Aulas em Sorocaba com professor Fúvio para mais informações visit o site
1 In nineteen ninety-six, a NASA study announced the discovery of what appeared to be the mineral remains of very simple forms of life in the Allan Hills meteorite. Research has shown that these possible fossils were not formed while the rock was here on Earth. They also have been linked to the presence of liquid water.
2. The true nature of the mineral formations remains the subject of debate. But one thing is sure. The discoveries in the meteorite helped shape policy and explorationefforts at the United States space agency, NASA.
3. Mars landers and rovers were designed to look for signs of liquid water that may have flowed on Mars in the distant past. And the search for evidence of Martian life was reborn. Looking down at a piece of the famous rock, Cari Corrigan suggested its historic importance.
4. “So we have huge programs that came from this one research project about one football sized rock.” Allan Hills 84001 is a plain-looking rock. But, the forces and heatthat transform meteors into meteorites can create beauty as well.
5. “This one is beautiful. This is one of my favorite rocks. You can see that black stuff on the outside, it’s called the fusion crust. And that’s what forms on the rock as it comes through the atmosphere. So atiny bit of the outside is melted and is left with this really thin glass on the outside.”
6. Long lines formed near another exhibit. Children and parents waited to have a chance to work with a robot. Orbiters, landers and rovers have all been used to explore Mars. But the NASA rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are the closest things we have to the space robots of science fiction.
7. The rovers were launched in two thousand three. They can think for themselves in a limited way. Spirit and Opportunity have wheels, an arm and camera eyes. Spirit stopped operating in March. But Opportunity continues to communicate with Earth. Both have traveled across many kilometers of the Martian surface performing experiments along the way.
8. On Mars Day, hundreds of people waited for their chance to use robot technology. Dan Grunberg is a student at the University of Maryland. He has been working on Mars Day for four years. He supervised the two robot activities.
9. “I’ve always loved working with the robots. And when I first started it was a challenge working with the robots, understanding how they worked and figuring them out. But over time, we slowly got used to it and we try to make it as kid friendly as possible because kids are what we gear towards and they’re the most important people that come through.”
10. In one activity, children try to get a robot arm to pick up a block and place it in a cup. “On station one, we have robot arms. And what happens is the robots have different joints like a human arm -- one at theshoulder, one at the elbow, wrist and then a claw.
11. The kids are able to maneuver this with a remote control. A lot of it is like a human arm or like a space arm that you might find on the international space station.”
12. Another robot is designed to move and turn in a way that is similar to the Mars rovers. “And what happens is we have mazes and the children are able to organize the robots and see if they can get them through the maze within a certain time period.”
13. Judging from the long lines of people, the robot activities were the most popular at Mars Day. Children and many parents were completely absorbed in the robot-assisted tasks. This shows that the robotsdeveloped for Mars have won over a new generation of explorers.
14. “My name is Jim Zimbelman. I’m a planetary geologist here at the Air and Space Museum. And what does that mean? It means I am trained in geology, but with interests in the other planets and Mars in particular.”
15. Jim Zimbelman shared his studies of solar system geology with the public through images. The pictures he used are part of an exhibit called “Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscapes” by artist Michael Benson. The exhibit shows detailed and colorful images of solar system objects including Mars.
16. Jim Zimbelman said Michael Benson started with publicly available images from NASA. But he used computer processing to turn them into something more -- works of art. “It’s all information that is out there for anybody to look at, but Michael looked at tens of thousands of images on the Web, picked the ones that he liked, got the raw data and then did the processing.”
17. There are a growing number of high quality images of Mars from NASA. Last week, the space agency announced the most accurate maps ever of Mars. They show surface formations as small as one hundred meters. The maps are available for the public to use, study or turn into art. But the goal is to prepare for future robotic and human visits to Mars.
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