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  3. Hand in hand with the one you love, you gaze at the horizon to watch the earth rise. It sounds like science fiction, but com

Hand in hand with the one you love, you gaze at the horizon to watch the earth rise. It sounds like science fiction, but com

admin2012-06-26  31
问题     Hand in hand with the one you love, you gaze at the horizon to watch the earth rise.
    It sounds like science fiction, but companies around the world are working hard to make this sort of holiday a reality. The idea of space tourism has been around for nearly forty years now. At first NASA made plans for the ultimate in holiday destinations, but then private companies became involved in the mid- 1980s. The Challenger shuttle disaster of 1986 postponed their plans, but now space is back as a future holiday resort.
    The Hilton hotel group has produced ambitious and serious plans for hotels on the moon, as well as orbiting hotels, hoping to give their space tourists’ different holiday experience. But zero-gravity will be a little uncomfortable. "There will be space motion sickness in the first few days, with headaches and nausea." says George Turner, a hopeful space tour operator.
    Hotels will try to prevent these problems by providing areas with the sensation of gravity. This means going to parts of the hotel that will be spinning. Centrifugal (离心的) force will push you against the wall, and give the feeling of some weight. Since it will be possible to lie down, many people will probably prefer to sleep in these areas. The alternative will be to strap themselves into a sleeping bag attached to a wall.
    Sunbathing will be possible, but will require some very strong sunscreen protection factor. 1,000 will do it.
    However the plans all depend on one thing: cheap space travel. At the moment the only re-usable rocket is NASA’s space shuttle. The cost of each shuttle launch is U.S.$1 billion. A space craft that only costs U.S.$2 million per launch is what the travel industry is looking for. So far that remains a far-off dream, but it may come a lot closer if someone wins the X-Prize.
    Launched in 1997, the X-Prize offers U.S.$10 million to anyone who can build a re-usable space craft. All you have to do is launch three people 100 km into space twice within three weeks. So far 16 companies are racing to win the prize money. But the real prize will be the income from space tourism, estimated to be U.S.$12 billion per year: as Turner explains: "Just think what you’ll be able to tell your friends that you had a holiday that was really out of this world!"
What can we learn about the X-Prize?
选项 A、Its aim is to cut the cost of per space craft launch to U.S.$2 million.
B、The winner has managed to put people into space twice in 3 weeks.
C、It’s offered by NASA to build a new type of reusable space craft.
D、Many companies are competing to win the U.S.$10 million priz
答案D
解析
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