Баранова, Starlight 8. Учебник. Module 3f

Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
Note: The solar system consists of the Sun and the planets that go around it.

The problems of space colonisation are the lack of technology and the lack of money. For example, it would take 1, 000 years to travel to the nearest star system and it costs 6, 000 pounds to put half a kilo of something into nearEarth orbit.
The solution may be to give 0.25% of the world’s financial resources to fund space colonisation.

1 F … but now leading scientists such as Stephen Hawking say … he believes …
2 A … Humans would need to be self-sufficient … The Moon has rich resources … found water on the moon …
3 E Life would be very harsh, though … There is no atmosphere on the Moon …
4 D … endless amounts of money … costs 6, 000 … we can afford 0.25% … financial resources …
5 В … matter of time … years, centuries or millennia.

1 harsh
2 self-sufficient
3 warm up
4 release
5 afford

1 Supplies
2 overcome
3 wipe out
4 endless

If we had endless amounts of money for space exploration, maybe we would have already overcome these problems and built the first space colonies.
Just imagine – if people hadn’t given Columbus money for his voyage to America in 1492, NASA probably wouldn’t exist today!

2 If Sam had better eyesight, he would have been accepted on the astronaut training programme.
3 If Mark had handed in his project, he would pass the astronomy course.
4 If Greg hadn’t studied/hadn’t been studying all night, he wouldn’t be tired now.
5 If he could afford it, he would have applied to study abroad.
6 If Janet wasn’t interested in astronomy, she wouldn’t have visited the planetarium yesterday.

Colonising space is difficult because it is expensive to put things into space. It is also a long way to the nearest solar system which may have Earth-like planets and we don’t have the technology to travel fast in space.

I can see other astronauts in the spacecraft with me and I can see the stars outside the window as well as the blackness of space. It is quiet except for the sound of the engines and it’s very peaceful. I feel very excited to be travelling in space and also very privileged to be one of the few humans to experience this.

I would like to live in a space colony because I think it would be the start of a new civilisation. I would like to be there at the start of a new era and I think it would be an exciting new experience with lots of interesting things to see and do.
I wouldn’t like to live in a space colony because I can’t imagine what life would be like there. I like living on Earth and I think it would be too different and too difficult to live in space or on another planet.