2019年7月22日，在印度安得拉邦的萨蒂什·达万航天中心，搭载“月船2号”月球探测器的GSLV MK-III运载火箭发射升空。9月7日凌晨2:15（北京时间7日凌晨4:45）左右，ISRO宣布，印度“月船2号”着陆器在距离月球表面2.1公里的时候失去了信号，无法取得联系。原计划该着陆器于7日凌晨在月球南极附近“软着陆”……
阅读短文并回答问题
An Indian spacecraft’s first attempt to make a soft, controlled landing in the moon’s south polar region has ended in painful silence: Shortly before touchdown, the robotic lander — part of the Chandrayaan-2 mission — fell out of contact with mission control. The Indian Space Research Organization says that the spacecraft stopped communicating with Earth when it was within 1.3 miles of the lunar surface. “The Vikram descent（下降）was as planned, and normal performance was observed, up to an altitude of 2.1 kilometers,” said Kailasavadivoo Sivan, ISRO’s chairman, in a statement roughly half an hour after signal loss. “The data is being analyzed.”
A successful landing would have made India just the fourth country to touch down anywhere on the lunar surface, and only the third nation to operate a robotic rover there. Nevertheless, the Chandrayaan-2 mission’s orbiter remains safely in lunar orbit, with a year-long scientific mission ahead of it. Like any voyage to a world beyond Earth, Vikram’s flight was a risky endeavor, requiring the lander to slow itself down to a near standstill, scan for surface obstacles（障碍物）by itself, and then take steps to avoid them during touchdown. The majority of attempts to land robots on the moon have ended in failure, either during launch or on the way to the surface.
Following its launch on July 22, Chandrayaan-2 spent the last several weeks inching its way to the moon, ultimately entering lunar orbit on August 20. On September 2, Vikram separated from the mission’s orbiter, and the newly freed lander began a series of braking maneuvers（刹车操作）to lower its orbit and ready itself for landing. Had things proceeded without a fault, Vikram and Pragyaan — the small solar-powered rover it carried — would have set down on the moon at a latitude of about 70 degrees South, on a highland between Manzinus C and Simpelius N.
This landing site was “somewhere new that we haven’t seen before, so that makes it another area for ground-truthing remote sensing data,” Clive Neal, a lunar geologist, said in an interview before the landing attempt, “It was going to certainly enhance our knowledge of what the moon is like in those areas, so it was going to be another very good place for science and exploration.”
1. What happened to the lunar lander according to paragraph 1?
A. It made a soft landing.
B. It got data from the lunar surface.
C. It lost contact with Earth.
D. It lowered itself at a wrong altitude.
2. Why was the Vikram’s flight a risky endeavor?
A. It demanded higher technique.
B. There were not enough funds to support it.
C. Few Indian scientists agreed with the voyage.
D. No country has succeeded in landing robots on the moon.
3. What can we learn about Vikram from the third paragraph?
A. It entered lunar orbit four weeks after its launch.
B. It landed on the moon at an altitude of about 70 degrees South.
C. It separated from the mission’s orbiter before entering the lunar orbit.
D. It lowered its orbit by starting the braking maneuvers to prepare for its landing.
4. What’s Clive Neal’s attitude towards the landing?
A. Doubtful.
B. Positive.
C. Neutral.
D. Negative.
参考答案
C A D B
单词学习
1. altitude n. 高度
2. mission control 航天地面指挥中心
3. rover n. 巡视器
4. lunar adj. 月球的
5. orbiter n. 人造卫星，航天器
6. standstill n. 停止
7. touchdown n. 降落
8. inch v. 使缓慢地移动 He inched the van forward. 他驾着厢式货车缓缓前行。
9. latitude n. 纬度
长难句
1. Like any voyage to a world beyond Earth, Vikram’s flight was a risky endeavor, requiring the lander to slow itself down to a near standstill, scan for surface obstacles by itself, and then take steps to avoid them during touchdown.
句子主干：Vikram’s flight was an endeavor.
参考译文：与任何前往地球以外的航行一样，维克拉姆的飞行是一次冒险的尝试，它要求着陆器自身减速到接近静止的状态，自主扫描表面障碍物，然后在着陆时采取措施避开它们。
2. Had things proceeded without a fault, Vikram and Pragyaan — the small solar-powered rover it carried — would have set down>句子主干：Vikram and Pragyaan would have set down.
参考译文：如果一切顺利的话，Vikram和它搭载的小型太阳能巡视器Pragyaan就会降落在月球南纬70度左右的Manzinus C和Simpelius N之间的高地上。
知识拓展
“物美价廉”不容易？ 低成本登月任务屡失败
太空探索向来成本高昂，部分国家近年另辟蹊径，期望进行低成本探索任务，有助打开商业卫星市场。
然而，继以色列探测器“创世纪号”登月失败后，印度“月船2号”登月任务同样以失败收场，外界开始关注低成本太空任务存在的失败风险。
以色列“创世纪号”由非盈利太空机构SpaceIL及国营的以色列航天工业(IAI)共同建造，成本仅约1亿美元。印度“月船2号”项目成本则为1.5亿美元，两者的成本均远低于美国宇航局(NASA)的同类项目，例如美国的阿波罗系列探月任务，总开支超过1000亿美元。
NASA近年关注太空任务成本高昂，已停止研发更强劲的“太空发射系统”(SLS)载人登月器，被视为平息舆论对NASA太空任务成本过高及屡次延期的不满。然而，多起低成本太空探索失败后，已经有人呼吁有改行低成本路线的NASA引以为鉴。
此外，NASA近期发布的“月球事实表”报告显示，全球各国过去60年展开的109次登月任务中，只有61次成功，其余48次均以失败收场，失败率约44%。不过，人类探索太空的脚步从未停止。虽然还可能面临失败，但正如美国前总统肯尼迪所言：“我们决定在接下来的十年间登上月球并实现更多梦想，并非因为它们轻而易举，而恰恰是因为困难重重。”
摘自《中国新闻网》
