|
36 宇宙空间文摘
DATE=6-13-01
TITLE=EXPLORATIONS #1956 - Space Digest
BYLINE=Paul Thompson
VOICE ONE:
This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Sarah Long with the VOA Special English program EXPLORATIONS. Today we tell about experiments to grow special plants on Mars. We describe a new book to help blind people touch the far places of the universe. We tell about the planned (1)launch of the (2)Genesis (3)spacecraft to (4)capture part of the Sun. And we tell about the long silent Pioneer Ten spacecraft.
((THEME))
VOICE ONE:
(5) NASA scientists say they have sent and received radio messages from the Pioneer Ten Spacecraft. Pioneer Ten was launched twenty-nine years ago on March Second, Nineteen-Seventy-Two. It is now more than eleven-thousand-million kilometers from Earth.
Pioneer Ten was the first spacecraft to pass through a huge area of space rocks called the (6) asteroid (7)belt. It was also the first to take close pictures of the planet (8)Jupiter. In Nineteen-Eighty-Three, Pioneer Ten became the first human made object to leave our (9)solar system. It did this when it passed beyond the (10) orbit of the planet (11) Pluto.
VOICE TWO:
Larry Lasher is the Pioneer Ten Project Manager for NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, (12)California. Mister Lasher said NASA scientists had been listening without success for a radio signal from Pioneer Ten for eight months. He said they are very excited to know that Pioneer Ten still can (13)communicate with Earth.
Mister Lasher said NASA engineers decided the only way to get a signal from the spacecraft was to send a message and wait for an answer. He said Pioneer received the message and answered with a very weak signal.
Radio messages to the spacecraft were sent from a special radio telescope in (14)Madrid, Spain. Pioneer Ten is so far away that radio signals traveling at the speed of light still took almost twenty-four hours to reach the spacecraft and return.
VOICE ONE:
NASA scientists who built Pioneer Ten knew it would pass out of our solar system and into the far reaches of space. They placed pictures of a man and a woman on the spacecraft. They also placed (15)information about Earth and recordings of human voices and the sounds of animals.
Pioneer Ten is traveling toward the (16) constellation (17) Taurus at almost forty-five thousand kilometers an hour. It will pass the nearest star in about two-million years.
(((MUSIC BRIDGE)))
VOICE TWO:
NASA expects to launch a new spacecraft called Genesis on July Thirtieth. The spacecraft recently arrived at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Lockheed Martin (18)Astronautics Company built it in the western city of (19)Denver, (20)Colorado.
Genesis is designed to travel into space and capture small pieces of the Sun. It will do this by (21)seizing small pieces of matter called (22)ions and elements it finds in the (23)solar wind. Solar wind flows into space in all directions from the sun.
The solar wind carries matter released from the sun's surface and pushes it far into space. Scientists hope to study the matter after Genesis returns to Earth. They hope to learn more about the sun and the materials in it.
Scientists say that will give them a better idea of how our solar system was formed.
VOICE ONE:
Genesis will be launched from a Boeing Delta Two (24)rocket from Cape Canaveral. It will be aimed at a place in the solar system called "L- One." This is a special place or path that will (25)permit the spacecraft to use less than normal (26)amounts of fuel. It will also be beyond Earth's (27) magnetic influence.
The Genesis spacecraft will remain at "L- One"for two years. After arriving, it will open up and spread out a special collection device. The device will permit it to collect material from the sun that is carried by the solar wind.
Genesis will return to Earth with its captured material in Two-Thousand-Four. The space matter will return to Earth in a small (28)container called a (29) capsule. Scientists do not want the capsule to touch anything on Earth. They want the space matter in it to (30) remain (31)pure and not mix with matter on Earth.
To prevent this, the capsule will come down through the atmosphere by (32) parachute. As it nears Earth, specially trained (33)pilots will fly in (34) helicopters to catch the parachute in the air. This will take place several thousand meters above the western state of (35)Utah.
