By 2035, NASA wants to land humans on Mars. But reaching the red planet, on average a-round 140 million miles away, will be difficult. Colder than Antarctica and with little to no oxygen, Mars is an unfriendly environment. Besides, the longer it takes astronauts to get there and the longer they stay, the more they are at risk.
That's why scientists are looking at ways to reduce trip time. Seattle-based company Ultra Safe Nuclear Technologies (USNC-Tech) has offered a solution: an NTP engine that could get humans from Earth to Mars in just three months. Such an engine takes advantage of nuclear technology. Currently, the shortest possible trip for an unmanned spacecraft is seven months, but a manned mission is expected to take at least nine months. Shorter missions would limit the astronaut's exposure to space radiation, but there is still concern about the radiation sent out from the nuclear reactor in-side the spacecraft. This would be mitigated through the rocket's design.
To protect people on the ground, the NTP spacecraft would not lift of directly from Earth, Jeff Sheehy, a NASA scientist, adds. Instead, a regular chemical rocket would carry it into orbit, and only then would it fire up its nuclear reactor, Once in orbit, it could do little harm, as heat radiation cannot move through a vacuum(真空). lf disaster hit and the rocket's reactor broke up, the pieces would not land on Earth—or any other planet—for thousands of years. By that time, the radioactive substance would have “naturally got to the point where it wasn't dangerous anymore”.
Michael Eades, director of engineering at USNC-Tech, says that nuclear-powered rockets would be more powerful and twice as efficient as the chemical engines used today, meaning they could travel further and faster, while burning less fuel. “Nuclear-powered rockets will be key to opening up the solar system but it could be at least two decades before they are used widely,” he says, adding that numerous demonstrations and tests would need to be carried out before an astronaut is sent to Mars in an NTP rocket.
1. What do we know about Mars according to the text?A.It is about 140 million meters away. | B.It is burning hot. |
C.It is rich in oxygen. | D.It is challenging to reach. |
A.Shortened. | B.Relieved. | C.Achieved. | D.Simplified. |
A.The heat radiation will be kept from moving. |
B.Its radioactive substance will disappear fast. |
C.The broken reactor will be left on Mars. |
D.It won't give out nuclear radiation in space. |
A.It will be a breakthrough in space exploration. |
B.It has been widely used for NASA. |
C.It will fly to Mars without astronauts for tests. |
D.It carries more fuel than a regular one. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】One of the newest “smart” devices is an old favorite, a camera. And smart cameras are getting smarter all the time. Some are now built with machine learning tools to help them think for themselves. Machine learning involves putting large amounts of data into a computer for processing.
Google Clips
One of the latest to launch is Google Clips. It is the first camera developed by the web search giant that is not built into a phone.
The small and light device is designed to be put somewhere in a room to take pictures by itself. It can also be stuck to an object or a person’s clothing.
Google says machine learning helps the camera choose the best times and situations for taking pictures and video clips. It can also recognize the faces of people or pets chosen by the user and take pictures of them in a more natural way.
The device is not yet being sold, but interested buyers can join a waiting list to be informed when it is available.
GoPro Hero
GoPro is another company developing machine learning technology. GoPro also uses machine learning to power its QuikStories feature. This tool takes existing photos and videos and automatically creates a finished video piece, complete with music and effects.
Snap Spectacles
Messaging app Snapchat sells a pair of sunglasses with a built-in camera that can record short video clips with the push of a button. Snap Inc. says the product, called Spectacles, is designed to “capture the moment, without taking you out of it”. Many smart phones already have facial recognition technology built into the devices.
Snap Inc. has started selling its Spectacles sunglasses online in the United States.
Apple iPhone X
Apple’s new iPhone X is being launched with its new Face ID system that it says will unlock the phone just by having the user look at it. This replaces the Touch ID on previous devices that used a fingerprint to unlock the phone.
