Lectures of The Linguistic Culture (798449), страница 21
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A great part of Research and Development is done at the US universities, oriented toward not only instructing undergraduates but also toward research, sponsored mainly through contract systems. At present the US universities are involved in two kinds of research.
Department research is carried out by the faculty in the traditional academic pattern. It is supervised by a professor, assisted by graduate students and technicians. Such research is not budgeted by outside sources and referred to “as little science”.
Big science research is mainly funded by outside sources: the Federal government agencies, NSF, private business enterprises, different non-profit institutions and even international agencies, e.g. UNESCO. Most of the research at the best private universities such as MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Johns Hopkins University and others is done by the grantees of above mentioned bodies .As one of the means of aiding the progress of science and engineering they offer three-year graduate Fellowships to the brightest graduates and students. Among those who have received this Fellowship are 9 Nobel Prize Winners, many members of the National Academy of Sciences and Space research. A considerable part of the money comes from the Pentagon, which remains the biggest supporter of new technologies and developments. The US government also maintains its own laboratories (such as the Oak Bridge National Laboratory, the National Research Laboratory or the Brookhaven National Laboratory) run by government workers but dependent on universities as a source of permanent research personnel. The governmental and military contracts also encourage the growth of science-oriented industries nearby ( e.g. Bell Laboratories).
Almost in tandem with the Atomic Age there has been running the Space Age. American scientist Robert Goddard was one of the first to experiment with rocket propulsion systems in the 30s.. Over next 10 years the interest in rocketry increased in the US, Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. During the late 1940s, the US Department of Defense pursued upper atmospheric research as a means of assuring American leadership in this field. A major step forward came when President D. Eisenhower approved a plan to orbit a scientific satellite as part of the International Geophysical Year for 1957 to gather scientific data about the Earth.
The Soviet Union quickly followed the suit, launching in October 1957 the world’s first artificial satellite SPUTNIC 1.The space race began and in October , 1958 the Congress and the President created the Federal Independent Agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as “An Act to provide for research into problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere and for other purposes”. NASA was headed by Famous German rocket specialist Werner von Braun and absorbed into itself the earlier National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and lots of other organizations. It keeps three major research laboratories and some smaller test facilities (with the annual budget of 100 million dollars and 8000 employees).Eventually NASA created other Centers and a number of affiliates including the Space Center in Huston, where the forming and training of the space crews is carried out.
On April 12th, 1961 Russian cosmonaut Major Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. After returning to the earth he pronounced a well-known challenge: “Now let the other countries try to catch us”. Several weeks later President Kennedy appealed to Congress: “I believe this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth”. Within very short time after that NASA began to conduct space missions. On May 5th, 1961 Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the first American to fly into space, and on February 20th, 1962 John H. Glenn became the first US astronaut to orbit the Earth. One of the highlights of the program occurred during Gemini 4, on June 3, 1965, when Edward H. White became the first US astronaut to conduct a spacewalk.
The main achievement of NASA during its early years involved the human exploration of the Moon Project Apollo. In 1968, after 11 years of major challenges and tragedies – notably 1967 fire in an Apollo capsule , having taken the lives of three astronauts, the Apollo project under the auspices of the NASA was under way. Apollo 7 carried three men around the earth, and then Apollo 8 carried three others around the moon. Apollo 9 and 10 tested the workability of the lunar module. On July 16, 1969, the spacecraft Apollo 11 was ready for launching. Astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were transferred to the lunar module, the Eagle, and landed on the moon, leaving behind a plaque that read “ Here Men from Planet Earth First Set Foot Upon the Moon. July 1969 A.D. We Came in Peace for All Mankind”. “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”, said Neil Armstrong as he first scuffed the surface of the moon with his foot on July the 20PthP.
Since then, there have been other American flights to the moon. .Displays at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. show the developments in space travel. From the scientific point of view, Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 expeditions were especially important., as they were aimed at learning more about the origin of the moon and the universe. During the moon expedition astronauts Scott and Irwin were able to leave the lunar Module to drive around over more than 27 kilometers of lunar ground and bring back a chunk of truly ancient lunar crust. After Apollo 17 the exploration of space shifted from the Apollo lunar program to Skylab, the manned orbital space station. In 1975, NASA cooperated with the Soviet Union to achieve the first international human spaceflight, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). The two spacecrafts were launched within 7.5 hours, docked three hours after and .3 American astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, Vance Brand ,Donald Slaytor and 2 Soviet Cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valerii Kubasov met and shook hands in orbit. After that various US space shuttles docked with the Mir nine times, and 52 American astronauts as well as astronauts from Europe and Japan, visited the station for research and training.
During the 1980s and the 1990s, the USA launched several spaceships to investigate distant planets. Pioneer X passed Jupiter; Mariner X became the first probe to fly to Venus and Mercury. The Viking probes landed on Mars and provided valuable information of the planet.
By the 1980s NASA had created the nation’ space transportation system of the future – the Space Shuttle, that was a reusable manned spacecraft taking off like a rocket and landing like an airplane.After the number of successful missions of shuttle Columbia,the third in NASA’s shuttle program Discovery went into operation.
