[ti:China and UAE Send Their First Spacecraft to Mars]
[by:www.21voa.com]
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[00:00.04]Two countries sent their first spacecraft to Mars this week
[00:06.56]– China and the United Arab Emirates.
[00:10.40]A Chinese spacecraft went into orbit around Mars on Wednesday.
[00:16.88]It followed a United Arab Emirates spacecraft
[00:21.32]that successfully entered orbit on Tuesday.
[00:25.68]Both countries celebrated successfully reaching Martian orbit.
[00:31.76]"Entering orbit has been successful...
[00:35.16]making it our country's first artificial Mars satellite,"
[00:40.12]the Chinese space agency announced.
[00:43.72]China's Tianwen-1 spacecraft spent seven months on the trip to Mars
[00:50.80]and traveled nearly 475 million kilometers.
[00:56.84]Tianwen, the name of an ancient poem,
[01:00.64]means "Quest for Heavenly Truth."
[01:04.16]The UAE's spacecraft is called Amal.
[01:08.72]Amal is the Arabic word for Hope.
[01:12.72]Messages on the Hope Mars Mission's Twitter page
[01:17.68]announced the news in Arabic and English on Tuesday.
[01:22.96]"204 days and more than 480 million kms later,
[01:29.52]the #HopeProbe is now in the Capture Orbit of #Mars," one post said.
[01:36.96]The trips to Mars come at a time when both countries
[01:41.92]have made quick progress in their space programs.
[01:46.08]China's secretive, military-linked space program
[01:50.96]brought moon rocks back to Earth in December.
[01:55.16]That is the first time a country has returned moon rocks
[02:00.28]back to Earth since the 1970s.
[02:04.32]China was also the first country to successfully land a spacecraft
[02:10.64]on the little-explored far side of the moon in 2019.
[02:16.92]The UAE first announced its planned mission in 2014
[02:23.20]and launched a National Space Program in 2017
[02:27.92]to develop local experts.
[02:30.60]In 2019, Hazza al-Mansouri
[02:34.48]became the first Emirati in space
[02:37.88]when he flew to the International Space Station.
[02:42.12]Both countries succeeded at something
[02:45.24]that has been difficult to do in the past.
[02:49.04]About 60 percent of all Mars missions have ended in failure,
[02:55.48]crashing, burning up or failing to reach orbit.
[03:00.20]China's spacecraft will send a vehicle, called a rover,
[03:05.76]to land on the Martian surface.
[03:08.88]The goal is to search for signs of life
[03:12.96]in the area called Utopia Planitia,
[03:16.96]where the U.S. Viking 2 lander touched down in 1976.
[03:23.56]The UAE's spacecraft will remain in a very high Martian orbit.
[03:30.04]From that orbit, the spacecraft will be able to observe
[03:35.16]the Martian atmosphere at all times.
[03:39.24]Along with Tianwen-1, Amal will join six other spacecraft
[03:44.72]already operating around Mars.
[03:48.12]Three are from the United States,
[03:51.16]two are European and one is from India.
[03:56.04]A NASA rover called Perseverance
[03:59.28]is aiming for a February 18 landing on Mars.
[04:04.24]It, too, will search for signs of ancient life,
[04:09.56]collecting rocks that will be returned to Earth in about 10 years.
[04:15.92]All three of the latest missions were launched in July
[04:20.80]to take advantage of the closer distance
[04:24.28]between Earth and Mars at that time.
[04:28.20]Such an event happens only once every two years.
[04:32.48]The U.S. first successfully landed on Mars
[04:36.68]with two NASA Viking missions in the 1970s.
[04:42.00]An American lander and rover are in operation there today.
[04:48.64]I'm John Russell. 更多听力请访问21VOA.COM