Apple says the system works by projecting more than 30, 000 dots on the face to create a kind of map. Apple claims its facial recognition is even secure enough to allow payments through its Apple Pay service.
1. What can machine learning tools help cameras do?A.Get much smarter. | B.Process more roughly. |
C.Keep data for ever. | D.Store more natural photos. |
A.It can only be put in a room. | B.People can buy it online easily. |
C.It can be built into a phone. | D.You can take photos automatically with it. |
A.Google Clips. | B.GoPro Hero. |
C.Spectacles sunglasses. | D.Apple iPhone X. |
【推荐2】Flexible, wearable electronics are making their way into everyday use, and their full potential is still to be realized. Soon, this technology could be used for precision medical sensors attached to the skin, designed to perform health monitoring and disease detection. It would be like having a high-tech medical center at your service. Worn routinely, future wearable electronics could potentially detect possible emerging health problems — such as heart disease, cancer-even before obvious signs appear. The device could also do a personalized analysis of the tracked health data while minimizing the need for its wireless transmission (传输).
Such a skin-like device is being developed in a project. Leading the project is Sihong Wang, assistant professor at the University of Chicago. This device would need to collect and process a vast amount of data, well above what even the best smartwatches can do today, and it would have to deal with this data speedily with very low power consumption in a very tiny space. To address that need, the team called upon neuromorphic computing (神经形态计算). This AI technology copies operation of the brain by training on past data sets and learning from experience. Its advantages also include compatibility (兼容性) with stretchable material, lower energy consumption and faster speed than other types of AI.
The other major challenge the team faced was integrating the electronics into a skin-like stretchable material. The key material in any electronic device is a semiconductor. In current rigid electronics used in cell phones and computers, this is normally a solid silicon chip.
Stretchable electronics require that the semiconductor be a highly flexible material that is still able to conduct electricity. The team’s skin-like neuromorphic chip consists of a thin film of a plastic semiconductor combined with stretchable gold nanowire electrodes. Even when stretched to twice its normal size, their device functioned as planned without formation of any breaks.
“While still requiring further development on several fronts, our device could one day be a game changer in which everyone can get their health status in a much more effective and frequent way,” said Wang.
1. What can be inferred about skin-like electronics from paragraph 1?A.More functional uses of the devices are on the way. |
B.They offer medical advice through an online platform. |
C.Accurate disease detection makes the devices popular. |
D.They can transmit a great deal of patient data wirelessly. |
A.Quicker processing and better adaptability. |
B.Better learning ability and greater stability. |
C.Wider use in life and larger storage capacity. |
D.Lower power consumption and easier operation. |
A.The excellent flexibility of the stretchable material. |
B.The unique structure of the skin-like neuromorphic chip. |
C.The application of electronics in cell phones and computers. |
D.The process of replacing silicon chips with neuromorphic ones. |
A.Uncertain. | B.Challenging. |
C.Promising. | D.Profitable. |
【推荐3】Every day, it seems that some new algorithm (算法) enables computers to diagnose a disease with unprecedented accuracy, renewing predictions that computer's will soon replace doctors. What if computers could replace patients as well? If virtual humans could have replaced real people in some stages of a coronavirus vaccine trial, it could have sped development of a preventive tool and slowed down the pandemic. Similarly, potential vaccines that weren't likely to work could have been identified early, reducing trial costs and avoiding testing poor vaccine candidates on living volunteers. These are some of the benefits of “in silico medicine”, or the testing of drugs and treatments on virtual organs or body systems to predict how a real person will respond to the therapies.
The modeling begins by feeding anatomical data drawn from noninvasive (非侵入式) high- resolution imaging of an individual's actual organ into a complex mathematical model of the mechanisms that govern that organ's function. Algorithms running on powerful computers resolve the resulting equations and unknowns, generating a virtual organ that looks and behaves like the real thing.
