Lesson 40
A One Way Trip
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Translation
The first journey to the moon was made in the year 1969 by the Apollo 11 rocket, by which three people were sent to the moon. On this journey, the Apollo 11 spaceship traversed 385,000 kilometres and this journey took a little more than one week. Now, many have the dream of walking on the surface of Mars, although this journey is very different from the journey to the moon. The distance from Mars to Earth is 140 times greater; that is 56 million kilometres, and this is a journey in which Man is exiting the Earth’s orbit for the first time.
NASA has previously sent an apparatus like a car to Mars; an apparatus that moves about on Mars and sends pictures to earth. Now NASA wants to send humans to Mars. It is a difficult, dangerous and expensive journey, and some of the necessary technology for this job still does not exist.
Engineers and scientists who are working on this project have to solve the problems of this mission. Problems like food, water, radiation, and the astronauts’ physical and mental problems. The rocket that they are making for this work will be larger than the Statue of Liberty in New York and it is scheduled to be tested in the year 2017.
Anybody who wants to go from Earth to Mars needs to be extremely brave because it is likely that this mission will be without return.
NASA is hopeful that it will undertake this mission in the year 2033. The astronauts who will go to Mars are probably school children at the moment. Perhaps you are one of them.
Of course the private Dutch company, ‘Mars One’ has been accepting registrations for a trip to Mars in 2022 for a while now.