Пояснения к тексту.
life expectancy – предполагаемый срок службы
decade – десятилетие
life support – система жизнеобеспечения
service module – рабочий отсек
control module – отсек управления
I. Ответьте на следующие вопросы к тексту.
1. What is the International Space Station designed for?
2. What countries took part in building the station?
II. Выпишите из текста предложения, подтверждающие следующие высказывания.
a) Опыт, приобретенный при работе на станции Мир, был использован при реализации проекта МКС.
b) К тому времени полеты челноков и ракет для проведения монтажных работ и пополнения запасов станут обычным делом.
III. Переведите письменно заглавие текста и абзацы 3, 4, 5 .
КОНТРОЛЬНАЯ РАБОТА № 8
Прочитайте текст, постарайтесь понять его, чтобы выполнить задания к тексту.
Transport for Tomorrow
guidance system – система наведения
to pilot – вести, направлять
sophisticated – сложный
gasoline-powered car – автомобиль с бензиновым двигателем
exhaust – выхлоп, выхлопная труба
intake – всасывание
instrument panel – приборная панель
ignition – зажигание
display screen – экран индикатора
control system – система управления
sideways – боком
longitudinal axis – продольная ось
windscreen – переднее (ветровое) стекло
navigation Earth satellite – навигационный спутник Земли
piston – поршень
pressure ring – компрессионное кольцо
1. What car may become a usual means of transport in the future?
2. In the future driving cars may become less tiring (утомительный). Why?
a) Настает время, когда люди с трудом будут добираться на работу из-за простаивания в “пробках” и малоэффективности автомобилей.
b) Для передвижения по городу можно будет воспользоваться общественными автомобилями.
III. Переведите письменно заглавие текста и абзацы 4, 5, 6.
Made in Space
superconductor – сверхпроводник
alloy – сплав
pave the way (for) – подготовить почву (для)
prolonged weightlessness – длительная невесомость
zero gravity state – состояние невесомости
space vehicle – космический корабль
i.e. (id est)– т.е. (то есть)
cancel out – нейтрализовать
gravity – сила тяжести
convection – конвекция (перенос тепла движущейся средой, например, потоками воздуха)
acceleration rate – степень ускорения
propulsion system – система тяги
genetic engineering –генная инженерия
manned space vehicle – космический корабль с человеком на борту
1. What is the practical importance of orbital space stations?
2. What condition cannot be simulated on the Earth?
Фонд оценочных материалов по математике 5 класс к учебнику Вилен1 000 самых важных слов английского языка.docxФормирование функциональной грамотности на уроках русского языкаGateway Учебник английский ключи A2 (2).pdfИтоговая контрольная работа по литературе 8 класс по ФГОС (к учеУрок русского языка в совмещённых классах.docxA Grammar of the English Language. Грамматика английского языка Поиск и анализ инновационных технических решений в области техноИнформация День русского языка.docxдень гос языка 2.docx
Упражнение 27. Дайте для следующих слов:
to start, movement, nowadays, quality, research, various, a means, manufacture, possess, to occur, consequently, numerous, spacecraft, to use, to substitute, certain;
distant, to stop, few, to reduce, invaluable, unusual, dependence, minimum.
Выберите английский эквивалент русского предложения из предлагаемых вариантов.
may go home. must go home. He had to go home.
must go home at 5 o’clock. He is to go home at 5 o’clock.
He may go home at 5 o’clock.
may go home at 5. He can go home at 5. He must go home at 5.
must go home earlier. He should go home earlier. He will
have to go home earlier.
should go home. He may go home. He had to go home.
can walk very quickly. will be able to walk very quickly. He could walk very quickly.
is permitted to go home after 3. He was permitted to go home after 3. He will be permitted to go home after 3.
is not allowed to go home at once. He could not go home at once. He needn’t go home at once.Дайте недостающие формы глаголов, запомните их.
lost, risen, pay, leading, struck, sat.
The first step in any industrialization project, for example, on the Moon should be preparation for plant construction. It is economically desirable to use local materials for this. It is well-known that metals form the most important group of engineering materials. One must know that they possess necessary mechanical and physical properties. They can be easily fabricated into various forms by a variety of techniques. They are hard, tough strong and temperature-resistant, a combination of properties not available in any other materials. The properties of metals can be changed by. heat treatment so that the fabrication is much easier since the work pieces can have properties quite different from those needed in the final product.