VOICE TWO:
Scientists will open the capsule in a box that is (36)extremely clean. Then special tools will help the scientists (37)identify the chemicals found in the sun.
The space material will be kept at the Johnson Space Flight Center near Houston, (38)Texas. Scientists will be able to study it in a special clean room.
(((MUSIC BRIDGE)))
VOICE ONE:
For the past ten years, the (39) Hubble Space Telescope has provided beautiful and exciting pictures of objects in deep space. It will continue to do so in the future.
NASA has provided a place on the World Wide Web part of the Internet computer system so everyone can enjoy these unusual pictures.
Now, NASA has helped develop a book with many of these same pictures for people who are blind or have extremely poor eyesight. The new publication is called "Touch the Universe: A NASA (40) Braille Book of (41)Astronomy."
The book's pictures are made so they can be touched and felt. This method is called Braille. Braille is a way blind people are able to read and write.
VOICE TWO:
The book was the idea of Bernhard Beck-Winchatz. He is a scientist and teacher at DePaul University in the Middle Western City of (42)Chicago, (43)Illinois.
Scientist and writer Noreen Grice of Boston also helped produce the book. Mizz Grice developed a way to add a raised surface to each picture to permit a blind person to feel what the (44)Hubble picture looks like.
Each of the Braille pictures was sent to the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind. Students there felt each picture and provided important suggestions for changes.
VOICE ONE:
The book is designed for students from age ten years and older and (45)adults. Four hundred copies will be published at first. The book will sell for just a little more than the cost of publishing it. Money earned from the sale of "Touch the Universe"will be used to publish more copies of the book. The book was developed as part of an education program that is linked to the Hubble Space Telescope project.
(((MUSIC BRIDGE)))
VOICE TWO:
A very unusual plant may be the first living thing from Earth to settle on the planet (46)Mars. Rob Ferl developed this new kind of plant. He is a scientist at the University of Florida. His plant will be able to communicate problems to scientists here on Earth. Mister Ferl calls his creation "a reporter (47)gene plant." NASA says Mister Ferl's plant could fly on a spacecraft to Mars in Two-Thousand-Seven. More than forty of his plants have already flown successfully on a space shuttle flight.
VOICE ONE:
NASA plans to send several different kinds of plants to Mars. It hopes one of these plants will be the kind created by Mister Ferl.
Mister Ferl's reporter gene plants communicate by becoming a different color of green. They shine with a soft green light. The plant can do this because Mister Ferl has linked the genes of an ocean (48) jellyfish with the genes of a (49) mustard plant. In the ocean, this jellyfish responds to problems by turning green. Mister Ferl says the jellyfish genes in the plant will mean the plant shines with a green light to communicate a problem.
VOICE TWO:
Mister Ferl hopes the plant will be able to report different conditions on Mars. For example a lack of (50)oxygen will cause one kind of these plants to shine green. Another plant will show its green light when there is lack of water. Special cameras will record the plants that shine and send that information back to Earth.
Mister Ferl says plants are really very much like humans. Plants can learn to live in many different (51)environments. On Mars, the plants may find extreme temperatures and low air pressure. Mister Ferl says creating plants that can communicate these kinds of problems will help future explorers plan for and (52)survive their experience on Mars.
VOICE ONE:
Future explorers on Mars will need oxygen, food and pure water. Learning to grow plants on the distant planet will be an important first step before humans can live there
NASA says plants grown on Mars will become part of a (53)process called a "Bioregenerative"life support system. This means a system in which humans, plants, and extremely small organisms called (54)microbes work together in a system that renews itself.
VOICE TWO:
This is how a "Bioregenerative"life support system might work. Plants take in the (55)carbon dioxide that people breathe out and release it as air that people can breathe in. People also use the plants for food. Human waste is treated by the microbes and then used to help new plants grow.
Any life support system the planet will probably involve growing crop plants in (56)Martian soil. Scientists say the special plants being tested now may help humans survive on Mars.
