Space

• UK's Beagle 2 Mars Probe Still Lost in Space  2004/1/8
• Japan's New Space Agency Tries to Regroup 2003/12/3
• Voyager 1 Reaches Solar System's Final Frontier 2003/11/6
• Official Says China Plans Space Station  2003/10/16
• Galileo Mission Ends with Dive Into Jupiter 2003/9/22
• NASA Targets March Launch for Space Shuttle 2003/9/9
• After Columbia Tragedy, NASA Considers Space Rescue 2003/8/27
• Instrument on NASA Rover Malfunctions   2003/8/11
• Finally, NASA Sends Mars Rover on Its Way　2003/7/10
• Robot Rover Heads to Mars to Search for Water
• NASA set to launch new mission to explore Mars 2003/6/9
• Bad Weather Delays Mars Probe Launch in Florida 2003/6/9

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UK's Beagle 2 Mars Probe Still Lost in Space  2004/1/8

Latest efforts to contact a British-led mission to Mars from its orbiting mothership failed on Wednesday, compounding fears the Beagle 2 probe crashed during a Christmas Day touchdown. 

compound fears不安｛ふあん｝［心配｛しんぱい｝・恐怖｛きょうふ｝］を増す


Gloom surrounding the first all-European mission to Mars contrasts with the joy at NASA , whose robot explorer Spirit safely landed on the Red Planet at the weekend and has transmitted high-definition pictures in the last few days. 

gloom[動詞] 暗くする; 陰気にする; 暗くなる; 陰気になる;[名詞] 暗がり; 暗黒; 陰気; 憂欝;

"We did not get a signal from the surface of Mars but this is not the end of the story -- we have more shots to play," the European Space Agency's David Southwood said. 


"It is a setback and it makes me feel very sad," he added. 

setback[名詞] つまずき; 後退; ぶり返し; セットバック; 悪目;

Engineers and scientists at the Beagle HQ in London hung their heads after the announcement. 

hang head down頭を下にしてぶら下がる

"We hope we'll get the dog to come back to the kennel," said a defeated-looking Colin Pillinger who heads the project. 

"We must play until the final whistle." 

Although nothing has been heard from the 34kg (75lb) probe since its attempted landing, scientists say they have not given up and will make further attempts to talk to it. 


Project scientists have pinned their hopes on contacting the lander, designed to hunt for evidence of life on Mars, on its orbiting mothership, the Mars Express. 


But the Express's first pass just 350 km above the probe's landing site, near the planet's equator, resulted only in a worrying silence. 

worry[動詞] 悩ませる; せがむ; くわえて振り回す; 心配する; 悩む; 苦労する; 心配させる;

The Express will pass over the landing site again on January 8, 9 and 10 for about five to eight minutes each time. If those attempts fail it passes again on the 12th and 14th. Pillinger said the absolute last attempt would be made in February. 


Earlier attempts by radio telescopes and NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter to contact Beagle 2, a saucer-shaped probe about the size of an open umbrella, also failed. 


Beagle 2, launched last June, is packed with sophisticated instruments designed to take samples from the Martian surface. 


At its heart is a mass spectrometer used to measure the mass and abundance of atoms and molecules on planetary surfaces. 


It was named after the ship which British naturalist Charles Darwin took to gather the data that led to his groundbreaking 19th century theories of evolution. 

groundbreaking[名詞] 起工; 草分け;

Japan's New Space Agency Tries to Regroup  2003/12/3

TOKYO - Japan's Mars probe is in trouble. Its weather satellites are breaking down. And its latest attempt to put a pair of spy satellites into orbit ended last weekend in a $92 million fireball. 


breaking down : 壊れている

While rival China is basking in the glory of its first manned space flight, Japan's new space agency is off to a decidedly inauspicious start. 

basking in : 浴しているbask[動詞] 浴する; 温まる;

[形容詞] 不吉な; 縁起が悪い;

"Is this the best we can do?," said an editorial in the Asahi, a major daily, after an H2-A rocket carrying the two spy satellites failed to launch properly and was detonated in mid-air over the remote Tanegashima Space Center. 


The failure was especially disappointing because it followed five consecutive successful liftoffs for the H2-A, a two-stage rocket designed by Japan to show off its technical prowess. The H-2A has served as this country's primary launch vehicle for several years. 

prowess[名詞] 武勇; 優れた能力;

Officials declined to comment on the likely impact of the failure until they complete an investigation. The H2-A was destroyed just minutes after liftoff Saturday because a booster on the side of the rocket failed to detach itself, pulling the rocket off course. 


"We are investigating what happened," said Hiroaki Sato, a spokesman for JAXA, Japan's space agency. "We still don't know how this will affect future launches." 


