[News] Man on the Moon
Man on the Moon
ANDREA DELBANCO
Forty years ago, the U.S. Apollo program put the first human on
the moon. Now, NASA is gearing up to go back.
"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." On
July 20, 1969, millions of Americans turned on their televisions
to see American astronaut Neil Armstrong, who spoke these words
from the surface of the moon. For 19 minutes, Armstrong stood
alone where no human had ever stood before. Then crewmember Edwin
"Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the gray, dusty soil. Though the
black-and-white television images were jerky and blurred, ecstatic
earthlings felt as if they, too, had soared above the world.
The Eagle Has Landed
In the 1950s and '60s, two countries raced to get to the moon
first: the U.S. and the Soviet Union (a large nation of republics,
including Russia, that existed until 1991). Unmanned Soviet
rockets got to the moon first, but the Apollo program made
history.
Three astronauts manned the Apollo 11 mission: Armstrong, Aldrin
and Michael Collins. The trip from Earth to the moon took four
days. A special lunar module, nicknamed Eagle, carried Armstrong
and Aldrin to and from the moon while Collins remained in lunar
orbit. The landing was tense. It took Armstrong longer than
expected to find a level place to land. The lunar module had less
than 40 seconds of fuel remaining when it safely touched down.
"The Eagle has landed," Armstrong reported. "You got a bunch of
guys about to turn blue," responded Charles Duke, at NASA's
headquarters in Houston, Texas. "We're breathing again."
Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to President Richard Nixon by radio
telephone. They set up scientific experiments, collected soil
samples and planted an American flag on the surface of the moon.
They also left behind a plaque that reads: "We came in peace for
all mankind." Though the flag was blown over when the lunar module
took off, the footprints left by the astronauts are still there.
Back to the Moon
NASA aims to send people back to the moon in 2020. Plans are
already in high gear. "We'll launch the Lunar Reconnaissance
Orbiter in June, which is the first step," explains Grey
Hautaluoma, who works for NASA's moon exploration program. "It
will map the moon in more detail than ever before to help select a
landing site for the future missions."
NASA's goal is to build a lunar outpost, a place where astronauts
could live for months at a time while doing scientific research
and experiments. NASA is also building lunar rovers, vehicles
astronauts could use to explore large sections of the moon. "We're
excited about going back to the moon," Hautaluoma told TFK. "We've
only really been there a handful of days, so there's a lot that we
have yet to learn."
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/kids/wr/article/0,28391,1895387,00.html
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 118.166.4.244
※ 編輯: hisunshine 來自: 118.166.4.244 (06/08 10:47)