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[[NASA opens the door to its Mars simulator. Plus, a private spaceflight contender gets knocked out, and the hooves of a beloved children’s character return to British soil. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.]]
Content TypePackage
LanguageEnglish
Transcript/ScriptTHE WEEK IN SPACE (TV)
HEADLINE: NASA Welcomes You to Its Mars Habitat
TEASER: Agency to isolate astronaut stand-ins for one-year test
PUBLISHED AT: 4/13/23, 2:04p
BYLINE: Arash Arabasadi
CONTRIBUTOR:
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER: AP/ SPACEX/ YOUTUBE/NASA/ REUTERS/ VIRGIN ORBIT/ BBC
SCRIPT EDITORS: Bowman, MAS
VIDEO SOURCE (S): AP/ SPACEX/ YOUTUBE/NASA/ REUTERS/ VIRGIN ORBIT/ BBC
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV X RADIO __
TRT: 2:16
NOTE:
VID APPROVED BY: Reifenrath
TYPE: TVPKG
UPDATE:))
((INTRO))
[[NASA opens the door to its Mars simulator. Plus, a private spaceflight contender gets knocked out, and the hooves of a beloved children’s character return to British soil. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi brings us The Week in Space.]]
((NARRATOR)) ((mandatory cg SPACEX))
We begin this week, as we often do, with another successful launch from private spaceflight company SpaceX. Its cargo on this trip, however, is something entirely new.
The Falcon (nine) rocket carried a satellite that
((mandatory CG: NASA + YouTube logo))
will operate NASA’s Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution instrument, or TEMPO.
((NARRATOR))
TEMPO is NASA’s first space-based instrument to monitor daytime air pollution in North America. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory says TEMPO will revolutionize air quality forecasts. NASA says TEMPO should start work in late May or early June. ((end courtesy))
((NARRATOR)) ((mandatory cg VIRGIN ORBIT))
Some bad news this week if you were planning to shop around for the best flight deals to space. Your options just shrank, as billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit recently filed for bankruptcy.
((mandatory cg VIRGIN ORBIT))
((NARRATOR))
The company laid off about 85-percent of its workforce as it watched its market value plunge more than three-billion-dollars in the past two years.
((NARRATOR))
In other news, NASA is ready to play “Big Brother” by observing a four-person crew in a Mars simulator in Houston, Texas, for about a year. Inside this 3-D printed structure called CHAPEA ((chip-ee-uh)) are four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gym, and scattered objects to mimic the Martian experience.
[RADIO TRACK: NASA Advanced Food Technology Lead Scientist, Grace Douglas, speaking with Reuters.]
((Grace Douglas, NASA))
“So, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog, or CHAPEA, was developed as a one-year Mars surface simulation with the intent that we can have crew in isolation and confinement with Mars-realistic restrictions, and we can really start to understand how those restrictions are associated with their health and performance over that year.”
((NARRATOR))
NASA says it will monitor human behavior in the close and confined quarters to see how well the crew gets along. The agency hopes to send astronauts to Mars sometime in the next decade.
((mandatory cg BBC))
((NARRATOR))
Finally this week, a beloved children’s character and newly minted astronaut, Shaun the Sheep, recently returned home. Shaun joined NASA for its Artemis (one) trip to the moon late last year. He flew more than two-point-two million kilometers on his journey before digging his hooves back in British soil. Arash Arabasadi, VOA News.
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)
Washington D. C.
Embargo DateApril 13, 2023 17:36 EDT
Byline
Arash Arabasadi, VOA News.
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English
