Millions of Americans are mourning the death of astronaut John Glenn who passed away     1     (peaceful) on December 8,2016 at the age of 95. President Donald Trump said, “The US has lost a great pioneer in space travel.”

Glenn     2     (start) his flying career as a fighter pilot. In 1959 Glenn became one of the seven test pilots     3     (choose) to take part in the first space program of the US.

Glenn rose to fame in 1962 when he became the first American     4     (circle) the Earth in a spaceship. The journey made him     5     American hero. As a member of the Democratic Party, Glenn first won the election to the Senate (参议院) in 1974 and served for 24 years     6     January 3, 1999.

Glenn was known for his modesty, refusing to see     7     (he) as a hero. He preferred to focus on his work, saying, “The greatest people are those     8     devote themselves to something     9     (important) than merely their own self­interest.”

On October 29, 1998, when Glenn was 77, he returned to space and stayed there for nine days, thus     10     (set) the record of being the oldest person in space.

4 . China on Tuesday launched (发射) the Shenzhou-16 manned spaceship, sending three astronauts to its space station combination for a five-month mission. The spaceship, atop a Long March-2F carrier rocket, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China at 9:31 a. m. (Beijing Time), according to the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

About 10 minutes after the launch, Shenzhou-16 separated from the rocket and entered its designated orbit (轨道). The three astronauts are in good shape and the launch is a complete success, the CMSA declared.

The Shenzhou-16 astronauts will conduct a great many in-orbit tests and experiments in various fields as planned. They are expected to make high-level scientific achievements in the study of novel quantum phenomenon (新奇量子现象), high-precision space time-frequency systems and the origin of life.

Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and Gui Haichao will see the dockings of the Tianzhou-5 cargo craft and the Shenzhou-17 manned spaceship, as well as the departures of the Shenzhou-15 manned spaceship and Tianzhou-5.

It is the first manned task for the application and development stage of China’s-space station, and the 29^th flight since the country’s manned space program was approved (批准). The launch also marks the 475^th flight of the Long March carrier rocket series.

5 . Mars rover (火星车) Zhurong, part of China’s Tianwen-1 Mars exploration mission, has provided key observational evidence of liquid water at low Martian latitudes (纬度), the warmest regions on the red planet, according to a new study.

Previous studies found evidence of a large amount of liquid water on early Mars, but climate changes led to very low pressure and water vapor content (水汽含量), making it difficult for liquid water to exist on the present-day planet. Scientists believe that water can now only exist there in solid or gaseous forms.

However, robots on Mars have found that salty liquid water can appear in the summer at high latitudes on Mars. But evidence of liquid water at the planet’s low latitudes, where surface temperatures are highest, is still lacking. Findings from the Zhurong rover, whose landing site was in a low-latitude region of Mars, now fill that gap.

A group of more than 20 researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has since used data obtained by cameras and detectors on the rover to study the surface features and material compositions of sand hills in the landing area.

Researchers explained that salts in sand hills cause frost and snow to melt at low temperatures to form salty liquid water. When it dries, it leaves trace on the surface of the planet. They also said the sand hills Zhurong found were formed about 400,000 to 1.4 million years ago. The exchange of water vapor between the higher and lower latitudes during this period led to repeated wet environments at low Martian latitudes, followed by the frequent occurrence of salty water when temperatures dropped in the region.

The discovery provides key proof of liquid water at Martian low latitudes, where surface temperatures are relatively warm and more suitable for life than high latitudes. It also provides information for the design of future exploration strategies for Mars rovers to search for existing life on Mars, researchers said in the study.

7 . Instant Expert: Wonders of Space

Saturday 17th July, 10am - 5pm | Cavendish Conference Centre, London

Join us for a day of exploring the wonders of outer space with six leading scientists. You will start where everything began, at the Big Bang. Throughout the day, you will hear about everything from the exploration to find life on Mars to the discovery of liveable planets outside our solar system.

Who should attend?

Anyone interested in the mysteries of space, whatever your age or background. Whether you’re a scientist, a student or simply an attracted human being, our event offers the chance to learn directly from the experts at our one-day masterclass.

Benefits of attending:

·Open your mind and be inspired.

· Talk with like-minded people through informal set-up.

· Meet our six speakers and ask your burning questions.

What’s included in your ticket:

· In-depth and interesting talks from six leading scientists.

·Buffet lunch, plus morning and afternoon drinks and snacks.

· An Instant Expert certificate provided by event organizers.

Booking information:

We will email you your ticket immediately after purchase. Please remember to bring your ticket with you as you’ll need it to gain entry. We can scan (扫描) tickets from a printout, or off the screen of a phone.

A limited number of discounted early bird tickets priced at £129 will be offered, saving £20. These tickets can be bought by clicking the following green “Buy” button if still available.

8 . NASA made a small experiment to produce oxygen on Mars. Now it has managed to produce about 100 minutes’ worth of breathable oxygen. Now it has a plan to produce much more to support future human exploration.

The Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is a small oxygen- producing equipment that landed on the Red Planet with the Perseverance rover (探测器)in February 2021. Over the 7 hour-long production, MOXIE was able to produce about 15 minutes of oxygen per hour in a variety of difficult conditions. That added up to a total of 50 grams of oxygen ——about 100 minutes’ worth of breathable oxygen for a single astronaut.

“This is a great success,” says Michael Hecht at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who co-leads the MOXIE experiment. Day or night, at different extreme temperatures and in the dust storm, Hecht says that MOXIE continued producing breathable oxygen. The NASA team is now looking to make a more powerful MOXIE, which will not only provide enough life support for an astronaut, but also enough oxygen for a return rocket to Earth.

MOXIE takes in carbon dioxide from the Martian atmosphere and raises the temperature to 800℃ with its heaters. It then pulls out the oxygen atoms(原子) from the carbon dioxide. However, there will be some challenges in the next step. These challenges include being able to prevent the equipment from breaking due to its temperature. Besides, an oxygen device that can support a human needs to work continuously for about 400 days, and so far MOXIE’s work has only lasted for an hour each. “That’s a lot of hours to put on the hardware, regardless of what the technology is,” Hecht says.

However, MOXIE’s first year of success has been a big step forward in showing the technology’s bright future, says Hecht. NASA is now testing new hardware.

10 . From the moon to Mars, scientists have been looking for water —the key to life —in the solar system for decades. Recently, they have turned to Jupiter (木星)!

On April 14, the European Space Agency’s (ESA) JUICE spacecraft successfully lifted off from French Guiana in South America. JUICE, short for “Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer”, will collect data from Jupiter and its three moons, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

The three moons are believed to have big oceans of liquid water under their icy shells. According to ESA, the water on these moons could be as much as six times the amount in Earth’s oceans. The mission “will change our understanding of the solar system”, wrote Scientific American.

In 1998, NASA’s Galileo spacecraft found that Europa might send water as far as 160 kilometers into space. That gave scientists the idea of studying the icy moons of Jupiter.

The oceans under these moons are likely to be tens of kilometers deep. But they are also trapped under tens of kilometers of ice, making it very difficult to study them. Although JUICE cannot land on the surface, it has lots of high-tech equipment to study the moon’s environment, including spectral imaging (光谱成像) tools and radar. They could give more data on things like the thickness of the oceans, their salt content, and their distance from the icy shells above, reported Phys.org.

“The main goal is to understand whether there are habitable (可居住的) environments among those icy moons and around a giant planet like Jupiter,” JUICE team member Olivier Witasse said during a press conference on April 6.