Created in October to streamline and focus a space bureaucracy previously comprised of three separate agencies, JAXA is finding success hard to come by. 

streamline[名詞] 流線型;[動詞] 合理化する; 流線型にする;focus[動詞] 焦点を合わせる; 焦点が合う; 重点的に取り扱う; 集中する;[名詞] 焦点; 集中点; 中心; 震源;

comprise[動詞] 包含する; 含む; 成り立つ;hard to come by : なかなか出会えない

Japan's highest-profile project, the Nozomi Mars probe, is due to reach the Red Planet this month after a five-year journey, but officials say it is off course and may not achieve orbit. Next week, they plan to try firing its engines in a last-minute effort to fix its trajectory and save the mission. 

trajectory[名詞] 弾道; 軌道;

Just over one month ago, communications were lost with Midori 2, an environmental observation satellite. The launch of an H-2A carrying a multi-purpose weather satellite to replace one that malfunctioned several years ago is scheduled for January or February, but that, too, is now looking iffy. 

iffy[形容詞] 不確かな; 疑問点が多い;

"We'll just have to wait and see," Sato said. 

wait and see : 成り行きを見守る

The H2-A failure, the first launch since JAXA was created, comes after a series of glitches forced the liftoff to be postponed three times. 

glitch[名詞] 突然の故障; グリッチ;

"It's very unfortunate," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said. JAXA chief Shuichiro Yamanouchi apologized for "failing in this very important mission." 


Although Japan put its first two spy satellites into orbit in March, mainly to keep watch on neighboring North Korea , it can only obtain photos every other day — a problem the second pair of satellites would have solved. 


An official with the Cabinet's Satellite Intelligence Center, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, said the government would make do with the current pair for the time being. But he added that launches scheduled for 2005 and 2006 may be pushed up to compensate for the loss of the second pair. 

make do with : で間に合わせるだろう

Officials fear Japan's space program, already struggling to make the most of its very limited resources, could face further budget cuts if the launchpad disappointments continue. 


JAXA operates with about 1,800 employees and an annual budget of $1.6 billion, or one-tenth of NASA's. China's budget is a secret, but it is believed to have spent more than $2.2 billion on its manned space program alone. 


Since sending its first man into space on Oct. 15, China has launched three satellites into orbit. In all, it has had 32 successful launches since October 1996, Including the manned mission. 

China has also said it would probably put two more astronauts into orbit within the next two years on the country's second manned mission, and its aerospace officials have said they planned to launch a space station within 10 years. 

"Japan could put a man in space in five years if it wanted to," said Saburo Matsunaga, assistant professor of aerospace engineering at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "But Japan doesn't have the luxury to do things like that at the moment." 

luxury[形容詞] 贅沢な;[名詞] 贅沢品; 贅沢さ; 豪華さ; 贅沢;

Still, Matsunaga said, Tokyo's record has been good overall. 

"For the small number of launches Japan has done, the country has a high rate of success," he said. "The U.S., Russia and China have experimented a lot with military-purpose space projects, some of which are totally covert missions, and have failed many times."

Voyager 1 Reaches Solar System's Final Frontier 2003/11/6

 NASA's Voyager 1, built to last just five years to probe Earth's planetary neighbors, has reached the solar system's final frontier and may have surfed into interstellar space, more than 26 years after its launch. 


Whether or not it has escaped the sun's sphere of influence -- known to astronomers as the heliosphere -- Voyager 1 has exceeded all expectations and on Wednesday was more than 8 billion miles from Earth, or 90 times the distance between Earth and the sun. 


The Earth-sun distance, 93 million miles, is a convenient measure for astronomers and is known as one astronomical unit or AU. Voyager 1 is the only human-made object known to have traveled 90 AU. 

astronomical unit : 天文単位


At this point, scientists are loath to predict when Voyager 1 will give up the ghost, because it is still sending data. 

loath[形容詞] 嫌いな; 嫌っている;give up the ghost : 死ぬだろうかghost[名詞] 幽霊; ゴースト;[動詞] 代作する; つきまとう; 無音で動く;

"We do have enough electrical power, if nothing breaks on the spacecraft, we can continue till 2020," Edward Stone, a Voyager project scientists based at the California Institute of Technology, said at a briefing at NASA headquarters. 


Stone said Voyager 1, carrying a gold record bearing greetings, images and diverse information from Earth, has not yet crossed what he called the "final frontier" out of the solar system, but that the crossing could occur before 2020. 


However, Stamatios Krimigis of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory outside Washington said at the same briefing that Voyager has already done it. 


"We have discovered that Voyager 1 has actually crossed into the area of interstellar space, around August 1, 2002," Krimigis said at the same briefing. 


SOLAR WIND STOPS 


At the frontier, the flow of charged particles emitted by the sun -- known as the solar wind -- simply stopped, Krimigis said, adding that the spacecraft encountered the kind of material associated with interstellar space. 