(((THEME)))
VOICE ONE:
This Special English program was written Paul Thompson. It was directed by Cynthia Kirk. Our studio engineer was Keith Holmes. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another EXPLORATIONS program on the Voice of America.
(1) launch [ lC:ntF, lB:ntF ]n.发射
(2) genesis [ 5dVenisis ]n.起源
(3) spacecraft [ 5speiskrB:ft ]n.太空船
(4) capture [ 5kAptFE ]vt.俘获, 捕获, 夺取
(5) NASA [5nAsE]abbr.National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(美国)国家航空和宇宙航行局
(6) asteroid [ 5AstErCid ]n.[天文]小游星, 小行星, 海盘车
(7) belt [ belt ]n. 地带
(8) Jupiter [ 5dVu:pitE ]n.木星
(9) solar system n.[天] 太阳系
(10) orbit [ 5C:bit ]n.轨道
(11) Pluto [ 5plu:tEu ]n.冥王星, 阴间之神
(12) California [ kAli5fC:njE ]n.加利福尼亚, 加州
(13) communicate [ kE5mju:nikeit ]v.通信
(14) Madrid [ mE5drid ]n.马德里(西班牙首都)
(15) information [ 7infE5meiFEn ]n.消息,信息
(16) constellation [ kCnstE5leiFEn ]n.[天]星群, 星座, 灿烂的一群
(17) Taurus [ 5tC:rEs ]n.金牛座, (占星术中)金牛宫
(18) astronautics [AstrE5nC:tIks]n.太空航空学
(19) Denver [ 5denvE ]n.丹佛(美国科罗拉多州首府)
(20) Colorado [ 7kClE5rB:dEu ]美国科罗拉多州(位于美国西部)
(21) seizing [ 5si:ziN ]n.抓, 夺
(22) ion [ 5aiEn ]n.离子
(23) solar wind n.太阳风
(24) rocket [ 5rCkit ]n.火箭
(25) permit [ pE(:)5mit ]v.允许, 准许
(26) amount [ E5maunt ]n.数量
(27) magnetic influence n. 磁影响
(28) container [ kEn5teinE ]n.容器
(29) capsule [ 5kApsju:l ]n.太空舱
(30) remain [ ri5mein ]vi.保持
(31) pure [ pjuE ]adj.纯净的
(32) parachute [ 5pArEFu:t ]n.降落伞
(33) pilot [ 5pailEt ]n.飞行员
(34) helicopter [ 5helikCptE ]n.直升(飞)机, 直升机
(35) Utah [ 5ju:tB:]n.犹他州(略作Ut.,UT)
(36) extremely [ iks5tri:mli ]adv.极端地, 非常地
(37) identify [ ai5dentifai ]vt.识别, 鉴别
(38) Texas [ 5teksEs ]n.德克萨斯州(美国州名)
(39) Hubble Space Telescope n.哈勃空间望远镜
(40) Braille [ breil ]n.盲人用点字法
(41) astronomy [E5strRnEmI]n.天文学
(42) Chicago [ Fi5kB:^Eu ]n.芝加哥（美国中西部一大城市）
(43) Illinois [ 7ili5nCi(z) ]n.伊利诺斯州(美国州名)
(44) Hubble [ 5hQbl ]哈勃(姓氏)
(45) adult [ E5dQlt, 5AdQlt ]n.成人, 成年人
(46) Mars [ mB:z ]n.火星
(47) gene [ dVi:n ] n.[遗传]因子, [遗传]基因
(48) jellyfish [5dVelIfIF]n.水母
(49) mustard [ 5mQstEd ]n.芥菜
(50) oxygen [ 5CksidVEn ]n.[化]氧
(51) environment [ in5vaiErEnmEnt ]n.环境, 外界
(52) survive [ sE5vaiv ]v.幸免于, 幸存
(53) process [ prE5ses ]n.步骤
(54) microbe [5maIkrEJb]n.微生物, 细菌
(55) carbon dioxide n.[化]二氧化碳
(56) Martian [ 5mB:FiEn ]adj.火星的
|