Partie 3 : Sciences et techniques
Chapitre 22 : Space exploration
Flying into space, page 50
| a spaceship |
| a probe |
| a launch-pad |
| the countdown |
| the blastoff |
| to lift off |
| to propel |
| to soar into space |
| to go into orbit |
| to jettison |
| space junk |
| a manned station |
| a spacesuit |
| weightlessness |
| vacuum |
| to spacewalk |
| a rover |
| to dock with |
| a splashdown |
| spin-offs |
Once the spacecraft Orion reaches orbit, its Launch Abort System is jettisoned.
The heat shield is designed to protect the spacecraft and astronaut crews from the 2,200 degree Celsius heat produced when the space capsule is re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.
1957-2009: a few landmarks, page 50
| 1957: First Artificial Satellite | The Soviet Union ushers in a new era — the space age — with the launch of Sputnik 1. |
| 1958 : NASA created | The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a civilian agency. |
| 1961 : First human in space | The Soviet Union launches cosmonaut Yuri A. Gagarin on a 108-minute flight. |
| July 20, 1969: First Manned Moon Landing | Apollo 11 touches down on the moon: “That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.” (Neil Armstrong) |
| 1971: First Rover on the Moon | Apollo 15 carries an electric cart to the moon. |
| 1975: First International Space Rendezvous | Crews from Apollo 18 and Soyuz 19 meet in Earth orbit. |
| 1976: First U.S. Mars Landing | Viking 1 soft-lands on Mars. |
| 1986: Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion | It disintegrates 73 seconds after liftoff. All seven astronauts are killed. |
| 1990: Hubble Space Telescope Deployed | It will be upgraded three times. |
| 1997: Pathfinder Probe Landing on Mars | The first Mars rover, Sojourner, lands on Mars. |
| 2004: Arrival of Cassini Spacecraft at Saturn | After seven years in transit, the first probe to circle Saturn reaches its destination and breaks into orbit. |
| 2009 : NASA spacecraft Kepler launched | It searches for planets outside our solar system. |
Food for thought, page 51
Health and Medicine
3. WARP 75 used to relieve pain in bone marrow transplant patients, and to combat the symptoms of bone atrophy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease.
Public Safety
2. A reliable anti-icing and deicing system which allows pilots to safely fly through ice encounters.
4. Steel coatings devised to make high-rise buildings and public structures safer.
Consumer, Home, and Recreation
1. Products based on microalgae used in enriched baby food.
5. A material commonly known as “memory foam”; it is incorporated into a host of widely used and recognized products including mattresses, pillows.
8. A cordless miniature vacuum cleaner.
Environmental and Agricultural Resources
6. Silicon-based cells used in harnessing solar energy.
7. A product used to safely and permanently clean petroleum-based pollutants from water.