Exercise 1. Answer the questions.
1. What condition on board a space vehicle can’t be simulated on Earth? (prolonged weightlessness). 2. What eliminates gravity during a space flight? (inertia). 3. What can be the industrial use of weightlessness? (the production of new materials with unusual properties). 4. What industrial materials can be produced in space? (superconductors, new kinds of alloys, magnetic materials, laser glass, polymers, plastics, etc). 5. What is Russia’s contribution to the development of methods and means of industrial material production in space? (over 600 technological experiments carried out at the Russian orbital space stations). 6. What are the results of these experiments? (much better properties of the materials obtained under the zero-gravity condition than those produced on Earth). 7. What is needed for industrial material production in space? (special space platforms).
Exercise 2. Make a sentence out of the two parts,
larger scale is being carried out in Russia, the USA, Europe and Japan.
3. Read and learn.
Tom: Are you going to attend the seminar tonight?
Bill: I should go. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to do so.
Why should you go there?
B.: The speaker will talk about composite ceramics. I must know
all about this subject. As you know, I’ll do some experimental work in this field next June. So I’ll have to know about it.
In that case, you ought to cancel your other plans
and attend the seminar. You shouldn’t miss
B.: You are right. But I can’t go.
Why can’t you?
B.: Don’t you remember We are to take an exam in
French tomorrow. I have to study for the examination.
T. Do you have to study? Is it a necessity?
B.: Well, I suppose the expression «have to study» is too strong. No
one is forcing me. But I really ought to study tonight. Shouldn’t you do it too?
I don’t have to study. I studied last night and I am sure I can
pass it. Besides that, I must attend the seminar.
B.: Why must you attend it?
Have you forgotten? I must introduce the speaker to the audi
B.: Yes, that’s right.
Well, I have to go now. I may be late. I’ll see you later.
Exercise 4. Speak about:
Exercise S. Read and smile.
The teacher was trying to explain the fundamentals of Science to her class. «Sir Isaak Newton was sitting under a tree looking up into it when an apple fell on his head, and from that he could discover the law of gravity. Wasn’t that wonderful?»
«Yes, it certainly was», a pupil said, «and if he had been at school at his books, he wouldn’t have discovered anything».
A Trick on a President
W.H. Harrison was the ninth President of the United States. Like so many other early American presidents he was born in a small town. As a boy, he was extremely quiet. In fact, he was so quiet that he had the reputation of being very stupid The town people therefore often used to play tricks on him. For example, they would put a nickel and a dime in front of him and tell him to take whichever one he wanted. He would always choose the nickel and they would laugh at him.
One day, a woman took pity on him. She said: «William, why do you always choose the nickel instead of a dime? Don’t you know that a dime, though smaller in size than a nickel, is worth much more than a nickel?» «Certainly I know it», William answered. «But if I chose the dime, they wouldn’t play the trick on me any more.»
Прочитайте
текст и найдите абзацы, в которых
сообщается о результатах и значении
проведенных
экспериментов по производству материалов
в космосе; переведите:
This
label «Made in Space» for industrial materials will
probably surprise no one in the not so distant future. They may
include superconductors, new kinds of alloys, substances with
peculiar magnetic properties, supertransparent laser glass’,
polymers, plastics, and so on. Numerous experiments carried out at
the Russian orbital space stations have paved the way2
to the development of methods and means of industrial production of
new materials of better quality on board3
a spacecraft. Experts estimate that within a few coming years
industrial production of various materials will be started in space.
Conditions
on board a space vehicle drbiting the Earth greatly differ from
those on its surface. However all of these conditions can be
simulated4
on earth, except for one — — prolonged weightlessness. Weightlessness
can be created on Earth, but only for a few seconds. A space flight
is another matter: a satellite orbiting the Earth is in a dynamic
zero-gravity state, i.e., when gravity is cancelled out5
by inertia.
What
can weightlessness be used for? Many well-known processes go on
differently due to the absence of weight. The Archimedes principle is
no longer valid and, consequently, stable-state6
liquid mixtures can be obtained, the components of which would
immediately separate on Earth because of different density. In case
of melts’ of metals, glasses or semiconductors, they can be cooled
down to the solidification point even in space and then brought back
to Earth. Such materials will possess quite unusual qualities.
