PART II

UNIT I EXPLORATION AND EXPLOITATION OF SPACE

I. Pre-reading task:

a) Before reading the article study the following list of collocations on the topic:

1. outer space; to enter outer space; space programmes;

2. to orbit the planet;

3. to make spacewalks planned for ... hours; to drift in space; to carry out extra- vehicular activity;

4. to get the lead in spaceflight; to send manned (unmanned) missions to ... ;

5. space ship/ shuttle; manned spacecraft; laboratory module; an escape capsule (vehicle); space station; a cargo vessel , a freighter; a hatch

6. space science; to look for evidence of life;

7. to launch sattelites; a sattelite launcher; a rescheduled launch; failed launches blamed on design and planning mistakes; to send a ... tonne payload onto orbit;

8. Russian Space Agency; Star City - a cosmonaut training compound North-East of Moscow;

9. NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US);

10. Energiya - Moscow-based company producing spacecraft components;

11. aerospace industry (supplies: spacecraft hardware, spare parts, training, maintenance);

12. mission control; ground controllers;

13. cash-poor (cash-starved) space programme; to cut short the program;

14. a crew: a commander, a flight engineer, a space tourist; a replacement crew;

15. a highly skilled cosmonaut, an ace rocket pilot; a do-it-yourself handyman

16. to gain valuable experience;

17. to train in a submersion (water) tank; weightlessness training (in zero-gravity);

18. to conduct an experiment;

19. a space suit pressurized against the vacuum; moon mittens (mitts); umbilical(s) cords to supply Oxygen and communication lines;

20. to conduct (carry out) experiments;

21. a repair mission; a heavy workload of repairs; to carry out repair and maintenance work; to patch holes; to make repairs; to fix things on board; to rewire; to restore pressure;

22. to fail beyond repair; technical mishaps: electricity shortages, failure of the station’s computer navigation system, fire on board;

23. a collision with a supply (robot) freighter;

24. to rely on freighters for fuel and supply;

25. a rescue mission; contingency (emergency) plans;

26. to dock a freighter; a bungled (failed) docking maneuver; to use manual controls to dock;

27. a life-support system; to guarantee life support; a power supply system (power cables); solar batteries (to dismantle, to install, to set up); insulation pannels;

28. space endurance records; long-duration interplanetary flights; to cope with stress, strains and monotony;

29. to recall a mission;

30. to set up two-way radio links; to arrange audio and video family hookups (links);

31. to undergo joint training; problems of language, understanding, teamwork.

b) Discuss the following points. Make use of the vocabulary listed above:

1. Space exploration is a hugely expensive business, isn't it? Why do so many states consider it is still worth it?

2. What feelings do you experience when you hear the name of Yuriy Gagarin? Is it the synonym of Russia's space glory?

3. Will space science develop in view of communications technologies improvements or will people keep on looking for evidence of life on other planets as well?

4. Do you think it's important to study the solar system, to land on Mars and Venus?

5. Do you think space achievements can illustrate a nation's fortunes, its success and to what degree?

6. Can long-duration interplanetary flights happen some time in the 2l-st century?

7. Do you personally fancy being a space tourist?

II. Reading.

1. Read the article through and try to grasp the main idea without using a dictionary. Runners - up in the space race

The Economist, April 14th-20th, 2001, p.81-82

The global space club grows by the day. How do the aims and achievements of the world's lesser space-faring nations compare?

Forty years ago this week, the first man to enter space and orbit the planet landed back on earth in a soft ploughed field outside a Russian village. For the Soviet Union, Yuri Gagarin's trip on April 12th 1961 was a victory over the Americans. It was also the high point of their space programme, which began spectacularly in the late 1950s with the launch of the first Sputnik sattelites, and continued after Gagarin's flight with the first spacewalk, the missions to the moon, the first space station, the first Venus landing and numerous space endurance records.

Despite all these achievements, the Apollo missions meant that America quickly captured the lead in spaceflight. In recent years, Russia's cash-starved space programme has been in sharp decline. Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, recently declared that the country now had nothing to be proud of in space. The ailing Mir space station was finally ditched into the Pacific last month. Russia is very much a junior partner in the International Space station.

The exploration and exploitation of space is, however, more than just a two-horse race between Russia and America. Europe, Japan, India and China all have space programmes, and several other countries are bringing up the rear. Their accomplishments and motives vary widely. The Indian and Chinese space programmes, like those of Russia and America four decades ago, are by-products of missile development that are meant to show off their technological prowess.

Consider India, which launched its first rocket as long ago as 1961.It took its first step as a commercial sattelite launcher in 1999, putting South Korean and German sattelites into orbit. But India's commercial hopes now rest on the more ambitious Sattelite Launch Vehicle, designed to put communications and broadcasting sattelites into a 24-hour orbit, so that they appear fixed in the sky. Developing the technology to do it all has taken a decade and cost 14 billion rupees ($ 300m).

Developing its own rockets has boosted India’s technological reputation, and there is even talk of its sending an unmanned mission to the moon.

China's ambitions are no less lofty. It is arguably the country with the longest history of space research, having begun work on rockets at least 800 years ago. Its space programme kicked off in 1970 with the launch of a sattelite on a home-made rocket. The Long March family of Chinese rockets is now capable of launching anything from small experimental sattelites to large telecommunications sattelites and manned spacecraft - although China has yet to send its first astronauts (taikonauts) into space. China has said it will carry out its first manned mission before the decade is out, but it is widely expected to be much sooner. After that Chinese programme will turn its attention towards the moon and Mars.

While India and China have been moving forward, the Japanese have lost ground. Last year, Japan began a complete reorganization of its space programme, after six failed launches in as many years. Many people are now asking whether Japan should continue with its costly and commercially uncompetitive rocket programme.

Japan's first rocket was launched in 1955 followed by 10 successful but expensive launches. Since 1994 it has produced a string of failures, which were blamed on design and planning mistakes. Japan has had more succession the scientific front. It has an international reputation in X-ray astronomy and solar science, and in 1998 it launched a Mars probe called Nozomi that will search for

evidence of water under the planet's surface when it gets there, albeit four years behind schedule, in 2003. There are also plans to send a probe to Mercury, in a venture with the European Space Agency (ESA).

Cynics note that with its defence spending constitutionally capped at 1% of GDP, Japan might wish to fund military research through indirect means.

As for Europe, it was only relatively late in the game, in 1975, that 11 countries came together to form ESA. Despite its humble beginnings, ESA is now one of the world's leading space agencies, even though it has only a small fraction of the funding of America's space agency, NASA. Those working for ESA, which concentrates on communications technology, earth observation and space science, complain that nobody has ever heard of it, and that many of its achievements have been unfairly eclipsed by NASA missions.

Launching rockets is an expensive business. Most countries have justified their space programmes on the grounds that developing the necessary technology stimulates innovation that then ripples into related industries, such as computing and telecommunications. China's and India's space programmes have undoubtedly been successful both technologically and in promoting the two countries’ growing

technical expertise. But other countries with spacefaring ambitions, such as Brazil and Malaysia, should note the experiences of Japan and Russia. Spaceflight can provide an all-too-accurate barometer of a nation's fortunes, and its unforgiving nature can serve to illustrate a country's failings just as graphically as its accomplishments.