He said this meant Voyager 1 had successfully navigated something called termination shock, a violent-sounding term for the area where the sun's influence ends and the area between the stars begins. 


Because this area is very close to being a perfect vacuum, the termination shock does not bother Voyager 1 at all, according to Frank McDonald, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland outside Washington. 


"The spacecraft has no idea that it passed or didn't pass through the shock ... the spacecraft is not perturbed at all, so it's not a danger in any way," McDonald said. 


Voyager 1 and its twin Voyager 2 were built to explore Jupiter and Saturn and their surrounding phenomena and were expected to last five years after their launch in 1977. But the two of them kept going, eventually exploring all the giant outer planets of the solar system, 48 of their moons as well as their systems of rings and magnetic fields. 


Voyager 1 left the planets behind in 1990, taking a backward-looking snapshot before heading toward the space between the stars. Voyager 1's path is bent up from the plane where most of the planets lie; Voyager 2 is headed downward. 

[形容詞] 平らの; 平面図形の; 滑らかな;

[動詞] 飛行機で行く; 平らにする;

[名詞] 飛行機; 平面; 水準; かんな;

"This little engine that could was not designed for this kind of lifetime," said Louis Lanzerotti, a Bell Labs expert on solar wind who has been involved with the Voyager program since 1972. "It's absolutely remarkable." 

Official Says China Plans Space Station 

China will eventually launch a space station, a senior space official said Thursday, hours after the return of its first manned capsule from orbit. 

eventually[副詞] 結局は; ついには;

"The successful mission of Shenzhou 5 is the first step of China's space program," said Zhang Qingwei, the second most senior officer in charge of the country's space program, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. 

in charge of : の担当の

The report didn't give any details, but it was the most explicit declaration yet of official support for plans for a long-term Chinese manned presence in space. Beijing has no involvement in the Western-led International Space Station . 

explicit[形容詞] 明白な; 明快な;

Foreign experts had long believed Beijing was studying the possibility of a station, and Chinese scientists talk of hopes for a mission to the moon or even Mars. But space program leaders had previously avoided expressing official support for such plans. 


That attitude appeared to change following the safe landing early Thursday of the Shenzhou 5 and astronaut Yang Liwei. 


"The task to be performed immediately after Shenzhou 5 is to develop technologies ensuring precise docking between spaceship and orbit module, which are key to the planned setting up of China's space labs," Xinhua paraphrased Zhang as saying. 

paraphrase[動詞] パラフレーズする; 言い換える; 書き換える;

After that, Xinhua said, China "will focus on developing more efficient and reliable vehicles able to launch a space station." 


Zhang was cited as saying a station would "prepare China for further exploration of ... outer space." 


Foreign experts say technology developed by China's secretive, military-linked manned space program suggests it is meant to build toward some form of long-term orbital presence. 


Shenzhou capsules are equipped with maneuvering rockets that would be needed for docking in space. Experts say China used four earlier unmanned test launches to practice firing capsules into precise orbits that would allow pilots to link vessels together or travel regularly to an orbital station. 


Phillip Clark, a British expert on the Chinese program, has suggested that one possibility might be an automated orbital lab that astronauts could visit several times a year. 


That would allow the station to conduct zero-gravity experiments and do other sensitive work that a human presence might disrupt, according to Clark. 

Galileo Mission Ends with Dive Into Jupiter 2003/9/22

 NASA's Galileo space probe made a controlled, fiery crash into Jupiter on Sunday, ending a 14-year mission that yielded dramatic discoveries about the largest planet and its moons. 

space probe : 宇宙探査機fiery[形容詞] 火の; 燃え立つ; 燃えている; 熱烈な; 興奮した; 激辛の;yield[動詞] 生み出す; 自然につくりだす; もたらす; 譲る; 負ける; 屈する;

The space agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California received the final signal from the spacecraft at 3:43 p.m. EDT, the laboratory said in a statement. 


"We learned mind-boggling thing. This mission was worth its weight in gold," said Galileo project manager Claudia Alexander. 

mind-boggling[形容詞] 胆がつぶれるような; 仰天させる;

More than 1,000 people who worked on the Galileo program gathered at the laboratory to celebrate the end of the mission. 


Team member Rosaly Lopes described the farewell celebration as bittersweet. "It was very emotional. We had people coming here today who worked on Galileo many years ago. Some had retired. Some had left for other jobs and it was like a big family reunion," she said. 


At the same time, it was like saying goodbye to an old friend, Lopes said in a telephone interview. 


Galileo was low on propellant and six years past its original end date. Launched from space shuttle Atlantis  in 1989, Galileo traveled about 2.8 billion miles before it disintegrated in Jupiter's dense atmosphere on Sunday. 


