On this week’s news update--
The mission to explore
inside the planet Mars,
an expedition to study
a huge glacier in Antarctica
and the robot helping villagers
in rural India.
First up,
a new spacecraft
is on its way to Mars,
after launching from an airbase
in California, in the USA.
It’s called InSight,
and it will help
NASA scientists
with a special mission.
[Bruce Banerdt speaks]
“We know a lot
"about the surface of Mars,
we know a lot about its atmosphere
"but we don’t know very much about
what goes on a mile below the surface,
"much less 2000 miles
below the surface down to the center,
"and this will be the first mission
that’s going to Mars specifically
to investigate
the deep inside of Mars.”
InSight is expected to touch down
on the red planet
in about six months’ time,
it will then use a robotic arm,
to place scientific equipment
onto the surface.
The team hopes that studying
what’s going on
beneath the surface of Mars
will help them learn more
about how it was formed.
Next up,
scientists from the USA  and the UK
are embarking on a huge joint
expedition in a very remote location.
They’re going to study the massive
Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica.
Thwaites Glacier is about
the same size as the state of Florida.
Warming temperatures
are causing the glacier to melt,
and the expedition team
is aiming to find out
if the glacier could collapse,
which would lead
to a sudden rise in sea levels.
They’ll use a range of equipment,
from drills to submarines,
during the five-year study.
And finally, it’s Tech Beat.
This little robot was an unusual sight
in this village in southern India.
It was trialed
as part of a university study,
to find out how technology
can help people living in rural areas.
Many people here don’t have
access to water in their homes.
Which means they spend
a lot of time and energy
collecting water from wells.
That’s why
the remote-controlled robot
was brought in to help!
It carried large loads of water
and communicated
with villagers
in their local language.
The researchers
say the trial was a success,
and they’re planning
to explore how robots
can help with other daily tasks.
That’s all for this week--
we’ll see you next time!