In space there is no
gravitational convection , i.e., movements of gases or liquids caused
by difference of temperatures. It is well-known that various defects
in semiconductors occur because of convection. Biochemists also have
to deal with the worst aspects of convection, for example, in the
production of superpure biologically active substances. Convection
makes it very difficult on Earth.
The experiments proved that
many of the properties of the materials obtained under the
zero-gravity condition were much better than those produced on Earth.
Besides, it has been established that it is necessary to develop a
new science — physics of the weightless state — which forms the
theoretical basis for space industry and space materials study. This
science has basically been developed.The methods of mathematical
modelling of the hydromechanical process under the zero-gravity
condition have been created with the help of computers.
Special space vehicles will
also be needed for industrial production of new-generation materials.
Research has shown that the acceleration rate on board these vehicles
must be reduced to the minimum. It was found that space platforms in
independent flight carrying the equipment were most suitable for
producing materials. These vehicles will have to use their own
propulsion systems to approach their base orbital station after a
certain period of time. The cosmonauts on board the station can
replace the specimens. Many new and very interesting projects are
planned for orbital stations. Here is one of them. Convection does
not allow to grow large protein crystals on Earth. But it is possible
to grow such crystals under the zero-gravity condition and to study
their structure. The data obtained during the experiments can be
useful for the work of laboratories on Earth in using the methods of
gene engineering . Thus, it may be possible to make new materials in
space and also to obtain valuable scientific data for new highly
efficient technologies on Earth.
Preparatory
work for industrial production in space at a larger scale is being
carried out in Russia, the USA, Western Europe and Japan. It should
be said that according to the estimates of American experts
production of materials in space is to bring 60-billion dollars by
the year 2000.
Advanced ceramic materials
have such interesting properties that mechanical engineers are
becoming more and more interested in their use as structural parts
(конструкционные
детали).
Ceramic cutting tools have
been in use for some lime. However, it is only during the last twenty
years that there have been rapid development in this field because of
the development of new composite ceramics.
Composite materials are materials in which two or more different;
substances, such as metals, ceramics, glasses, or polymers are
combined without chemical reaction. As a result one can produce a
material with properties different from those of any of the
individual constituents. The constituents of a composite would retain
their individual characteristics.
Прочитайте
текст, выделите интересные для вас факты
и расскажите по-английски. Ancient
Steel-Making Secret
When two metallurgists at
Standford University were trying to produce a «superplastic»
metal they became interested in the secret of Damascus steel, the
legendary material used by numerous warriors (воины)
of the past, including Crusaders (крестоносцы).
Its formula had been lost for generations.
Analyses of a new steel
revealed properties almost identical to those they found in Damascus
steel, although their own plastic steel had been produced by
present-day methods.
The remarkable
characteristics of Damascus steel became known to Europe when the
Crusaders reached the Middle East in the 11th century. They
discovered that swords (меч)
of the metal could split (рассечь)
a feather( перо)
in air and at the same time retain their edge sharp through many
battles.
The secrets of Damascus
steel were known in many parts of the ancient world, especially in
Persia, where some of the finest specimens were produced. For eight
centuries the Arab sword makers kept the secret about their
techniques and methods. And with the invention of firearms
(огнестрельное
оружие),
the secret was lost and it was never fully rediscovered.
The two metallurgists
carried out a lot of researches. When they realized that they might
be close to the discovery of a new material, a sword fancier (знаток)
, at one of their demonstrations, pointed out that Damascus steel,
like their own product, was very rich in carbon. This led them to
conduct a comparative analysis of their steel and those of the
ancient weapons. As a result, it was found that a basic requirement
was a high carbon content. The two metallurgists believed it had to
be from 1 per cent to 2 per cent, compared to only a part of 1 per
cent in ordinary steel. Their research showed how to make steel of
even greater hardness than Damascus steel.
Прочитайте текст. Расскажите по-английски,
чем примечателен читальный зал Библиотеки
Британского музея и какие отделы имеются
в Британском музее.
The British Museum
The British Museum
consisting of the National Museum of Archeology and Ethnography and
the National Library is the largest and richest of its kind in the
world. Built in the middle of the last century it is situated in
central London which consists of quiet squares and streets.
The British Museum was founded by Act of Parliament in 1753 to bring
together the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, some others and future
addition to them.