In silico clinical trials are already underway to an extent. Heart Flow Analysis, for instance, enables clinicians to identify CAD (冠心病) based on CT images of a patient's heart. The Heart Flow system uses these images to construct a fluid dynamic model of the blood running through the coronary blood vessels, thereby identifying abnormal conditions and their severity. Without this technology, doctors would need to perform an invasive operation to decide whether and how to intervene. Experimenting on digital models of individual patients can also help personalize therapy for any number of conditions and is already used in diabetes care.
The philosophy behind in silico medicine is not new. The ability to create and simulate the performance of an object under hundreds of operating conditions has been a cornerstone of engineering for decades, such as for designing electronic circuits, airplanes and buildings. Various obstacles remain to its widespread implementation in medical research and development.
The predictive power and reliability of this technology must be confirmed, and that will require several advances. Those include the generation of high quality medical databases from a large, ethnically diverse patient base that has both women and men; improvement of mathematical models to account for the many interacting processes in the body; and further modification of Al methods that were developed mainly for computer-based speech and image recognition and need to be extended to provide biological insights.
In recent years American and European regulators have approved some commercial uses of computer-based diagnostics, but meeting regulatory demands requires considerable time and money. Creating demand for these computer-based diagnostic tools is challenging as well. In silico medicine must be able to deliver cost-effective value for patients, clinicians and health care organizations to accelerate their adoption of the technology.
1. According to the text, “in silico medicine” might help ________.A.discover the cause of an illness |
B.quicken the creation of new medicine |
C.recognize the symptoms of a disease earlier |
D.avoid including unhealthy volunteers in trials |
A.works effectively in CAD treatment |
B.offers personalized therapies to patients |
C.reduces the chances of invasive operations |
D.builds models after identifying abnormal conditions |
A.money and time from the regulators |
B.replacement of old mathematical models |
C.more proof of its effectiveness and dependability |
D.progress in speech and image recognition technology |
A.Looking to Al to End Experimental Study |
B.In Silico Medicine Saved Millions of Lives |
C.Exploring the Future of Algorithm in Medicine |
D.Virtual Patients Could Revolutionize Medicine |
【推荐1】In the not-too-distant future, fully autonomous vehicles will drive our streets. These cars will need to make quick decisions to avoid endangering human lives—both inside and outside of the vehicles.
To determine attitudes toward these decisions, a group of researchers created a variation on the classic philosophical exercise known as “the Trolley problem”. They posed a series of moral dilemmas involving a self-driving car with brakes (刹车) that suddenly give out: Should the car change direction to avoid a group of passers-by, killing the driver? Or should it kill the people on foot, but spare the driver? Does it matter if the passers-by are men or women? Children or older people? Doctors or murderers?
To pose these questions to a large range of people, the researchers built a website called Moral Machine, where anyone could click through the situations and say what the car should do. “Help us learn how to make machines moral,” a video asks on the site.
What the researchers found was a series of near-universal preferences, regardless of where someone was from. People everywhere believed the moral thing for the car to do was to spare the young over the old, spare humans over animals, and spare the lives of many over the few. Their findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Researchers found that the 130 countries with more than 100 respondents could be grouped into three groups that showed similar moral preferences. And these preferences seemed to correlate with social differences. Respondents from collectivistic cultures, which “emphasize the respect that is due to older members of the community,” showed a weaker preference for sparing younger people.
The researchers emphasized that the study’s results should be used with extreme caution (谨慎), and they shouldn’t be considered the final word on societal preferences—especially since respondents were not a representative sample.
1. What give(s) rise to the questions in paragraph 2?A.The researchers’ attitudes. | B.The people’s moral dilemmas. |
C.The self-driving car’s power cut. | D.The autonomous vehicle’s brake failure. |
A.Their living habits. | B.Their family members. |
C.Their cultural context. | D.Their educational background. |
A.The complex procedure. | B.The limited questions. |
C.The insufficient participants. | D.The careless respondents. |
A.The New Self-driving Cars | B.The New “Trolley Problem” |
C.Should Car Drivers Be Moral? | D.Does moral preference matter? |
【推荐2】Queen Elizabeth II’s face is on every note and coin in the United Kingdom, but still little is known about how much money she has personally, how she gets it and who stands to inherit (继承) it.