Although the risks of the space flights were decreasing, and space flights have become to seem almost routine one cannot insure their absolute safety. The tragic day in the space program was on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded soon after liftoff due to the leak of one of two Solid Rocket Boosters. All seven members of the crew including a woman astronaut were killed. On the First of February 2003 American Space Shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas as it descended for a landing at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida following a 16-day flight. All its seven crewmembers died. The Shuttle program was grounded for over two years, while NASA and its contractors worked to redesign the Boosters and increase safety and regain the momentum lost due to the Challenger disaster.
In spite of the tragedies and loss of the human lives NASA has remained a leading force in space scientific research. Since 1975 there have been a number of space expeditions to Mars, Jupiter and its moon Europa stimulating public interest in aerospace exploration. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope launched in 1990 discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates. Using innovative technologies, the Mars Pathfinder spacecraft landed on Mars on July 4th, 1997 and explored the surface of the planet with its miniature rover. The Mars Pathfinder mission was a scientific success, watched by many via the Internet. This success was followed in January 2004 to much scientific and popular acclaim by the landing of the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.
John Mather and George Smoot’s Nobel Prize awards of 2006 marked the inception of cosmology as a precise science and manifested the work of more than 1,000 researchers, engineers and other participants for the experimental measurements that revealed the blackbody form of the microwave background radiation measured by satellite launched by NASA in 1989.
With the end of the cold war the technical cooperation between Russian and U.S. scientists aerospace companies increased. In the 1980-s the USA and Russia set up five united workgroups for coordination of cooperated actions in such fields as biology, astrophysics, solar physics and interplant researches. In the 1990-s both countries continued cooperation and spread it to aeronautics and piloted space flights. From 1995 to 1998 the joint programs Mir-Shuttle and Mir-NASA were carried on. The USA-Russian Space cooperation was supervised by joint American-Russian workgroup ESJWG, including the representatives of different governmental bodies, universities and institutions of the USA and Russia. The ILS (International Launch Services) joint venture was formed in 1995 and became another example of cooperation between the two countries One of the notable events in bilateral space work was the establishment of the Sea Launch International consortium, of which 40% was owned by Boeing Commercial Space Co. and 25 % by Russian Energiya Rocket Space Corp. The achieved experience paved the way for the creation of another International project ISS with the participation of 11 countries. The permanent work of ISS began in November 2000. In May 2000 the first launch of the U.S. rocket-carrier Atlas 111, equipped with a Russian RD-180 engine was conducted. .
1.Answer the questions.
1.What do you know about NAS activity?.What are the similar and different features in the work of the US National Academy of sciences and the Russian one?
2.Which non-profit scientific institutions do you know in the USA? .What is “Think Tanks”?
3..Which role did the World Wars play in the development of American science?
4..What part did the US universities occupy in the development of research?
5. Which names of American Nobel prize winners do you know? Do you know any Russians among them?
6.What do you know about NASA activities?
7..Tell about the space age in the USA and Russia. Give the examples of space cooperation of our the two countries.
1I. Render the texts in English:
А). Становление Науки.
В американских колониях подход к науке был практическим. Торговля была связана с мореплаванием, поэтому научный интерес сосредоточивался на астрономии, математике, топографии, метеорологии и стимулировался полезностью для мореплавания и сельского хозяйства. Почти вся научная деятельность в Новой Англии концентрировалась в Бостоне, который с самого начала стал интеллектуальной столицей Новой Англии. Бостон превосходила только Филадельфия, которая имела больше политических, культурных и интеллектуальных связей с Европой.
После революции и получения независимости постепенно появились новые благоприятные условия для организации науки. Однако, несмотря на быстрое развитие промышленности, сельского хозяйства и транспорта обучение в колледжах в США в 19 в. основывалось главным образом на изучении классиков, и здесь долго не было лабораторной практики. Гражданская война 1861-1865 гг. показала, что общество нуждается в технически образованных людях. В 1861 г. был основан Массачусетский Технологический институт в Бостоне. С него начался новый, современный тип образования и развития науки. В 1863 г., еще во время гражданской войны была организована Национальная Академия наук
Современная сеть научных организаций в США включает государственные ведомственные лаборатории, федерально финансируемые исследовательские центры, частные промышленные фирмы и некоммерческие (бесприбыльные) организации. Это обусловлено тем, что федеральное правительство тратит огромные средства на науку. Оно - ocновной источник финансирования фундаментальных исследований и самый крупный заказчик военных программ.
Б). Бесприбыльные исследовательские организации.
Бесприбыльные исследовательские организации не ставят своей целью получение коммерческой прибыли. Это освобождает их от федеральных налогов и делает их относительно независимыми. Бесприбыльными исследовательскими организациями являются исследовательские отделы университетов, федерально финансируемые исследовательские центры, научно-технические общества, музеи, частные благотворительные фонды. Сюда же относятся независимые исследовательские институты, профессиональные общества и Академия наук.
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