Anthony Panizzi designed the
famous circular Reading Room at the British Museum.The first thing
that strikes a visitor on entering the Reading Room is its unusual
shape. It is a perfect circle. The superintendent (управляющий)
and his assistant sit in the centre of the room and they issue
(выдавать)
and collect books. Long rows of reading desks radiate to the outer
walls, like the spokes (спицы)
of the wheel.
Many famous people have used
the Reading Room at the British Museum. Of the many distinguished
people who have used the Reading Room no one was perhaps more regular
and more intent (целеустремленный)
than the German philosopher and socialist Karl Marx. Soon after he
arrived in England in 1849, Marx became a daily visitor of the
Reading Room, where he used to remain from nine in the morning till
closing time.
The British Museum has a
department of ethnography. Ethnograthy is concerned with primitive
people and their cultures in various stages of development as
revealed by their tools, ritual objects and various crafts (ремесло).
This collection is so va^t that only a tiny percentage is on show to
the general public. Then there is a department of prints and
drawings. There are also departments devoted to maps, coins and
medals. Visitors interested in chronology can see a large collection
of clocks and watches. Those who are interested in philately can find
a magnificent collection of postage stamps.
Соседние файлы в папке упр6
Прочитайте текст и найдите абзацы, в которых сообщается о результатах и значении проведенных экспериментов по производству материалов в космосе. Переведите
This label «Made in Space» for industrial materials will probably surprise no one in the not so distant future. They may include superconductors, new kinds of alloys, substances with peculiar magnetic properties, supertransparent laser glass, polymers, plastics, and so on. Numerous experiments carried out at the Russian orbital space stations have paved the way to the development of methods and means of industrial production of new materials of better quality on board a spacecraft. Experts estimate that within a few coming years industrial production of various materials will be started in space.
Conditions on board a space vehicle orbiting Earth greatly differ from those on its surface. However, all of these conditions can be simulated on Earth, except for one — prolonged weightlessness. Weightlessness can be created on Earth, but only for a few seconds. A space flight is another matter: a satellite orbiting Earth is in a dynamic zero-gravity state, i.e., when gravity is cancelled out
What can weightlessness be used for? Many well-known processes go on differently due to the absence of weight. The Archimedes principle is no longer valid and, consequently, stable-state liquid mixtures can be obtained, the components of which would immediately separate on Earth because of different density. In case of melts of metals, glasses or semiconductors, they can be cooled down to the solidification point even in space and then brought back to Earth. Such materials will possess quite unusual qualities.
In space there is no gravitational convection, i.e., movements of gases or liquids caused by difference of temperatures. It is well-known that various defects in semiconductors occur because of convection. Biochemists also have to deal with the worst aspects of convection, for example, in the production of superpure biologically active substances. Convection makes it very difficult on Earth.
The experiments proved that many of the properties of the materials obtained under the zero-gravity condition were much better than those produced on Earth. Besides, it has been established that it is necessary to develop a new science — physics of the weightless state — which forms the theoretical basis for space industry and space materials study. This science has basically been developed. The methods of mathematical modelling of the hydromechanical process under the zero-gravity condition have been created with the help of computers.
Special space vehicles will also be needed for industrial production of new-generation materials. Research has shown that the acceleration rate on board these vehicles must be reduced to the minimum. It was found that space platforms in independent flight carrying the equipment were most suitable for producing materials. These vehicles will have to use their own propulsion systems to approach their base orbital station after a certain period of time. The cosmonauts on board the station can replace the specimens. Many new and very interesting projects are planned for orbital stations. Here is one of them. Convection does not allow to grow large protein crystals on Earth. But it is possible to grow such crystals under the zero-gravity condition and to study their structure. The data obtained during the experiments can be useful for the work of laboratories on Earth in using the methods of gene engineering. Thus, it may be possible to make new materials in space and also to obtain valuable scientific data for new highly efficient technologies on Earth.
Preparatory work for industrial production in space at a larger scale is being carried out in Russia, the USA, Western Europe and
Japan. It should be said that according to the estimates of American experts production of materials in space is to bring 60 billion dollars in the future.
Notes to the Text
Упражнение 17. Просмотрите текст 6А и ответьте на вопросы.