Galileo orbited Jupiter 34 times and obtained the first direct measurements of its atmosphere by sending a probe parachuting down toward the planet in 1995. 


It detected evidence of underground salt water oceans beneath the icy crusts of Jupiter's moon Europa. Data also showed that the moons Ganymede and Callisto may have a liquid saltwater layer. 

crust[動詞] 外皮で覆う; 外皮で覆われる;[名詞] パンの耳; パイ皮; 堅い表面; 甲殻; 上辺;

Lopes called the Europa finding a major highlight of the mission. 


"We had never thought of Europa as a place that could possibly harbor life, so that was a really major discovery," she said. 


The spacecraft was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter. 


During the mission, Galileo also examined the lively, intensely hot volcanoes on the moon Io. 


Astronomers hope to retrieve Galileo's data, but radiation from Jupiter could be a problem. The craft has already weathered more than four times the dose of harmful Jovian radiation it was designed to withstand, and Galileo entered a particularly high-radiation area as it approached the planet. 

Jovian[形容詞] ジュピター神の; 木星の;weather[動詞] 風上を通る; 切り抜ける; 外気にさらす; 風化させる; 風化する; 乗り切る;


The spacecraft continued transmitting new information about Jupiter's environment up until the last minute. 


"We got the science data until the signal was lost," Lopes said. "It was data about Jupiter's environment fields and particles data." 

NASA Targets March Launch for Space Shuttle 2003/9/9

NASA  on Monday set a March launch date for the first space shuttle flight since the Columbia disaster, but added that safety, not schedule requirements, would decide when the shuttle goes into space. 


March[名詞] 3月; 行進; 進展; 行進曲;[動詞] 行進する; 進展する; 進ませる;


The national space agency, in a 78-page blueprint for its return to flight, also vowed to redesign the shuttle to make it safer and to change its own culture to improve communication and encourage dissenting views. 

return[形容詞] 返送の; 帰りの; 再度の; 返された; 返答の; 往復の;[動詞] 戻る; 帰る; 再び来る; 再発する; 返す; 戻す; 応じる; リターンをする; 返品する;[名詞] 帰り; 帰宅; 往復切符; 帰還; 報告書; 再発; 復帰; 報酬; 返却; 返礼; 返事; 報告; 開票報告; 収益; リターン; 返品;dissent[動詞] 意見を異にする; 異議を唱える;

"We will be safety driven and not schedule driven. We will be milestone driven and not schedule driven," NASA associate administrator William Readdy said in a news conference at the Johnson Space Center. 

milestone[名詞] マイルストーン; マイル標; 画期的なこと; 一里塚;

drive[動詞] 吹きつける; 運転する; 操縦する; 追いたてる; 無理にさせる; 押し進める; 疾走する; 押し流す; 打ちこむ; 運用する; ドライブする;driven[形容詞] せっぱつまっている; 吹き寄せられている; かられた;

"There's a challenge there. There's very much a can-do culture that we'd like to keep. There was a culture that stifled communication that somehow we have to eliminate," he said. "We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water." 

stifle[動詞] 息をとめる; 息がつまる; 窒息する;eliminate[動詞] 削除する; 取り除く;throw the baby out with the bath water : 大事な物を無用な物と一緒に捨てたくない

The proposed March launch, with a launch window extending from March 11 to April 6, was primarily a planning target, Readdy admitted, timed for a hookup with the International Space Station  and a daytime takeoff to give NASA engineers a good look at the shuttle as it hurtles toward space. 

launch window : 打ち上げ可能時間帯hookup[名詞] 放送用機材・回線の接続; 組み立て; 中継; 放送局網; 配線設備; 中継局網; 配管設備;

If safety concerns delayed the launch indefinitely, "then so be it," he said. 

safety concerns : 安全性の懸念indefinitely[副詞] 無期限に; 漠然と; 不定に;

Columbia disintegrated above Texas as it glided toward landing in Florida on Feb. 1, killing the seven astronauts on board. 


DOOMED BY LOOSE INSULATION 

doomed[形容詞] 不運の;doom[動詞] 運命をさだめる; 宣告する;

The independent Columbia Accident Investigation Board appointed to find the tragedy's cause said in a report released two weeks ago the shuttle was doomed by loose insulation foam that struck its wing shortly after takeoff and blamed a NASA culture that, in its haste to get shuttles into space, ignored the problem despite warnings from its own people. 


The foam damaged the wing's heat shield which allowed the intense heat of re-entry into earth's atmosphere to penetrate the shuttle and break it apart more than 40 miles above northern Texas. 


