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VOICE ONE:

This is Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And this is Steve Ember withEXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Two new American explorationvehicles are now on the surface of the planet Mars. Today we begin atwo-part program about Mars and efforts to explore it. We will tellabout the history of human interest in the Red Planet. And we willtell about the two new rovers that are exploring and taking picturesof Mars.

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The United States successfully landed the first of twoexploration vehicles on Mars on January third. The device is named"Spirit." It landed safely on target in an area of Mars called theGusev Crater.

Exactly three weeks later, asimilar exploration rover named "Opportunity" landed almost half-wayaround the planet in an area called Meridiani Planum.

American space agency scientists say both devices have sent backexciting information. They also say Spirit has experienced somecommunications problems. The scientists say they believe they canrepair most of these problems. NASA officials say the Opportunityrover made a near perfect landing and is communicating normally.

Before the rovers landed on Mars, NASA announced that anyone whocould link with the Internet communications system could see newphotographs taken by the rovers. NASA said the photographs wouldshow more detail and be clearer than any photographs ever taken ofMars.

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NASA began placing the first black and white photographs on itsInternet Web site the same day they were sent by Spirit. During fourdays, more than ten-million computer users had linked with NASA'sWeb site to see the photographs. The Web site had more thanone-thousand-million hits.

People from around the worldcopied more than one-hundred-fifty-million pages of photographs andinformation sent from the new device on the Martian surface.Internet users also linked with NASA's Internet televisionbroadcasts. More than two-hundred-fifty-thousand people watched someof the television broadcasts of activities in NASA's explorercontrol area.

More than forty-eight-thousand people watched NASA's broadcast ofthe landing of Spirit, the first of the two exploration rovers.

Millions more watched the successful landing of Opportunity. Andthey copied millions of pages of photographs and information aboutMeridiani Planum.

Charles Elachi is the director of NASA's Jet PropulsionLaboratory in Pasadena, California. He said: "The wonders of spaceare now as close as your computer." He added: "Who knows how manychildren will see these photographs and decide to study science orengineering because of the trip to Mars they took with the aid ofour computer link?"

If your computer can link with the Internet communicationssystem, you can see these photographs and many more. Just ask yourcomputer to search for the words MARS ROVER. M-A-R-S R-O-V-E-R.

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Mars -- the Red Planet of the night sky. Mars -- the fourthplanet from our Sun and the first beyond Earth's orbit. Mars hasalways excited the human imagination. It is the only planet that issimilar to Earth. It is the only planet whose surface can be seenfrom Earth.

The ancient Romans named the planet Mars. The ancient Romans'religion taught that Mars was the father of Romulus and Remus. Theyare the two brothers who Romans believed first began the city ofRome.

At first the Romans believed Mars was a god of agriculture. TheRoman calendar began with the month of March in honor of Mars. Marchwas the month of planting crops and growing. Later, Mars became thered god of war. Roman soldiers prayed to Mars for success in battle.

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Later, other people studied the red planet with great interest.In 1877, Italian scientist Giovanni Schiaparelli studied Marsthrough a telescope. He saw long lines on the surface of the planetthat seemed to connect in different areas. He called these lines"canali." The word "canali" in Italian means both canal and channel.

American astronomer Percival Lowell watched Mars from a hugetelescope in the southwestern state of Arizona. He published a bookin nineteen-oh-eight that said the canals were dug to carry water tocrops. He said intelligent people dug the canals. Other scientistssaid this was not true. The argument continued for many years.

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The idea about possible life on Mars was the subject of severalimaginary stories. In 1898, British writer H-G Wells wrote a bookabout a Martian force that invades Earth. That book is called "Warof the Worlds." It is still popular. It has been broadcast as aradio program and been made into a movie.

In 1912, American writer Edgar Rice Burroughs began writing aseries of books about Mars. They are about a man named John Carterwho goes to Mars and meets people of many different cultures. MisterBurroughs' Martian books are still popular, too.

In later years, scientists built better telescopes. Using theselarge telescopes, scientists could see the surface of Mars. Theycould see huge sandstorms and mountains. They could see ice on thepolar areas of the Red Planet. But they could not see evidence ofintelligent life.

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In 1964, people began trying to send spacecraft to Mars. TheUnited States launched a spacecraft named Mariner Three. It failedafter liftoff. However, the next spacecraft, Mariner Four, wassuccessful. That craft returned the first clear pictures of theMartian surface as it flew past the planet in nineteen-sixty-five.

In nineteen-seventy-five, the United States launched Viking Oneand Viking Two. On July 20th, 1976, Viking One became the firstspacecraft to successfully land on the surface of Mars. The Vikingspacecraft sent back more than fifty-thousand photographs of Marsand other valuable scientific information.

In nineteen-ninety-six, the United States launched MarsPathfinder. It too carried a lander and an exploration vehicle. Itarrived on Mars in July of nineteen-ninety-seven. The lander sentback thousands of photographs. Millions of people around the worldfollowed the news of the Pathfinder.

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The United States, Japan, Russia and the European Space Agencyhave sent more than twenty exploration vehicles to Mars. However,almost half of them have failed. The number of failures shows thegreat difficulty in reaching Mars. Those spacecraft that weresuccessful returned much valuable information. For example,scientists finally saw evidence of Martian canals.

Some of these canals are huge. One, called the Ares Vallis, ismore than twenty-five kilometers wide and extremely deep. Scientistsbelieve it may have been cut into the surface of the planet by hugeand violent floods. They also learned that any water on the planetis now ice or water that has turned to gas.

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Scientists also used several different spacecraft to photographthe largest volcano known to exist in the universe. It is also oneof the largest known objects in the universe. It is called OlympusMons. It is about twenty-five kilometers high and more thanfive-hundred kilometers wide. That would about three times tallerand much wider than Mount Everest, the tallest mountain on Earth.

Scientists have also learned that Mars is a place of extremes inclimate. The lowest recorded temperature was one-hundred-twenty-fourdegrees below zero Celsius. Scientists believe the temperature nearthe polar areas might be as low as two-hundred degrees below zeroCelsius.

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Every question answered about Mars has always led to morequestions. The most important questions have always been: Does waterexist on Mars? Is there now, or was there once, any life on Mars?Could humans survive on Mars?

NASA is hoping the exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity willanswer these questions. We will report about these efforts nextweek.

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VOICE TWO:

This Special English program was written by Paul Thompson. It wasproduced by Mario Ritter. This is Steve Ember.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program on the VOICE OF AMERICA.