英语视听说Unit2 The New Space Race.ppt

Background Notes Astro-Tourism Burt Rutan Paul Allen Lockheed Boeing Richard Branson NASA Background Notes Astro-Tourism Also known as space tourism. The term refers to a fledging industry involving sending paying customers on a tour into the space aboard spaceships. Dennis Anthony Tito Dennis Anthony Tito (born August 8, 1940) is an American engineer and multimillionaire, most widely known as the first space tourist to fund his own trip into space. In mid-2001, he spent nearly eight days in orbit as a crew member of ISS EP-1, a visiting mission to the International Space Station. This mission was launched by the spacecraft Soyuz TM-32, and was landed by Soyuz TM-31. In February 2013, Tito announced his intention to send a privately financed spaceflight to Mars by 2018. Stating that the technology is already in place and that the issues that need to be overcome are only the requirements of the rigor of a 501 day trip on a psychological and physical level for the human crew. However, in November 2013, Tito and other Mars Inspiration team members admitted that their plan was impossible without significant levels of assistance and funding from NASA. Background Notes Burt Rutan Elbert Leander “Burt” Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircrafts. He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling, and the suborbital rocket plane Spaceship One, which won the Ansari X Prize in 2004. Background Notes Paul Allen Paul Allen co-founded one of the world’s most lucrative and influential companies, the Microsoft Corporation, in 1974. Allen left the company in 1983 due to illness, and has since invested in a wide variety of projects in the technology, entertainment, sports, and aerospace fields. Ansari X Prize The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in wh