Internal e-mails released after the accident showed that lower level NASA engineers warned of a possible catastrophe, but their superiors either never saw the warnings or believed them to be overblown. 

overblown[形容詞] 満開を過ぎた; 大げさな; 太りすぎの; 盛りを過ぎた; 過ぎ去った; ジェスチャーたっぷりの;

"Quite frankly, we missed something, we screwed up," Readdy said. 

frankly[副詞] 率直に; あからさまに;

screwed up : 台無しにしたscrew[動詞] ねじで締める; 締めつける; 搾取する; ねじれる; けちけちする;

NASA said it would make changes in the shuttle to eliminate the loose foam problem, including the use of heaters to replace the need for insulation, and look for other potential sources of danger to eliminate. 


It said it also was testing materials and procedures for repairing shuttle damage during flight and evaluating the concept of using the space station as a refuge for stranded shuttle crews. The investigation board criticized NASA for a lack of contingency plans during flight emergencies 

make changes in : を変更するだろうstranded[形容詞] 立往生する; 行き詰まっている; 行き詰まった; どうすることもできない;strand[動詞] 座礁させる; 立ち往生させる; 座礁する; 残塁させる;refuge[動詞] かくまう; 非難する;[名詞] 避難; 保護; 避難所; 避難地;contingency[名詞] 偶発事項; 偶発事件; 不慮の事態; 付随事件; 偶然; 偶発性; 不慮のできごと; 臨時費; 予備金;

Also, under consideration is a plan to put cameras on the shuttle so that its exterior can be examined for damage after it reaches orbit, the agency said.

under consideration : 考慮中で

BACK

After Columbia Tragedy, NASA Considers Space Rescue 2003/8/27

Could the Columbia disaster have been avoided? After the fatal accident, NASA came up with a possible scenario to rescue the crew with another shuttle. 

came up with : を持って上がってきた

If shuttle controllers knew by the seventh day of the mission there was catastrophic damage to Columbia's left wing, they could have rushed shuttle Atlantis into orbit and evacuated Columbia's crew before the supply of breathable air ran out, investigators said in their report on Tuesday. 

evacuate[動詞] 避難させる; 移動させる; 空にする; 出す; 排出する;


As part of the independent probe into the Feb. 1 disintegration of the shuttle over Texas that killed seven astronauts, investigators asked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to explore ways to repair the ship in flight or evacuate the crew members. 

probe into : 調査してAs part of : の一環としてask[動詞] 請求する; 要する; 尋ねる; 求める; 要求する;

The repair option was considered too high risk, but the rescue would have been possible, NASA told the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. 


The Columbia crew could have survived in orbit until Feb. 15, even though their scheduled landing day was Feb. 1. If controllers had early notice the shuttle's wing was severely damaged, Atlantis could have been made ready for a space rendezvous, the report said. 

controller[名詞] 管理者; 監督者; 監督官; 会計検査官; 制御装置; 管制官; コントローラー; 管理職;


The Atlantis, which was set for a March launch, could have been ready for a rescue launch during the period from Feb. 10 to Feb. 15, and weather records show a launch was possible at that time. 


Under the scenario, the Atlantis would carry a four-person crew: a commander, a pilot and two astronauts trained for spacewalks. 


The rendezvous would take place on Atlantis' first day in orbit, with the two shuttles facing each other with their payload doors open. Suited Columbia astronauts would be transferred to Atlantis via spacewalks. Atlantis would return to Earth with four crew members on the flight deck and seven in the mid-deck area. 


Columbia would either be brought down and ditched in the Pacific Ocean or might be maneuvered into higher orbit for a possible subsequent repair mission, the investigators reported. 

ditch[動詞] 捨てる; 溝を設ける; 溝に落とす; 不時着水させる; 溝を掘る; 不時着水する;maneuver[動詞] 策略を用いる; 戦略的に政策を転換する; 巧みに動かす; 作戦的に行動する; 作戦的に行動させる; 大演習を行う;subsequent[形容詞] その後の; 続いて起こる;

BACK

Instrument on NASA Rover Malfunctions 

 An instrument aboard one of the two NASA  rovers en route to Mars has malfunctioned, prompting worries it could harm the robot's information-gathering ability, a scientist said Wednesday. 

en route to : への途中での Malfunctions : 機能不全

aboard -[前]
〈船・列車・バス・飛行機〉に乗って
come [go] 〜 a ship 乗船する.

If left unfixed, the instrument could still determine the presence of iron-bearing minerals in the rocks and soil on the Martian surface, but not their relative abundance, said Steve Squyres, of Cornell University. Some of that information could be derived from the rover's other instruments, however. 

Scientists hope that testing the minerals will help solve the riddle of whether Mars was ever a warmer, wetter place capable of sustaining life. 


"We would be able to extract some science from the data — not everything, but some," said Squyres, lead scientist on the package of instruments carried on the rover, Spirit, and its twin, Opportunity. 


