
Unit 4 World News: Up in Space
Part I Warming up
A
1. To Mars / March of next year.
2. Because of a mechanical problem.
3. 5 males and 2 females.
4. NASA / At the end of September, 83 days after landing.
5. To return home at the Kennedy Space Center after completing repairs on the Hubble Telescope.
B
Mir Facts
15 years
the Soviet Union, now Russia
$ 4.2 billion (for building and maintaining)
10 years (1986 — 1996)
135 tons
9,900 cubic feet
63 feet wide and 85 feet long
104 cosmonauts, astronauts
46
438 days
747 days, three
Mar. 23rd,
Part II News reports
A
Summary :
… the smallest and most earth-like extra solar planet.
Answers to questions:
1.About a dozen.
2.Five times the mass of the earth.
3.A red dwarf.
4.Two.
5. One is similar to Neptune and the other is 8 times the mass of the earth.
B
Event : NASA’s 12-year program of Mars
• Starting time: 1996
• Finishing time: 2008
First installment:
• Names of spacecrafts: the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter / the Pathfinder Lander
• Arrival time: 1997
• Mission: To collect and analyze rocks
Second installment:
• Names of spacecrafts: 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.
Part III Returning to the Moon
Summary:
… UK’s possible collaboration with China on the Chang’e program.
Answers to the questions:
1. Four phases
2. a. robotic spacecraft
b. to return astronauts to the moon
c. to set up a permanent space station
3. Building of scientific instruments by UK
4. Five days
5. Thirteen days
