state of Florida.
The Atlantis will carry the United States Destiny Laboratory into orbit. The crew of the Atlantis then will link the laboratory with the International Space Station.
The Destiny Laboratory is more than eight meters long and more than four meters around. It has a window that is fifty centimeters wide. This special window has been placed on one side of Destiny, near the center. It will permit members of the crew on the space station to see and take pictures of Earth and space.
VOICE TWO:
The Destiny Laboratory is made of a kind of aluminum. The inside is covered with a special material that is strong enough to stop a bullet. A second aluminum skin covers this material.
Destiny has three parts linked together with two end pieces. Each end piece is designed to be linked to future space station devices. The Destiny laboratory has separate areas for materials needed for many different scientific experiments. The laboratory will be launched with five different scientific experiments. Others will be taken to the laboratory later.
VOICE ONE:
In March, the Space Shuttle Discovery will take the second crew of the space station to their new home. They are Russian Cosmonaut Yury Usachev, and American Astronauts James Voss and Susan Helms. The shuttle Discovery will also return the first crew to Earth. They are American Astronaut Bill Shepherd, and Russian Cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko. The space shuttle will also take supplies and a special Italian built addition to the space station.
VOICE TWO:
The Italian part of the Space Station is named Leonardo. It is a cargo carrier. It will carry laboratory equipment, experiments and supplies. Leonardo will be taken into space inside the space shuttle.
Other shuttle trips to the International Space Station will take more parts and changes in crew. The last space shuttle flight of the year is planned for October. It will carry extra parts the crew members will use to repair the space station. By the end of the year, the space station will have grown. It will continue to expand in the future.
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VOICE ONE:
NASA plans an April Seventh launch this year of the another Mars Surveyor. It is called the Mars Surveyor Two-Thousand-One Orbiter. If it is launched as planned it will arrive at Mars to begin orbiting the planet on October Twentieth, Two-Thousand-One.
The Mars Surveyor Orbiter carries three special scientific instruments.
The first is called the Gamma Ray Spectrometer. It will seek information about what materials can be found on the surface of the planet. It will look for hydrogen on the surface and below the surface.
The Mars Surveyor Orbiter will also carry the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment. It will search for evidence of any possible radiation risk to human explorers.
The third instrument carried by the Mars Surveyor Two-Thousand-One Orbiter is the Thermal Emission Imaging System. It will seek and identify minerals of the Martian surface. It will do this with a special camera that provides extremely detailed pictures.
VOICE TWO:
Last year, NASA officials announced the agency's future plans for the exploration of Mars. NASA scientists say the most exciting plan is to send two new devices to the planet Mars.
The devices are being built now and will make the long space flight in Two-Thousand-Three. The two devices are robots on wheels that will explore the planet. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California, will control them.
The first of the devices is to be launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on May Twenty-Second, Two Thousand Three. After a seven and one half month trip, it should enter the Martian atmosphere January Second, Two-Thousand-Four.
The second device will be launched from Cape Canaveral on June Fourth, Two-Thousand-Three. It should land on the Martian surface the following January Twentieth.
VOICE ONE:
The new robots on wheels will be very different from anything that has been sent to Mars in the past. They will be able to travel up to one-hundred meters across the surface each day.
They will carry several scientific instruments that will permit them to search for evidence of liquid water.
Scientists say recent evidence shows that a lot of water may have been present on Mars in the past. The new Mars exploration vehicles will carry many instruments, including five that will be used to study rocks and soil. One instrument can remove the surface of a rock so the inside can be studied. It is strong enough to break smaller rocks to inspect their insides.
The robots on wheels will be exactly the same. Each will weigh about one-hundred fifty kilograms. Each will have ten cameras. The vehicles will be able to work for about ninety days. They may be able to continue much longer depending on how well they survive conditions on Mars. They are to land in very different areas of the planet.
VOICE TWO:
Jim Garvin is a Mars program scientist at NASA Headquarters. He says these robots on wheels will permit scientists to learn about the past history of Mars.
The vehicles also will help scientists discover where to look for evidence of life on the planet. Mr. Garvin says the new program is the most important step in NASA's Mars exploration program.
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VOICE ONE:
The NASA spacecraft Cassini passed the planet Jupiter on December Thirtieth. It was more than nine million kilometers from the huge planet.
As it neared Jupiter, Cassini's cameras began taking color pictures and movies of the huge planet. These pictures already have been sent back to Earth. If you have a computer, you can now see Jupiter on the World Wide Web. You can see changes in some of the planet's storms. And you can hear sounds of the energy produced in the storms. Have your computer search for W-W-W dot J-P-L dot N-A-S-A dot G-O-V.
VOICE TWO:
Cassini is using the gravity of Jupiter to help gain speed. This will help it finish its trip to Saturn. The Cassini spacecraft is to reach Saturn in July, Two-Thousand-Four.
Cassini is a cooperative effort of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.
VOICE ONE:
NASA's Galileo spacecraft celebrated an anniversary on December Seventh. It completed its fifth year of orbiting Jupiter. It has made twenty-eight orbits around the huge planet. It is continuing to send to Earth new and exciting information about Jupiter and its moons.
The Galileo spacecraft has also flown through more than three times the amount of harmful radiation than it was designed to survive. Its ability to survive radiation is being tested again.
VOICE TWO:
Galileo is now moving close to Jupiter again. It is making a fourteen-week study of the magnetosphere around the planet. The magnetosphere is a huge area of magnetic force that surrounds Jupiter. It contains dangerous radiation.
The study is part of a research effort that includes the Cassini spacecraft as it flies past Jupiter. Both spacecraft will collect information but from different areas of space.
NASA scientists say the radiation near Jupiter has damaged some of Galileo's instruments. Most of the damage happened when Galileo flew close to Jupiter's moon, Io. It made those trips in Nineteen-Ninety-Nine and Two-Thousand.
Jim Erickson is the project manager for the Galileo spacecraft. He says the spacecraft is suffering from what he calls battle damage. Yet, Mr. Erickson says, Galileo continues to collect valuable scientific information.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. The studio engineer was Holly Capehart. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Ray Freeman. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.