What is this text about? 2. Have you seen the label «Made in Space» anywhere? 3. Why can’t certain materials be produced on Earth? 4. Can all the conditions on board a space vehicle be simulated on Earth? 5. When will it be possible to start industrial production of materials in space? What do you think about it? Can we start such production now? 6. Why can we obtain materials of better quality in space? 7. What equipment is needed for producing materials in space? 8. How will this equipment operate?
Составьте утверждения, выбрав правильный вариант согласно тексту 6А.
Найдите в тексте 6А модальные глаголы и их эквиваленты. Замените эквиваленты соответствующими модальными глаголами.
Упражнение 20. Выберите соответствующий модальный глагол.
Do you live far? (Can, must) we meet here at 7 o’clock? — We certainly (may, can). — I’ll see you later this evening, then.
Укажите предложения с модальными глаголами, выражающими необходимость совершения действия. Переведите.
Найдите предложения с эквивалентами модальных глаголов
1. Such metals as iron, cobalt, nickel and some alloys are much more magnetic than any other substances. 2. In the next few years Russian engineers are to complete the work on supercomputers. 3. The main aim of this article is to explain methods and means of space industrialization. 4. We are living in an electronic world. 5. A number of TV stations are to be linked up into a network. 6. Experiments for industrial production of materials in space are being carried out in many countries. 7. Weightlessness is created on Earth, but only for a few seconds. 8. The quality of these metal parts is to be very high. 9. It was found that the acceleration rate on board such vehicles was to be reduced to a minimum.
УПРАЖНЕНИЯ ДЛЯ САМОСТОЯТЕЛЬНОЙ РАБОТЫ
Упражнение 23. Определите, к каким частям речи относятся слова, и переведите их.
requirement, constituent, scientific, distance, agronomist, ancient, density, differ, hardness, structural, various, magnificent, presence, property, culture, conductor, presentation, probably.
Напишите глаголы, соответствующие словам.
surprisingly, difference, equipment, mixture, coming, estimation, weightlessness, production, separately, development, movement, disappearance, functional.
Образуйте прилагательные от существительных.
magnet, industry, absence, speciality, weight, probability, orbit, dynamics, preparation, supertransparency, independence, gravitation, superpurity, difficulty, variety.
Переведите слова, учитывая значение префикса
supercritical, superactive, supercooled, superalloy, superhard, superplastic.
Transport
for Tomorrow.
One
thing is certain about the public transport of the future: it must
be more efficient than it is today. The time is coming when it will
be quicker to fly across the Atlantic to New York than to travel from
home to office. The two main problems are: what vehicle shall we
use and how can we plan our use of it? There
are already some modern vehicles which are not yet in common
use, but which may become a usual means of transport in the
future. One of these is the small electric car: we go out into the
street,
find an empty car, get into it, drive to our destination, get out
and leave the car for the next person who comes along. In fact, there
may be no need to drive these cars. With an automatic guidance
system for cars being developed, it will be possible for us to
select
our destination just as today we select a telephone number, and our
car will move automatically to the address we want. For
long journeys in private cars one can also use an automatic guidance
system. Arriving at the motorway, a driver will select the lane1
he wishes to use, switch over to automatic driving, and then relax
— dream, read the newspaper, have a meal, flirt with his passenger
— while the car does the work for him. Unbelievable? It is already
possible. Just as in many ships and aircraft today we are piloted
automatically for the greater part of the journey, so in the future
we can also have this luxury in our own cars. A
decade ago, the only thing electronic on most automobiles was
the radio. But at present sophisticated electronics is playing a big
part in current automotive research. For example, in every
gasoline-powered2
car that General Motors Corporation makes there
is a small computer continuously monitoring the exhaust. The
device, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, adjusts the vehicle
carburetor fuel intake3
to get the best fuel economy. Ford cars are
equipped with an electronic instrument panel that, among other
things4,
will calculate how far one can drive on the fuel left in
the tank. It will also estimate the time of arrival at destination
and
tell the driver what speed he has averaged5
since turning on the
ignition. According
to specialists these features made possible by microelectronics
are only the beginning. Radar may control the brakes to avoid
collisions, and a display screen may show the car’s position on
the road. Recently a radar to be mounted on lorries and cars has been
designed in the USA. The radar aerial looks like a third headlight
placed directly above the bumper. Having summed up the information
about the speed and distance of various objects ahead, the computer
detects all possible dangers and their nature. A third component
in the system is a monitor on the instrument panel. The radar only
observes objects ahead of the vehicle. It is automatically turned on
when the speed exceeds ten miles an hour. The green light on the
panel
indicates that the system is on. The yellow light warns of
stationary
objects ahead, or something moving slower than the car. The red
light and buzzer warn that the speed should go down. Another red
light and sound signal make the driver apply the brakes. A Japanese
company is designing a car of a new generation. When
completed, the new model will have a lot of unusual characteristics.
