Mars Global Surveyor is the oldest of five NASA robotic devices, which is designed to find out signs that Mars once had water, and it had been taking detailed pictures of the red planet for a decade. Unfortunately, it stopped working on November 2 after it developed a motor problem.After two days of silence, ground control teams received a signal that the device had put itself into an emergency standby mode. There was no information about what had gone wrong. Since then, the mission team at NASA's laboratory in California has tried to contact the device. This week, NASA engineers are preparing for what may be their last chance to recover the spacecraft.NASA plans to use a newly arrived device to take a picture of the Surveyor to see how the failed craft is oriented to the sun for power and to Earth for communications. It is reported that the picture will be taken on Friday when the satellites are about 93 miles apart. The new high-powered camera should be able to image details of the Surveyor as small as about 10 centimeters. There is a good chance of recovering it.Flight controllers also plan to try to get the Surveyor to contact one or both of NASA's roving geology stations, Spirit and Opportunity, which are located on opposite sides of Mars' equator. The rovers would not be able to transmit the spacecraft's science data, but engineers at least would get an idea of its general position. The linkup could also show if the Surveyor still has power. If the device has been unable to charge its batteries due to a positioning problem or failed component, it could run out of power with no hope of recovering. But if it has power, the device is quite capable of autonomous control even if it doesn't hear from Earth. The Surveyor has far surpassed its design lifetime, but scientists still have more targets for the probe's camera and science instruments.(1) (单选题)The main task of Mars Global Surveyor is _______.A. to take pictures of the red planetB. to find out if there was water on MarsC. to find the causes of the failure in the deviceD. to work out the problems of its motor
Mars Global Surveyor is the oldest of five NASA robotic devices, which is designed to find out signs that Mars once had water, and it had been taking detailed pictures of the red planet for a decade. Unfortunately, it stopped working on November 2 after it developed a motor problem.
After two days of silence, ground control teams received a signal that the device had put itself into an emergency standby mode. There was no information about what had gone wrong. Since then, the mission team at NASA's laboratory in California has tried to contact the device. This week, NASA engineers are preparing for what may be their last chance to recover the spacecraft.
NASA plans to use a newly arrived device to take a picture of the Surveyor to see how the failed craft is oriented to the sun for power and to Earth for communications. It is reported that the picture will be taken on Friday when the satellites are about 93 miles apart. The new high-powered camera should be able to image details of the Surveyor as small as about 10 centimeters. There is a good chance of recovering it.
Flight controllers also plan to try to get the Surveyor to contact one or both of NASA's roving geology stations, Spirit and Opportunity, which are located on opposite sides of Mars' equator. The rovers would not be able to transmit the spacecraft's science data, but engineers at least would get an idea of its general position. The linkup could also show if the Surveyor still has power. If the device has been unable to charge its batteries due to a positioning problem or failed component, it could run out of power with no hope of recovering. But if it has power, the device is quite capable of autonomous control even if it doesn't hear from Earth. The Surveyor has far surpassed its design lifetime, but scientists still have more targets for the probe's camera and science instruments.
(1) (单选题)
The main task of Mars Global Surveyor is _______.
A. to take pictures of the red planet
B. to find out if there was water on Mars
C. to find the causes of the failure in the device
D. to work out the problems of its motor
题目解答
答案
解析
本题考查对文章细节信息的理解。解题思路是仔细阅读文章，找到关于火星全球勘测者（Mars Global Surveyor）主要任务的描述，然后将各选项与原文描述进行对比分析。
- 首先，在文章第一段中明确提到“Mars Global Surveyor is the oldest of five NASA robotic devices, which is designed to find out signs that Mars once had water”，这表明火星全球勘测者的设计目的是找出火星曾经有水的迹象。
- 接着分析各选项：
- A选项“to take pictures of the red planet”，文中虽提到它拍摄了火星的详细照片，但这只是其在执行任务过程中的一个行为，并非主要任务，所以A选项错误。
- B选项“to find out if there was water on Mars”，与原文中“find out signs that Mars once had water”意思相符，即寻找火星上曾经是否有水的证据，所以B选项正确。
- C选项“to find the causes of the failure in the device”，文章中并没有提及火星全球勘测者的主要任务是找出设备故障的原因，所以C选项错误。
- D选项“to work out the problems of its motor”，同样，文章未表明其主要任务是解决电机问题，所以D选项错误。