Back to the Moon_英语科普

Back to the Moon

文章来源：文章作者：发布时间：2006-12-18 03:00 字体： [大中小]　进入论坛

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Someday, you might be able to live on the moon.

In 2020, NASA plans to begin building a base on the moon, the space agency announced last week. The project should be finished by 2024. If you're 10 years old today, you'll be 28 then. So, if you train to be an astronaut, you could be one of the first to visit the lunar outpost.

A lunar outpost might be up and running by 2024. This illustration shows astronauts returning to their shelter after parking their rover.

NASA

Neil Armstrong was the first person to walk on the moon in 1969. At the time, he called it "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Space exploration has continued, but no one has set foot on the moon since 1972.

For the new project, NASA talked with more than 1,000 scientists and engineers to come up with a plan. The agency decided¹ to build a single base instead of developing several landing sites.

At first, astronauts would spend a week at a time on the moon. Eventually, stays would last for 6 months, maybe longer. Once there, astronauts would drive around in a rover with pressurized air so that they could breathe without wearing spacesuits all the time.

On the moon, astronauts and robots would work together to do important tasks.

NASA

NASA hasn't yet decided where on the moon to put the base, and the agency may not make a final decision until 2013. This decision will depend on data collected by several robotic scouting² missions. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, for one, will go to the moon in 2008. A lander will arrive in 2010.

People will finally return to the moon in 2014, when a new rocket called Aries 1 will carry four people in a new type of space shuttle. NASA plans to retire the current fleet of shuttles by 2010.

In the meantime, the space agency is eyeing an area called the Shackleton crater³, near the moon's south pole, as a good spot to settle. The area gets sunlight 75 to 80 percent of the time, so the base could run on solar power. Nearby is a dark region that might contain water ice and other resources that could fuel operations.

A lunar lander touches down on the moon.

NASA

The lunar complex could eventually become a training site and launching base for future missions to Mars, scientists say. The moon would also be a great place to set up radio telescopes and huge, specially⁴ constructed visible-light telescopes with liquid mirrors, far from Earth's many distractions⁵.—E. Sohn

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收听单词发音

1 decided
adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的
参考例句：
This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。 There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 scouting
守候活动，童子军的活动
参考例句：
I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。 Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。来自演讲部分

3 crater
n.火山口，弹坑
参考例句：
With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。 They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

4 specially
adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地
参考例句：
They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。 The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

5 distractions
n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱
参考例句：
I find it hard to work at home because there are too many distractions. 我发觉在家里工作很难，因为使人分心的事太多。 There are too many distractions here to work properly. 这里叫人分心的事太多，使人无法好好工作。来自《简明英汉词典》

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