リーディング＆リスニング “Moon Water Discovery”
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エピソード31の ”Moon Water Discovery“を リーディング＆リスニング。
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Introductionの内容
NASA has found a new water source on the Moon! It’s an exciting discovery, because it could help with the space agency’s plans to set up a research base there. Future astronauts could use that water to drink, grow crops and even refuel their rockets.
NASAは月に新しい水源を発見しました！ これはエキサイティングな発見です。なぜなら、宇宙機関がそこに研究基地を設立する計画に役立つ可能性があるため。 将来の宇宙飛行士は、その水を使って飲んだり、作物を育てたり、ロケットに燃料を補給したりすることができます。
CALE: C’mon. We’re almost there.
NAT: This better be good.
CALE: There it is…
NAT: You’re kidding.
Yeah finding water on Earth is not that big of a deal. But stumbling upon it more than 300,000 kays away on a surface that looks like this, well that’s a different story.
SCIENTIST: Finding water ice on the Moon could be one of the most important discoveries of the space age because it’s basically transforming the Moon from a desert to an oasis.
Thirst quenching ability aside, water can be a precious and extremely useful resource in space and it’s why scientists have spent decades looking for it. We’ve got exciting results from a textbook mission. Over the years, Hydrogen and Oxygen, the building blocks of water, have been found in frozen craters on the north and south pole of the Moon. But we’ve never been sure if its usable or actually water for that matter. And even if it was, tucked away in these cold dark craters, it’s very hard to access. It’s why this is such a big deal.
ALAN DUFFY, CHIEF SCIENTIST ROYAL INSTITUTE OF AUSTRALIA: What they have found is real water, liquid water glinting back at us, essentially from the surface of the Moon.
Yeah, for the first time ever we’ve found liquid water, real water, in the sunlit easier to get to parts of the Moon. It’s partly thanks to this souped up 747 known as SOFIA. Inside this plane is a massive infrared telescope which scientists use to explore the solar system, and now the Moon. Now we’re not exactly talking celestial swimming pools or lunar lakes, it’s actually tiny amounts trapped in lunar glass or soil.
CALE, REPORTER: Imagine this fish tank was the entire Clavius Crater, where the discovery was made, this is how much water they actually found. It may not seem like a lot, but it could be really useful.
PROF. FRANS VON DER DUNK, SPACE LAW EXPERT: Water is crucial for life. If we ever want to have people living in outer space for longer periods of time, we need water.
NASA wants to get astronauts permanently living and working on the Moon by the end of the decade as part of its Artemis program, but to do all of this they need a massive supply of water. Water to drink, help grow their food and also for something else. See water is made up of two parts hydrogen and one-part oxygen. When you split them apart, recombine them and ignite them, well, that can make rocket fuel.
This means the Moon can be used a bit like an interplanetary petrol station. Rockets can be refueled and then go further into the galaxy, or even put a human on Mars. So, who knows, in a few years we might be clinking our glasses with a nice refreshing drop of Moon water.
