EXPLORATIONS - MARS EXPLORATION_ Part 1

							EXPLORATIONS - MARS EXPLORATION, Part 1
By Paul Thompson



Broadcast: January 28, 2004 ○

(THEME)

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. An artist's
And we will tell about the two new rovers that are picture of
exploring and taking pictures of Mars.                 Mars Rover
                                                       Spirit.
(MUSIC)                                                (Picture -
                                                       NASA)
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
An early       have sent back exciting information. They also say
picture from Spirit has experienced some communications
Mars Rover     problems. The scientists say they believe they can
Opportunity. repair most of these problems. NASA officials say
(Photo - NASA) 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              A picture
two-hundred-fifty-thousand people watched some of      taken by Mars
the television broadcasts of activities in NASA’s      Rover Spirit of
explorer control area.                                 its own
                                                       landing
More than forty-eight-thousand people watched          device.
NASA’s broadcast of the landing of Spirit, the first   (Photo - NASA)
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.

(MUSIC)

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.

(MUSIC)

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.

(THEME)

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.