Scientists do not understand the cause of the glitch, but have five months to come up with a remedy before the rover lands, Squyres said. Spirit is expected to make a Jan. 3 landing on Mars, followed by Opportunity on Jan. 24. 

glitch[名詞] 突然の故障; グリッチ;come up with : を思いつくremedy[動詞] 治療する; 治す; 改善する;[名詞] 治療法; 療法; 医薬; 薬; 救済策; 矯正;

The instrument, called a Mossbauer spectrometer, malfunctioned during tests last week. 


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration will continue to work on a long-distance fix to Spirit's instrument during the balance of its cruise to Mars. 

balance[動詞] 釣り合いをとる; バランスを保たせる; 考察させる; 釣り合う; バランスを保つ; 揺れる;[名詞] バランス; 調和; 均整; 優位; はかり; 残高; 残り; 差引残高;

"We will do the best we can to adjust the instrument so it delivers the maximum science," Squyres said. 


The $800 million pair of rovers otherwise remain in excellent health, according to NASA.

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Finally, NASA Sends Mars Rover on Its Way

Despite a late glitch that stopped the countdown at seven seconds, NASA  managed to launch its latest Mars mission successfully on Monday after fixing the problem and resetting the clock. 

glitch[名詞] 突然の故障; グリッチ;

The liftoff ended almost two weeks of frustrating delays for the space agency. Engineers had to scramble to diagnose a problem with a pressure valve on the first stage of the Delta 2 rocket in order to get the rocket off at 11:18 p.m. EDT (0218 GMT on Tuesday), 43 minutes late. 

scramble[動詞] かき混ぜながら焼く; 緊急発進させる; 緊急発進する; よじ登る; はい登る; はうように進む; ごちゃ混ぜにする; かき集める; 波長を変える; 暗号化する; 奪い合う;[名詞] よじ登り; 奪い合い; 寄せ集め; 緊急発進; スクランブルレース; スクランブル;

When the six-wheeled Mars Expedition Rover "Opportunity" reaches the Red Planet, it will scour the surface for signs that could point toward ancient life. 

scour[名詞] こすること; 磨き洗い;[動詞] 擦る; 磨く; 洗い流す; 探し回る;point toward : 指すかもしれない


Already speeding toward Mars is the first of the twin rovers, named "Spirit," which launched on June 10. 

But the Delta rocket holding Opportunity had been idled since June 25 by scheduling and technical problems, bad weather, and even an errant fishing boat in restricted waters near the launch site. 

hold[動詞] 開催する; 収容する; する; 占領する; 保持する; 掴む; 支える; 持ちこたえる; 開く; 拘束する;errant[形容詞] 誤った; 逸脱した;

idle[動詞] 暇にさせる; 怠けて過ごす; 怠ける; 空費する; 空転させる; 空転する;

The $400 million mission finally got away in spectacular fashion, streaking across the night sky over Florida like a massive fireball, lighting up the beaches below. 


The two rovers will land 6,000 miles apart in January, then begin their exploration, moving about the Martian surface for about three months, wielding scoops and drills to collect samples of soil and rock. 

wield[動詞] 使う; ふるう; 行使する;

NASA said that scientists do not expect the rovers to find life there, or even direct evidence of ancient life, but they hope to determine whether conditions were favorable on Mars three billion to four billion years ago for life to evolve. 


"This is a desolate, dry, barren world today, yet when we look at Mars from orbit we see tantalizing clues it was once wetter and warmer," Steve Squyers, the Cornell University scientist and principle investigator for the mission, told reporters in a pre-launch briefing. 

desolate[形容詞] 荒れ果てている; 荒れはてた; 荒れて見る影もない; 孤独な; 寂しい; 荒らす; 心細くする; 悲しませる;[動詞] 荒らす; 心細くする; 悲しませる;

On Earth, life was "somehow coming into being from non-living material" at about the time those same conditions existed on Mars, said Squyers. 


But the twin rovers face not only a long journey across more than 300 million miles of interplanetary space, they must also land on Mars using parachutes to break their fall and airbags to cushion their landings. 

break[動詞] 怪我する; 背く; 中断する; 途切れる; 壊す; 壊れる; 破る; 破れる; 折る; 折れる; 割る; 犯す; 更新する; 明ける; 途中下車する; ブレイクする;[名詞] 休憩; 中断; 断交; 破壊; 休暇; 始まり; チャンス; 切れ目; 急落; カーブ; ブレイク; 挿入楽節;

Of nine spacecraft that have tried to land on Mars, only three have succeeded. 


Two other missions, one European and the other Japanese, are already headed for Mars. Like the Rover twins, they are taking advantage of a very rare proximity between the two planets that has cut the travel time to seven months from the usual nine to ten months. 　

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Robot Rover Heads to Mars to Search for Water
Tue Jun 10, 6:24 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo! 

