Unit 1 World News Up in Space
Part I Warming up
1. Endeavor has docked with the ISS. What for? To provide electricity for science experiments When will the U.S. laboratory arrive? Next month
2. What does ISS have now? A living room and a command center 3. What has been declared by NASA?
Pathfinder's 30-day mission on Mars is a 100 percent success. 4. Who has given up its hope of reviving Pathfinder? NASA
When did Pathfinder make its last transmission of scientific data from Mars? At the end of September, 83 days after its landing
5. Why is Galileo heading for another pass by Jupiter's moon IO on Thursday? To get a closer look at the most volcanic body in solar system 6. What is the daunting task for the crew of Atlantis?
To deliver NASA's $1.4 billion space lab Destiny to the International Space Station 7. What is the purpose of the experiments conducted by astronauts on Columbia? To confirm a theory that particles in space tend to attract each other and form dust clouds
8. What is Endeavor preparing to do on Monday?
To return home at the Kennedy Space Center after completing repairs on the Hubble Telescope
9. Why has Columbia returned to Earth after an abbreviated stay in space? Because of a mechanical problem
10. What is Discovery doing now? And its crew?
Discovery is playing chase with the Hubble Telescope now.
Its crew is setting up housekeeping and recovering from the effects of weightlessness.
Typescripts:
1. U.S. space shuttle Endeavor has docked with the International Space Station, bearing a gift of energy. The five-man shuttle team arrived to add a set of giant solar power panels to Unity to provide electricity for science experiments that will begin soon after the U.S. laboratory arrives next month.
2. The International Space Station finally has a living room and a command center. The Russian Zvezda module docked earlier today with the fledgling outpost, which is being assembled in space. After a checkout period, it will be ready for the first crew to live in later this year.
3. The U.S. Space Agency NASA has declared its Pathfinder spacecraft mission to Mars a 100 percent success. This week the Pathfinder completed its 30-day planned mission on Mars. A U.S. space official says this spacecraft has fulfilled all its objectives.
4. The United States Space Agency NASA says it's given up any real hope of reviving its space probe on Mars. The spacecraft Pathfinder made its last transmission of scientific data from the surface of Mars at the end of September, 83 days after landing. 5. The U. S. Galileo spacecraft is heading for another pass by Jupiter's fiery moon IO Thursday to get a closer look at the most volcanic body in our solar system. A pass just 600 kilometers away last month has provided a better understanding of just how active it is.
6. It could be a mission-impossible-type assignment for the crew of the space shuttle Atlantis. They've got the daunting task of delivering NASA's $1.4 billion space lab Destiny to the International Space Station. If they pull it off, the 15-ton lab will put NASA's flight controllers in charge. Until now Russian controllers have directed operations at the station.
7. Astronauts on the U. S. space shuttle Columbia have conducted experiments to confirm a theory that particles in space tend to attract each other and form dust clouds. 8. The U.S. space shuttle Endeavor is preparing to return home in triumph after completing repairs on the Hubble Telescope. The Endeavor's scheduled to land Monday at the Kennedy Space Center on Florida's Atlantic coast, returning to the site
where the mission began eleven days ago.
9. The U.S. space shuttle Columbia has returned to Earth after an abbreviated stay in space because of a mechanical problem. The Space Agency ordered the shuttle back to Earth after one of the three power generators failed Sunday. The generators called \space ship to return to Earth if any fuel cell fails.
10. Discovery is playing chase with the Hubble Space Telescope right now. The shuttle launch was nearly perfect according to mission managers, and the crew of seven astronauts is setting up housekeeping and recovering from the effects of weightlessness. Part II News reports
Event: NASA's 12-year program of Mars --Starting time: 1996 --Finishing time: 2008 First installment:
n Names of spacecraft: the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter / the Pathfinder Lander Arrival time: 1997
Mission: To collect and analyze rocks Second installment:
-- Names of spacecraft: the Polar Lander / the Mars Climate Orbiter Launch time: December Arrival time: Next December Mission:
a. To inspect for subsurface water
b. To measure the distribution of water vapor, dust and condensates Grand finale: -- Launch time: 2005 -- Return time: 2008
-- Mission: To return soil and rock samples to Earth Tapescript:
Of all the U.S. and Russian spacecraft that have traveled to Mars since the 1960s, the Polar Lander is to be the first to touch down near the planet's south pole. The Lander and a companion orbiting craft called the Mars Climate Orbiter, launched in December, are the second installment of a 12-year NASA program (began in 1996) to unlock the secrets of Earth's red neighbor.
The first installment the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter and the Pathfinder Lander -- arrived in 1997, with Pathfinder's robotic rover collecting and analyzing rocks on a desert about half a world away from the polar landing site.
The Lander is to touch down just above the northern-most edge of the south polar ice cap, believed to be a mixture of water and carbon dioxide.
It will use retrorockets to slow its descent. Once on the ground it will employ a robotic arm resembling a child's toy construction shovel to dig in search of subsurface water. Together with the newest orbiter now on its way to Mars, the Lander will also measure the distribution of water vapor, dust and condensates in the Martian atmosphere.
While the Polar Lander descends next December, it is to release two speeding probes, each smaller than a basketball. These rugged instruments are to crash at about 640 kilometers per hour and bury themselves into the Martian surface about 100
kilometers away from the Lander's touch-down point. They, too, will be inspecting for subsurface water.
The grand finale of this series of Mars probes is tentatively set for launch in 2005. It would return soil and rock samples to Earth three years later. Summary:
This news report tells us that an ailing observatory, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, has been forced to fall from its orbit and crash into a remote area in the Pacific Ocean to avoid deaths and injuries from the falling debris. Answers to the questions: 1. 9 years 2. 16 metric tons 3. 6 tons
4. About 4,000 kilometers southeast of Hawaii 5. 4,100 kilometers long and 26 kilometers wide
6. Because one of its three stabilizing gyroscopes had failed in December
7. It changed astronomers' view of the heavens after showing that the entire universe is bathed in the invisible gamma rays. Tapescript.
Space Agency NASA forced an ailing observatory to fall from orbit and crash into the Pacific Ocean on Sunday. NASA engineers picked a remote spot to avoid deaths and injuries from the falling debris.
NASA says the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory has made a fiery plunge through the atmosphere into an isolated area of the Pacific.
Most of the nine-year-old satellite was to have burned up in the dive, but about six tons of hot metal were expected to have showered onto an isolated area about four thousand kilometers southeast of Hawaii. NASA had estimated that the debris would scatter over a long, narrow path 41 hundred kilometers long and 26 kilometers wide. The deliberate crash came after Goddard Space Flight Center technicians directed the observatory early Sunday to fire its thrusters twice to dive into the atmosphere. NASA felt this was necessary because one of the Compton's three stabilizing gyroscopes had failed in December. The Space Agency decided to bring the 16-metric-ton satellite back now in a controlled manner to prevent possible further system failures from causing it to drop on a populated area. The Compton's path took it over many populated areas, including Mexico City, Bangkok, and Miami. Compton exceeded its original five-year mission by four years, resulting in about two thousand scientific papers.
The observatory changed astronomers' view of the heavens after showing that the entire universe is bathed in the invisible gamma rays, the highest energy form of light. It discovered hundreds of previously unknown sources of gamma rays, some streaming from black holes, exploding stars, and the sun. Questions:
1. How old is the Compton?
