The notion of landing astronauts on Mars has long been more fantasy than reality: the planet is, on average, 140 million miles from Earth, and its atmosphere isn’t hospitable to human life. But a human voyage to the planet is now, for the first time, within the realm of possibility, according to space advocates inside and outside the government.
In a majorspacepolicyspeech at Kennedy Space Center in 2010, B. Obama predicted a manned Mars mission to orbit the planet by the mid-2030s, followed by a landing: “By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.” As a result, plans for a mission around the planet, and ultimately for lengthier stays, have been sprouting like springtime flowers.
The new momentum, some space experts say, comes from the successful launching and landing of the large rover Curiosity in a Martian crater last year and the growing eagerness of space entrepreneurs to mount and fund missions to Mars.
The challenges of space technology — including how to keep astronauts alive en route and on the planet — as well as government support and funding remain daunting, but the goal of landing humans on Mars is seeming less and less like a vain dream.
“A manned mission to Mars is a priority, and our entire space exploration program is aligned to support this goal,” said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. NASA has “overcome the technical challenges of landing and operating spacecraft on Mars” robotically, Bolden said. “We’re developing today the technologies needed to send humans to Mars in the 2030s.”
Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon in 1969, has just written a book that he refers to as a manifesto laying out the reasons humans can and should set their sights on not only landing on Mars but also setting up a permanent settlement there. It is “human destiny” to explore space and settle on other planets, he writes in “Mission to Mars,” which is being released this week.
“Our world isn’t just Earth anymore, and we need to get much more serious about that,” Aldrin said in an interview, adding that the leaders who take us to Mars and the pioneers who inhabit it “will go down in human history as heroes and be honored for thousands and thousands of years.”
A colony on Mars is by all accounts a distant goal, but the timetable for sending humans there for a quick orbit and return to Earth, or even a landing on one of its moons, could be considerably faster.
Investment adviser Dennis Tito, who paid $20 million to go to the international space station in 2001, recently announced plans to send two astronauts to Mars for a 2018 flyby; a Dutch group called Mars One is raising funds for a landing in the 2020s. Elon Musk of the rocket and capsule company SpaceX has a significant spaceflight track record. His Dragon spacecraft has docked three times at the international space station during NASA-funded cargo runs.
Musk got into the space business with the ambition of sending many people to Mars. The first of these missions is “further off than I would like,” he said, “but far closer than many expect.”
But there’s still a long way to go in terms of launching and landing technology, said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator of the NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. As the US does not currently have a launcher capable of sending humans to Mars,however, the Space Launch System, being designed by NASA for deep space exploration, could be that vehicle.
Moreover, a mission to Mars would expose astronauts to dangerously high levels of radiation, it has been proved recently. The confirmation of what has long been feared comes after Curiosity rover radiation assessment detector (RAD) made measurements of the environment inside the spacecraft during its eight-month journey.
Dr Zeitlin of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, said: “Understanding the radiation environment inside a spacecraft carrying humans to Mars or other deep space destinations is critical for planning future crewed missions”.
(b) Answer the questions:
1. Is a manned flight to Mars feasible with current technologies? Give reasons.
2. What are the key challenges that a manned mission to Mars must overcome?
3. How future missions to Mars may affect science and society?
(c) Translate the following phrases into English, using equivalents from the text:
1) запустить космический корабль;
2) приземлиться;
3) вращаться по орбите планеты;
4) запуск и приземление вездехода;
5) финансирование программы исследования космоса;
6) преодолеть технические проблемы, связанные с приземлением и управлением космическим кораблем;
7) поселиться на других планетах;
8) собирать средства (деньги);
9) подвергатьвысокомууровнюрадиации.
(d) Complete the sentences with one of the words below: