2004-1-27
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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with
EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Two new American exploration
vehicles are now on the surface of the planet Mars. Today we begin a
two-part program about Mars and efforts to explore it. We will tell
about the history of human interest in the Red Planet. And we will
tell about the two new rovers that are exploring and taking pictures
of Mars.
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VOICE ONE:
The United States successfully landed the first of two
exploration vehicles on Mars on January third. The device is named
"Spirit." It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called the
Gusev Crater.
Exactly three weeks later, a
similar exploration rover named "Opportunity" landed almost half-way
around the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum.
American space agency scientists say both devices have sent back
exciting information. They also say Spirit has experienced some
communications problems. The scientists say they believe they can
repair most of these problems. NASA officials say the Opportunity
rover made a near perfect landing and is communicating normally.
Before the rovers landed on Mars, NASA announced that anyone who
could link with the Internet communications system could see new
photographs taken by the rovers. NASA said the photographs would
show more detail and be clearer than any photographs ever taken of
Mars.
VOICE TWO:
NASA began placing the first black and white photographs on its
Internet Web site the same day they were sent by Spirit. During four
days, more than ten-million computer users had linked with NASA's
Web site to see the photographs. The Web site had more than
one-thousand-million hits.
People from around the world
copied more than one-hundred-fifty-million pages of photographs and
information sent from the new device on the Martian surface.
Internet users also linked with NASA's Internet television
broadcasts. More than two-hundred-fifty-thousand people watched some
of the television broadcasts of activities in NASA's explorer
control area.
More than forty-eight-thousand people watched NASA's broadcast of
the landing of Spirit, the first of the two exploration rovers.
Millions more watched the successful landing of Opportunity. And
they copied millions of pages of photographs and information about
Meridiani Planum.
Charles Elachi is the director of NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He said: "The wonders of space
are now as close as your computer." He added: "Who knows how many
children will see these photographs and decide to study science or
engineering because of the trip to Mars they took with the aid of
our computer link?"
If your computer can link with the Internet communications
system, you can see these photographs and many more. Just ask your
computer to search for the words MARS ROVER. M-A-R-S R-O-V-E-R.
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VOICE ONE:
Mars -- the Red Planet of the night sky. Mars -- the fourth
planet from our Sun and the first beyond Earth's orbit. Mars has
always excited the human imagination. It is the only planet that is
similar to Earth. It is the only planet whose surface can be seen
from Earth.
The ancient Romans named the planet Mars. The ancient Romans'
religion taught that Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus. They
are the two brothers who Romans believed first began the city of
Rome.
At first the Romans believed Mars was a god of agriculture. The
Roman calendar began with the month of March in honor of Mars. March
was the month of planting crops and growing. Later, Mars became the
red god of war. Roman soldiers prayed to Mars for success in battle.
VOICE TWO:
Later, other people studied the red planet with great interest.
In 1877, Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli studied Mars
through a telescope. He saw long lines on the surface of the planet
that seemed to connect in different areas. He called these lines
"canali." The word "canali" in Italian means both canal and channel.
American astronomer Percival Lowell watched Mars from a huge
telescope in the southwestern state of Arizona. He published a book
in nineteen-oh-eight that said the canals were dug to carry water to
crops. He said intelligent people dug the canals. Other scientists
said this was not true. The argument continued for many years.
VOICE ONE:
The idea about possible life on Mars was the subject of several
imaginary stories. In 1898, British writer H-G Wells wrote a book
about a Martian force that invades Earth. That book is called "War
of the Worlds." It is still popular. It has been broadcast as a
radio program and been made into a movie.
In 1912, American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs began writing a
series of books about Mars. They are about a man named John Carter
who goes to Mars and meets people of many different cultures. Mister
Burroughs' Martian books are still popular, too.
In later years, scientists built better telescopes. Using these
large telescopes, scientists could see the surface of Mars. They
could see huge sandstorms and mountains. They could see ice on the
polar areas of the Red Planet. But they could not see evidence of
intelligent life.
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VOICE TWO:
In 1964, people began trying to send spacecraft to Mars. The
United States launched a spacecraft named Mariner Three. It failed
after liftoff. However, the next spacecraft, Mariner Four, was
successful. That craft returned the first clear pictures of the
Martian surface as it flew past the planet in nineteen-sixty-five.
In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States launched Viking One
and Viking Two. On July 20th, 1976, Viking One became the first
spacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars. The Viking
spacecraft sent back more than fifty-thousand photographs of Mars
and other valuable scientific information.
In nineteen-ninety-six, the United States launched Mars
Pathfinder. It too carried a lander and an exploration vehicle. It
arrived on Mars in July of nineteen-ninety-seven. The lander sent
back thousands of photographs. Millions of people around the world
followed the news of the Pathfinder.
VOICE ONE:
The United States, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agency
have sent more than twenty exploration vehicles to Mars. However,
almost half of them have failed. The number of failures shows the
great difficulty in reaching Mars. Those spacecraft that were
successful returned much valuable information. For example,
scientists finally saw evidence of Martian canals.
Some of these canals are huge. One, called the Ares Vallis, is
more than twenty-five kilometers wide and extremely deep. Scientists
believe it may have been cut into the surface of the planet by huge
and violent floods. They also learned that any water on the planet
is now ice or water that has turned to gas.
VOICE TWO:
Scientists also used several different spacecraft to photograph
the largest volcano known to exist in the universe. It is also one
of the largest known objects in the universe. It is called Olympus
Mons. It is about twenty-five kilometers high and more than
five-hundred kilometers wide. That would about three times taller
and much wider than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.
Scientists have also learned that Mars is a place of extremes in
climate. The lowest recorded temperature was one-hundred-twenty-four
degrees below zero Celsius. Scientists believe the temperature near
the polar areas might be as low as two-hundred degrees below zero
Celsius.
VOICE ONE:
Every question answered about Mars has always led to more
questions. The most important questions have always been: Does water
exist on Mars? Is there now, or was there once, any life on Mars?
Could humans survive on Mars?
NASA is hoping the exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity will
answer these questions. We will report about these efforts next
week.
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VOICE TWO:
This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It was
produced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for another
EXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.