By Broward Liston 

　　

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - NASA (news - web sites) launched the first of two robotic rovers to Mars on Tuesday in an international quest to determine if life ever existed on the red planet. 

quest[名詞] 探求;[動詞] 跡をつけて捜す; 獲物を探す;


After two days of weather delays, the Mars Exploration Rover, nicknamed "Spirit," lifted off from Cape Canaveral as part of a global fleet of probes sent to Mars. 

fleet[形容詞] 速い; 素早く消え去る; 束の間の; うつろいやすい;[動詞] 素早く消え去る;[名詞] 艦隊; 船隊; 編隊; 船団; 飛行船団; 航空部隊; 自動車隊; 全車両; 船舶隊; 保有トラック量; 飛行機隊;

If the rover Spirit and its twin, Opportunity, which is scheduled to be launched later this month, succeed, scientists will know if ancient, now-vanished, water sources on Mars were there long enough for life to emerge. 


Mars is a perilous destination for spacecraft. Of 30 missions launched by various nations over the years, only 12 have succeeded. Landing on the surface is even harder, with just three of nine attempts ending in success. 

even[形容詞] 平らな; 同等の; 平たんな; そろった; 五分五分の; ちょうど;[副詞] さえ; さらに; まさに; にもかかわらず; まったく; 平らに;[名詞] 互角;[動詞] 平らにする; 平らになる; 平等にする; 平衡させる; 均等にする;

"We celebrate in just small steps, one at a time. The launch is just the beginning of the journey," Orlando Figueroa, the NASA Mars program manager, told reporters after the launch. 

one at a time : ひとつ(ひとり)ずつ


The rovers will join Japanese and European satellites on their way to Mars and two NASA satellites already orbiting there. The launches take advantage of a rare proximity between the planets that has cut the normal travel time to seven months from the usual nine to 10 months for missions launched this year. 


The two Mars explorers, worth a combined $800 million and each about the size of a golf cart, are wrapped inside a landing craft that will descend by parachute to Mars after a seven-month, 311-million-mile voyage. 


After nine balloons have deployed, completely enveloping the landing craft, it will bounce along like a toy on the Martian surface as much as a mile before coming to rest. 

deploy[動詞] 配備する; 配置につかせる; 配置につく; 展開する;envelop[動詞] 包む; 覆い隠す;


OPEN LIKE A FLOWER 


Large petals on the landing craft will then open like a flower, allowing the six-wheeled rover to roll off and begin its exploration. 

"It'll take us about four days in all to get completely off the lander and get what we call six wheels on the ground," said Peter Theisinger, the mission manager. 

in all : 全部で

The solar-powered rovers will land where scientists think large bodies of water once formed, before some cataclysmic event or epoch stripped Mars of most of its atmosphere, causing much of its surface water to boil away. 

cataclysmic[形容詞] 大変動の; 激変する;

The rovers can travel about 328 feet an hour on a flat surface with no obstacles. Small cameras facing to the front help it identify rocks or holes too large to cross. 


"If it finds itself in a situation it cannot work out of, it will actually call home for help," said Theisinger. 

work out : 解決することができない

The rovers have the ability to scoop up soil and drill into rocks, then examine the samples under a microscope. Raw data will be sent back to Earth for analysis by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where mission control will be located. 

scoop up : すくい上げて

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NASA set to launch new mission to explore Mars
Sun Jun 8, 5:25 PM ET Add Science - AFP to My Yahoo! 



WASHINGTON (AFP) - Poor weather forced NASA (news - web sites) to delay by 24 hours its launch of the first of two robots programmed to search for water and signs of life on Mars. 


  




If weather allows, the first Mars Expedition Rover is to be launched aboard a Boeing-made Delta II launcher at 2:02 pm (1802 GMT) Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, space officials said. A second attempt is scheduled for 38 minutes later if needed. 


The spacecraft is to traverse some 500 million kilometers (300 million miles) over seven months, then drop into the Gusev crater, 15 degrees south of the Martian equator, in early January 2004. 


"This will continue NASA's long goal of finding the water. On Earth, wherever we find water, we find life. There was water on Mars billions of years ago and maybe just a few hours ago," said Ed Weiler, associate administrator for space science for NASA. 


The US space agency, which has chalked up two costly failures in its quest to explore Mars in recent years, warned that the task would not be easy. 

chalk[動詞] チョークで書く; チョークを塗る;チョークで書く、〜を記録する、（得点を）書き留める、得点を得る、〜の勘定に付ける、収益をあげる、心にとどめる、達成するchalk up a few more years' experienceもう2〜3年経験を積む

"It's not a trip to the beach on a Sunday afternoon," Weiler said. 


"We can have a bad day on Mars. Wind. Bad weather. We are trying to predict the weather on Mars for January 2004." 


