1 . It sounds like something from the field of science fiction — a space exploration into vast outer space, heading towards the Red Planet While we’re not quite ready to put a person on it, the question we ask today is:     1    

The space race saw the USSR (the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and USA compete to achieve firsts in spaceflight. The USSR released Sputnik 1, an artificial satellite, before anyone else,     2     Now it appears that Mars is the body of desire. While to be the first nation to land on it is an obvious draw, there are other reasons why we want to get there.

    3     You only have to look at the fossils of the dinosaurs to see the benefit of finding another habitable planet. While Mars doesn’t have the right conditions to call it home just yet, there's always the concept of terraforming-changing the environment of a planet to suit our needs.

However, not everyone agrees. Leading astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has said the concept of changing habitability of a planet is not always practical.     4    

It seems that the main reason at the moment is the search for alien (外星的) life.    5     Now seemingly dead, the potential fossils could answer questions about our own evolution and that of our planet. One theory is that bacterial life on our planet didn't start here, but was brought here via asteroid from Mars.

2 . As we continue to explore farther out into our solar system and beyond, the question of humans living on other planets often comes up. Manned bases on the Moon or Mars for example, have long been a dream of many. There is a natural curiosity to explore as far as we can go, and also to make human existence permanent (永久的). In order to do this, however, it is necessary to adapt to different extreme environments. On the Moon for example, a settlement must be self-supporting and protect its inhabitants from the airless, severe environment outside.

Mars, though, is different. While future bases could adapt to the Martian environment over time there is also the possibility of modifying (改造) the surrounding environment instead of just co-existing with it. This is the process of terraforming — adjusting Mars’ atmosphere and environment to make it more Earth-like. But the bigger question is, should we?

One of the main issues is whether Mars has any native life or not and if it does, should it be preserved as much as possible? If the answer is yes, then large-scale human settlements on Mars should be completely off-limits. Small settlement might be fine, but living on Mars should not be at the cost of any native habitats, if they exist. If Mars is home to any indigenous life, then terraforming should be a non-issue; it simply should not be done.

What if Mars is lifeless? Even if no life exists there, that untouched and unique alien environment needs to be preserved as it is as much as possible. We’ve already done too much damage here on our own planet. By studying Mars and other planets and moons in their present natural state, we can learn so much about their history and also learn more about our own world. We should appreciate the differences of other worlds instead of just transforming them to suit our own ambitions.

The Future Life on Mars

Compared with the life we     1    (live) on the earth now, the future life on Mars will be     2    (total) different.

Firstly, without pollution on Mars, people will be able to drink cleaner water     3     breathe fresher air, so they will be     4    (health). The food on Mars will be different     5     our food now. People will just take     6    (pill) and drink man-made juice instead of eating bread and meat. Secondly, people will travel back to the earth or to other planets for sightseeing by spaceship. Additionally, there will be no     7    (fix) school and classrooms. Children will just fly to the classroom in the school spaceships. And people won’t work in factories or companies. They can stay at home,     8    (work) with computers. People believe       9    Mars can support life in the future. Nevertheless,     10     will take some years before these dreams come true.

7 . US Space Agency Returns to Mars with InSight Lander

The American space agency’s lander InSight is to arrive on Mars at the end of November, 2018. Unlike NASA’s Curiosity rover, InSight will not move across the planet’s surface. Instead it will become the first spacecraft (航天器) used only for exploring underground. It will study the geography of Mars, searching for signs of Martian (火星的) quakes.

InSight is a project of U.S. and Europe. It is 6 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It weighs 360 kilograms. InSight’s 1.8-meter robotic arm will put two experiments in place. Both are designed to explore underground of Mars to learn about the inside.

Bruce Banerdt is the lead scientist for InSight. He viewed the spacecraft as a robot that can take care of itself. “It’s got its own brain. It’s got an arm. It can listen and feel things. It pulls its own power out of the sun,” he noted.

Thomas Zurbuchen, one of the heads in NASA, said the results of the InSight project could “change the way we think about the inside of our earth.” But, first, InSight will have to land on Mars undamaged. Since Mars exploration started in the 1960s, only about 40 percent of the explorations have succeeded.

Tom Hoffman is InSight’s project manager. He said earlier successes do not lessen the concerns for each new exploration. “That we’ve done it before doesn’t mean we’re not nervous and excited about doing it again,” he said.

InSight will enter the Martian atmosphere (大气层) traveling at 19,800 kilometers an hour. It will slow for landing on a wide flat area on Mars. If all goes well, InSight could carry out its experiments in about 10 weeks. The InSight project is expected to continue for one Martian year, about two years on Earth.

Before the mid-2th century,     1     (travel) into space was an impossible dream. However, some scientists were     2     (determine) to help humans realise their dream to explore space. The USSR focused     3     sending people into space after 4 October, 1957. Though the terrible disasters made people sad and     4     (disappoint), people never gave up     5     (explore) space exploration. This is     6     they believe in the importance of space exploration. China has become the third country in the world to     7     (independent) send humans into space in 2003. Europe, the US and China all have plans to     8     (far) study and explore planets. Despite the     9     (difficulty), scientists hope futher discoveries will enable us     10     (understand) how the universe began and help us survive well into the future.

9 . A new study suggests that dark markings on the planet Mars represent sand — not water. The research in 2015 suggested that lines on some Martian hills were evidence of water. Yet American scientists now say these lines appear more like dry flows of sand. If water is present, it is likely to be a small amount. Water in liquid form would be necessary for microbial (微生物的) life.

NASA, the American space agency, said more research is needed. Michael Meyer is the lead scientist for NASA’s Mars exploration programme. He noted that the latest study does not reject the presence of water. But he admitted, “It just may not be as exciting as the idea of rivers going down the sides of cliffs (悬崖).”

The new findings come from a team led by Colin Dundas of the United States Geological Survey. His team measured 151 of these lines in 10 areas. Most of the lines end with slopes (倾斜) between 28 degrees and 35 degrees. These measurements are similar to active sand dunes (沙丘) on both Mars and Earth. A small covering of dust that moves and sometimes becomes lighter might help explain the markings. They usually appear in the Martian summertime, and then disappear until the next year. If these lines are dry, this suggests that recent Mars bas not had large amounts of liquid water. Dundas and his research team say that many questions remain.

“I still think that Mars has great potential for having had life early on in its history,” Meyer said. “As long as that’s true, we also have a reasonable possibility of life still being on Mars. It just happens to be cryptic or well hidden.”

NASA currently has no robotic — either on Mars or in development — with the ability to climb steep slopes. The lack of such equipment has engineers coming up with ideas like Martian helicopters or planes without pilots.