Date: 2-21-01
EXPLORATIONS #1940 - Space Digest
By Paul ThompsonVOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today, we tell about a new NASA space science command center. We tell about the linking of the American space vehicle Destiny with the International Space Station. And we tell about NASA's successful attempt to land a spacecraft on a large rock, far away in space.
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VOICE ONE:
NASA has successfully landed a small spacecraft on a space rock three-hundred-fifteen million kilometers from Earth. The small spacecraft is called the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Shoemaker spacecraft � or NEAR.
The small NEAR spacecraft landed last Monday on the asteroid called Eros.
NEAR continued to send back pictures and radar information as it began to move closer to Eros. NASA scientists say the pictures were ten times better than all the other information they received earlier from NEAR. The last picture sent from NEAR was from about one-hundred-sixty meters above Eros.
NASA officials say they expected the NEAR spacecraft to be destroyed when it crashed. But, they say, it made a soft landing on the rock and is still sending back information. They say the radio signals are weak but can still be heard.
VOICE TWO:
NEAR was not designed to make a landing. It has no landing equipment or devices. Yet NASA decided that having the space vehicle fly extremely close to the asteroid and try to land would provide useful information. The un-planned landing would also help NASA scientists train for landings for future space fights to other small objects in space.
Robert Farquhar is head of the NEAR project at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland. He said the flight down to the surface of EROS took about four hours. He said he was extremely happy with the results.
VOICE ONE:
The NEAR spacecraft began its orbit around Eros a year ago in February. It used cameras, radar and a special laser device to gather information about Eros. It sent back more than one-hundred-sixty-thousand pictures of Eros. This is about ten times the amount of information that NASA thought the small spacecraft could provide.
The asteroid Eros is an object about thirty-three kilometers long. Its surface is covered in large rocks. NASA sent the NEAR spacecraft to Eros to learn more about asteroids. Scientists say these asteroids are small objects that remained when our solar system was created.
Scientists say they want to study asteroids because they may threaten Earth in the future. They say it may help to know about the structure of asteroids. This information would be useful if NASA ever had to make plans to move an asteroid from its path or destroy it to protect Earth.
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VOICE TWO:
The first laboratory has been connected to the International Space Station. The American Space Shuttle Atlantis was launched from the Kennedy Space Center Wednesday, February Seventh. It carried the new laboratory, Destiny, to the space station which is orbiting Earth. Destiny is the first of six space laboratories that will be launched and added to the space station.
The five crew members of Atlantis used the space shuttle's huge mechanical arm to take the laboratory out of the shuttle. The arm carefully moved Destiny to a linking device on the International Space Station.
Two members of the Atlantis crew put on protective clothing. They left the shuttle and moved out into space to complete work on the link. They also attached electrical power equipment and other devices. The two astronauts also placed a device on one end of the laboratory that permits future shuttle flights to link with it. The two astronauts went into space three times before all the work outside the spacecraft was complete.
VOICE ONE:
The doors of the Destiny laboratory were opened as soon as was possible. The commander of the International Space Station, Bill Shepherd and the commander of the space shuttle Atlantis, Kenneth Cockrell, met inside the new laboratory and shook hands.
Crew members immediately began to remove the protective coverings inside Destiny. The covers protected Destiny's equipment during the flight. One of the coverings had many names written on it. The names are from the people who prepared Destiny for flight. The cover was also had printed on it, "Dreams are like stars; You choose them as your guides, and following them, you reach your Destiny.
Atlantis Astronaut Marsha Ivins promised to bring the signed cover back to Cape Canaveral for visitors to see.
VOICE TWO:
Destiny will become the command and control center for the International Space Station as soon as several tests are completed. These tests will make sure all of its equipment is working correctly.
The new space laboratory has special equipment that coordinates electrical power. It has equipment for cooling water. It has equipment that cleans the Space Station air of harmful elements, and controls the Station's temperature.
VOICE ONE:
Destiny was built by the Boeing Company at the Marshall Space flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. It is made of special aluminum metal.
Destiny Laboratory is more than eight meters long and four meters around. It is linked to the space station on one end. It also has the necessary equipment to link it to another piece of the space station that will be added in the future. With the new Destiny laboratory, the International Space Station is now fifty-two meters long.
The laboratory also has a more than fifty centimeter round window. Space Station crew members will be able to look out the window and take pictures of Earth and space.
VOICE TWO:
Destiny is designed to provide astronauts in the future with materials for different scientific experiments. Research is expected to begin next month when the equipment and materials for some of these experiments will arrive at the space station laboratory. Scientists from around the world will use the results of these and future experiments in their work.
The crew members on the International Space Station will use Destiny's science laboratory to study the effects of the very low gravity of space. They will do experiments in medicine, biotechnology, physics, materials science, human life science, space science and ecology.
NASA officials say the results of these experiments will permit scientists to better understand the effects of weightlessness on humans and materials. It will also permit the space agency to prepare for future space flights � perhaps back to the moon and to Mars.
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VOICE ONE:
NASA says it has established a new Space Station Science Command Center. The center is now part of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The science command center will link researchers on Earth with their science experiments and with astronauts on the International Space Station.
Ceremonies to open the new center were held February Second. Art Stephenson is the director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. He says the International Space Station and the new center are a step toward a long held dream�a permanent international research station in orbit about the Earth.
VOICE TWO:
The new center is in a large building. Between thirteen and nineteen flight controllers will be working there, twenty-four hours each day. The center will provide support for as long as the International Space Station exists. The center will coordinate and control research efforts and plan the station's science experiments.
The flight controllers in the center will observe and provide for the safety needs of the astronauts and experiments. The center's flight controllers will also plan the future use of the space station.
Art Stephenson says the new center at Huntsville will control the research that can only be done in space. He says it is hoped that this research can lead to knowledge that will help all people on Earth.
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VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written and produced by Paul Thompson. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Shirley Griffith. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.
Source: www.voa.gov/special/