Of 30 attempted Mars missions over the past 40 years, just 12 have succeeded, he said. 


The US spacecraft will be competing in the search for Martian life with a European rival already in space. Europe's Mars Express left Monday and is scheduled to finish its trip a few days before the first US spacecraft arrives. 


The rivals launched their missions so close together because Mars is now at its closest position to the Earth, an event that occurs just once every 26 months. 


The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is spending 800 million dollars to get this mission right. 


It aims to overcome the disappointment of the Orbiter, which took off in December 1998 and disappeared on arrival, as well as the Polar Lander rocket, which crashed into the planet in 1999 when its landing system broke down. 


A US Viking probe was the first vehicle to land on Mars in 1976. In the 1997 US Pathfinder mission, a small robot roamed the planet's surface to gather information. 

roamed : 歩き回った


This time, NASA has decided to revert to its Pathfinder landing system, which uses parachutes and air bags to slow down the spacecraft and cushion the impact. 


Each vessel will bounce about 10 times on the Martian surface before coming to a standstill. 


The two six-wheeled robots will be put out on the opposite sides of Mars and go about for three months collecting geological samples. 


Powered by solar energy, the robots will be able to move 40 meters (125 feet) each Martian day, as much as during the whole Pathfinder mission in 1997. 


The MER robot has a telescopic arm including a camera which will be able to take 360-degree color images. It also has equipment to scratch and dig into the surface. 

A squad of 150 scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, will gather data transmitted by the robots to Earth via two US satellites in orbit around Mars: the Global Surveyor and Odyssey probes. 

The data will help scientists on Earth decide the robots' route on Mars for the following day. 

Water in its liquid form is not a feature of the Martian surface but topography that seems in part to have been crisscrossed by running water has led many researchers to believe it may have been there in the past. 

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Bad Weather Delays Mars Probe Launch in Florida
Sun Jun 8, 3:18 PM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo! 


By Broward Liston 

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Reuters) - Bad weather on Sunday forced NASA (news - web sites) to postpone the launch of its latest mission to Mars by at least a day as gathering thunderclouds threatened the safety of the afternoon liftoff. 

thundercloud[名詞] 雷雲; 積乱雲;

The first of two robotic rovers destined for the Martian surface will remain atop its Delta 2 rocket for another try Monday, although the weather forecast is for more afternoon thunderstorms and improves only slightly Tuesday. 


Should the skies remain clear Monday, liftoff has been rescheduled for 2:02 p.m. EDT. 

EDT, E.D.T.《略》 《米》 Eastern daylight time 東部夏時間.

The rover and its twin, smaller than golf carts but costing a combined $800 million, are to search for evidence that water existed on Earth's neighbor long enough for life to evolve. 


The second rover is scheduled for launch on June 25 and both will arrive at Mars in January. 


NASA waited until Sunday morning to announce the names of the two rovers. 


The first to launch will be "Spirit," and its twin "Opportunity." They were selected from among 10,000 names submitted by American school children. 

Japanese and European satellites are already on their way to the red planet and two NASA satellites are orbiting Mars. 


SOPHISTICATED ROBOTS 


The missions are taking advantage of a rare proximity between the planets that has cut the normal travel time from nine to 10 months to just seven months for missions launched this year. 


The two NASA rovers are the most sophisticated robots sent to another planet. They will land on opposite sides of the planet and have few limitations on where they can travel and what they can study. 

limitations : 制限limitation[名詞] 制限; 欠点; 制約; 障害; 限度;

Their mission is water. On Earth, the presence of water invariably means life, but scientists do not know if the water once prevalent on Mars was there long enough for life to generate. 

invariably[副詞] 変わらずに; いつもきまって; 必ず;

If the rovers land successfully, NASA hopes they will send back some of the most dramatic pictures ever taken of the Martian surface. 


NASA hopes to settle the question of life on Mars by the end of the decade. 


Both names for the rovers were suggested by Sofi Collis, 9, of Scarsdale, Arizona, who was on hand for Sunday's pre-launch ceremony at the Kennedy Space Center (news - web sites). 

[動詞] 手を貸す; 手渡す; 渡す; 送る; 巻く;

[名詞] 手; 側; 手助け; 所有; 針; 署名; 働き手; 管理; 乗組員; 書体; 握手; 手腕; 房; 誓約; やり方; ハンド;

Collis was born in Siberia and brought to the United States when she was adopted at age 2. She "has in her heritage and upbringing the soul of two great space-faring countries," NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe said.

 
faring : 上手くいっている

Spacecraft names are very important to NASA. It counts on people remembering that Neil Armstrong said "The Eagle has landed" from the surface of the moon, while it might prefer the public forget the name Climate Orbiter, a Mars mission that went awry when someone on the ground forgot to convert inches to centimeters.

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