英语PK台 第245期:一代又一代人的太空探索传承

 　　Track one

　　Human have looked at the night sky for as long as we have existed
　　If we have to pick one date for the Space Race to be born it was 4 October 1957
　　When the Soviet 1 Union launched Sputnik One – the World's first satellite
　　Sending a satellite is one thing but humans want to go beyond that final frontier
　　When Yuri Gagarin launched in 1961 he almost instantly became a worldwide hero
　　What is really sobering is that going into space – even although we have been doing it for nearly half a century
　　We are still pushing our science and engineering to its very limits
　　Since 1961 the number of people who have ever been into space would fit inside one Boeing 747
　　Less than 570 people – and of those 18 have died in the process
　　It is still amazingly challenging
　　There was a whole generation that were inspired by it
　　The children of Apollo
　　It is that whole spirit of exploration that inspires
　　And ultimately that is what we have tried to harness in the National Space Academy programme
　　When we think about space science there are actually a number of different parts to it
　　There is astronomy - which is looking out there
　　There is exploration– which is going out there
　　Then there is the critical part which is space application – looking back at Planet Earth
　　What people don't realise is that there are so many applications of space science that are fundamental to our 21st century ways of life
　　Questions
　　1.When did the Spacerace start? 4 October 1957
　　2.What happened that day? Soviet Union launched Sputnik One
　　3.Who was the first man in space? Yuri Gagarin
　　4.How many people have been into space? 570
　　5.What do people not realise? That there are so many applications of space science that are fundamental to our 21st century ways of life
　　Track Two
　　The fact that we can do climate change modelling
　　The fact that we can do weather forecasting
　　The fact that we have a global telecommunication 2 industry
　　The global village has become a reality only because we have telecommunication satellites
　　When you look at the way that space has permeated 3 all of our lives
　　It is not just inspirational it is absolutely critical for us to keep pushing forwards
　　If we are going to do that we need to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers
　　That is what the Academy is all about
　　Telecommunications– Telstar – when we had the pictures sent across from America – that was a revolution
　　Now we can do everything through Space
　　When Telstar was launched in 1962
　　Even then – if you had told the people who launched Telstar that within their lifetimes they would see hundreds of these satellites orbiting 36,000 kilometres above the Equator
　　That we would have the Global Village where we could get almost instantaneous news coverage 4 from around the world
　　Even they would have been amazed because not only have we pushed forward in our space technology
　　We have also pushed forward in our communications and computer applications
　　What you can fit onto a satellite now is orders of magnitude more than even a satellite ten years ago
　　All of this is improving our everyday lives in so many different ways
　　Questions
　　1.What are some of the things we can do today thanks to space research? Climate modelling, weather forecasting, global telecommunications
　　2.What is absolutely critical? To keep pushing forward
　　3.Who needs to be inspired? The next generation of scientists and engineers
　　4.What was the first telecommunications satellite? Telstar
　　5.What can the Global Village receive through space satellites? Almost instantaneous worldwide news coverage