The car’s four-wheel control system will ensure movement
diagonally and even sideways, like a crab, at right angles to the
longitudinal axis. This is especially important when leaving the car
in parking places. To help the driver get information while
concentrating
on the road, the most important data will be projected on
the wind screen. A tourist travelling in such a car will not lose his
way even in Sahara with its impassable roads: a navigation Earth
satellite
will indicate the route. A
new ceramic engine has been developed in Japan. Many important
parts as pistons, pressure rings6,
valves and some others have
been made of various ceramic materials, piston rings7
made of silicon
materials being in many respects better than those of steel. They
withstand temperatures up to 1,000 °C. Therefore, the engine does
not need a cooling system.
A
New Era for Aircraft
Aviation
experts expect that today’s aircraft will begin to be replaced
with some new form of supersonic transport in a few years time.
A 21st century hypersonic aircraft may open a new age of aircraft
design. The
designers of this country displayed the project of such a suI
personic passenger liner among the prospective models at one of I:
the latest Aerospace Salon held on the old Le Bourget airfield1
in I
Paris. An elongated fuselage with a sharp nose and without a
horizontal
stabilizer makes it look more like a rocket. The speed matches
the looks2.
This plane will fly at a speed five to six times
above the speed of sound, e.g., it will cover the distance between
Tokyo
and Moscow in less than two hours. The diameter of the fu-
selage
will be 4 meters and the overall length 100 meters, with the
cabin accomodating 300 passengers. The future superplanes of such a
class will have no windows, but the passengers can enjoy3
watch-
ing the panorama of the Earth on the TV monitor at the front of the
cabin. They will fly so fast that ordinary aircraft windows would
make the structure too weak to withstand the stresses at such a
speed. At high velocities the air resistance in the lower atmosphere
is so great that the skin is heated to very high temperature. The
only
way out is to fly higher. Therefore, airliners’ routes will mainly
lie in the stratosphere. In
general, to build a reliable hypersonic plane one has to over-
come a whole set of technological and scientific difficulties. Apart
from creating highly economical combined engines and heat-insulating
materials4,
designers have to make such an amount of thermodynamic
computations that can’t be performed without using
supercomputers. One of the ways to make planes as economi-cal
as possible is lightening the aircraft by substituting new com-posite
materials for conventional metal alloys. Accounting for5
less than 5 per cent of the overall aircraft weight now, the
percentage of composite
material parts will exceed 25 per cent in new generation models.
An extensive use of new materials combined with better aerodynamics
and engines will allow increasing fuel efficiency by one-third6.
Because
of the extreme temperatures generated by the atmosphere
friction, a hypersonic craft will also require complicated pooling
measures. One possibility is using cryogenic fuels, such as liquid
hydrogen, as both coolants7
and propellants. The fuel flow-ing through the aircraft’s skin would
cool the surfaces as it vaporizes
before being injected into combustion chamber. In
addition, specialists in many countries are currently working on
new propeller engines considered much more economical and less noisy
than jets. The only disadvantage is that propeller planes fly
slower than jet planes. However, it has recently been announced that
specialists succeeded in8
solving this problem. As a result a ventilator engine with a
propeller of ten fibre-glass blades has been built,
each being five meters long. It will be mounted in the experi-mental
passenger plane.
