Two other vehicles – named Spirit and Opportunity – have been exploring Mars since early two thousand four. But Curiosity is about two times as long and five times as heavy as the other rovers. And it has many more scientific instruments than they have. The investigation is expected to last almost two years.
JUNE SIMMS: Last week, the National Air and Space Museum held a “Mars Day” in Washington. The head of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, Jim Green, spoke to people about Curiosity and about how difficult it is to land a spacecraft on Mars. He said most of the space agency’s missions to Mars have ended in failure. Fourteen projects have been successful, but twenty-six have failed. He told VOA the chance of Curiosity successfully landing on Mars is, in his words, fifty-fifty.
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CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Scientists are looking forward to receiving a lot of information from the surface of Mars. But many Americans appear to be more excited about the possibility of sending human beings to the red planet.
The American space agency hopes to put humans on the planet by twenty-thirty. But the estimated cost to do that is increasing at a time when members of Congress are calling for cuts in government spending. And some scientists are even questioning whether NASA should send humans into space.
JUNE SIMMS: Experiments are continually being carried out on the International Space Station and the Hubble Space Telescope. Such experiments provide dazzling images of deep space. They also add to our knowledge of the universe.
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25