What we do know from public records is that the Queen receives at least $20 million in annual income through her private estate, and another 100 million dollars from the UK government each year.
The first thing to understand is that the Queen’s income comes from both public and private possessions. A large amount of it comes from something called the Sovereign Grant. Here’s how that works.
In the 1700s, the monarchy (王室) handed over income from land to the government known as the Crown Estate. Each year the government pays a percentage of the profits made on those possessions back to the monarchy. That annual income is known as the Sovereign Grant. Last year it totaled more than $107 million. And it is used to fund the Queen’s official duties and maintain royal residences like Buckingham Palace.
But even if we can’t identify her exact worth, the royal finances are looking healthy as the Queen celebrates her 70th Queen Ceremony. The Sunday Times Rich List estimated the Queen’s net worth is $466 million, up $6.2 million dollars from last year. And while the Duchy of Lancaster saw UK income drop during the pandemic, according to its financial records, the Queen’s income has been turning upwards over the past decade.
Anyway, the monarchy is a private family, and they are unlikely to share any details of their wealth with the British public, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.
1. How does the Queen get her income?A.From the Crown Estate. | B.From the Sovereign Grant. |
C.From the monarchy and the government. | D.From the government and private possessions. |
A.How the Queen’s income is calculated. |
B.How the monarchy cooperates with the government. |
C.How the Sovereign Grant works and what the money is used for. |
D.How the monarchy gets paid and what the Queen’s official duties are. |
A.It can be exactly identified. | B.It decreases during the pandemic. |
C.It is more than that from last year. | D.It is more than that of the UK government. |
A.Health. | B.History. | C.Education. | D.Economy. |
【推荐3】When you set a foot outside of your door to drop trash, go to a social event or go for a walk, thoughts like “I hope I don’t see anyone I know” or “please don’t talk to me” may run through your mind. I’ve also said such things to myself. Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to talk with someone, especially someone new.
Why do we go out of our ways to avoid people? Do we think meeting new people is a waste of time? Or are we just lazy, thinking that meeting someone new really is a trouble?
Communication is the key to life. We have been told that many times. Take the past generations, like our parents, for example. They seem to take full advantage of that whole “communication” idea because they grew up talking face to face while Generation-Y grew up staring at screens. We spend hours of our days sitting on Facebook. We send messages to our friends and think about all of the things we want to say to certain people that we don’t have the courage to actually do in reality.
Nowadays, we are so caught up in our little circle of friends — our comfort zone. We love it that they laugh at our jokes, understand our feelings and can read our minds. Most importantly, they know when we want to be alone. They just get us.
Holding a conversation with someone new means agreeing with things that you don’t actually believe and being someone you think they want you to be — it is, as I said before, a trouble. It takes up so much energy, and at some point or another, it is too tiring.
But meeting new people is important. Life is too short, so meet all the people you can meet, make the effort to go out and laugh. Remember, every “hello” leads to a smile — and a smile is worth a lot.
1. What do we learn about the author?A.He likes to be alone. | B.He feels nervous lately. |
C.He’s afraid of talking to others at times. | D.He’s active in attending social events. |
A.They rely on the Internet to socialize. |
B.They are less confident in themselves. |
C.They have difficulty in communicating. |
D.They are unwilling to make new friends. |
A.They fear to disappoint their old friends. |
B.They want to take time to do meaningful work |
C.They are busy with their study. |
D.They think it troublesome. |
A.To tell about the importance of friends. |
B.To encourage people to meet new people. |
C.To give tips on how to meet new people. |
D.To introduce the disadvantages of Generation-Y. |