Descending
to New Ocean Depths
We
know little about the ocean yet. The dream of exploring under
the waves is almost as old as seagoing. Legend says that Alexander
the Great submerged himself in a round glass container, and Leonardo
da Vinci designed a submersible vehicle in his notebooks centuries
before Jules Verne wrote «Twenty Thousand Leagues Under
the Sea». If their dreams had been realized and such a craft had
been constructed, mankind would have known about the secrets of Ocean
much earlier. However, already during the Swiss National Fair in 1964
a submersible vehicle took thousands of people deep into
Lake Geneva. Not
long ago, the crafts that penetrated the ocean depths were almost as
primitive as the marine life they watched around them. However,
non-military deep sea ships, so-called submersibles, were
progressing rapidly. Russian, French, Japanese and American
scientists are developing crafts that can submerge deeper, stay
longer
and find out more than earlier apparatuses. Soon,
one of the most advanced crafts, a one passenger submerging
ship, will be tested. It may be able to take explorers and
technicians
deeper than ever before (up to 3,300 feet) and perform difficult
underwater tasks with extreme precision. This
new submersible is essentially a spherical transparent plastic hull1
mounted on a metal platform. It looks like an underwater helicopter
and can manoeuvre itself in its water environment with some of
the versatility2
of a helicopter due to the use of a cycloid rotor3
instead
of conventional marine-propeller screws4.
It is expected that
this apparatus will move around the ocean like a sports car. However,
the breakthrough5
that will make this particular craft quite
different from other manned submersibles is a mechanical hand called
the sensory manipulator system6.
Miniature video cameras
on the «wrist» of the manipulator provide it with vision and
microphones enable the submersible to «hear». This manipulator
system is designed to lift up to 120 pounds and will also be able to
perform such accurate scientific work as collecting samples of
ocean-floor
minerals and marine life. When demonstrated, it lifted crystal
glasses, drew pictures and wrote with a pen. Some
scientists are trying to develop the world’s deepest manned
submersible. When completed, it will be capable of submerging to
the depths of 21,000 feet. Its crew will be in a pressure-resistant
titanium-alloy cabin. This craft will be driven by a battery-operated
electric motor and will work for up to nine hours. It
will record images with colour television and stereo cameras and will
collect samples by manipulating two robotic arms. If
such crafts are constructed on a large scale, we shall be able not
only to spend our holidays enjoying the underwater life, but also
grow and cultivate sea plants, fish and pearls. It will be possible
provided
scientists, designers and politicians from all over the world
join their efforts and solve the most important problems in this
field.
In the «War
of Worlds» written before the turn of the last century H.
Wells told a fantastic story of how Martians almost invaded our
Earth. Their weapon was a mysterious «sword of heat». Today Wells’
sword of heat has come to reality in the laser. The name stands for
light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Laser, one
of the most sophisticated inventions of man, produces an
intensive beam of light of a very pure single colour. It represents
the fulfilment of one of the mankind’s oldest dreams of technology to
provide1 a light beam intensive enough to vaporize the hardest and
most heat-resistant materials. It can indeed make lead run like
water, or, when focused, it can vaporize any substance on the earth.
There is no material unamenable2 to laser treatment and laser will
become one of the main technological tools quite soon. The
applications of laser in industry and science are so many and so
varied as to suggest magic3. Scientists in many countries are working
at a very interesting problem: combining the two big technological
discoveries of the second half of the 20th century — laser and
thermonuclear reaction — to produce a practically limitless source
of energy. Physicists of this country have developed large laser
installations to conduct physical experiments in heating
thermonuclear fuel with laser beams. There also exists an idea
to use laser for solving the problem of controlled thermonuclear
reaction. The laser beam must heat the fuel to the required
temperature so quickly that the plasma does not have time to
disintegrate. According to current estimates, the duration of
the pulse has to be approximately a billionth of a second. The
light capacity of this pulse would be dozens of times greater than
the capacity of all the world’s power plants. To meet such demands in
practice, scientists and engineers must work hard as it is clear that
a lot of difficulties are to be encountered on route4. The laser’s
most important potential may be its use in communications. The
intensity of a laser can be rapidly changed to encode very complex
signals. In principle, one laser beam, vibrating a billion times
faster than ordinary radio waves, could carry the radio, TV and
telephone messages of the world simultaneously. In just a fraction of
a second, for example, one laser beam could transmit the entire text
of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Besides, there are projects to use
lasers for long distance communication and for transmission of
energy to space stations, to the surface of the Moon or to planets in
the Solar system. Projects have also been suggested to place lasers
aboard Earth satellites nearer to the Sun in order to transform the
solar radiation into laser beams, with this transformed energy
subsequently transmitted to the Earth or to other space bodies. These
projects have not yet been put into effect5, because of the great
technological difficulties to be overcome and, therefore, the
great cost involved. But there is no doubt that in time6 these
projects will be realized and the laser beam will begin operating in
outer space as well.
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