There's no doubt that one of the greatest achievements by humankind is the exploration of space. Ever since cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to journey into space in 1961, scientists have been exploring it and pushing the boundaries to try and go further and discover things that are yet to be discovered. But probably the only thing that's certain about this exploration into the unknown so far, is it's been dominated by men.
Of course, in the past, women haven't been excluded from space projects. Women have been involved on the ground at mission control – and behind the scenes women have worked as seamstresses, stitching vital spaceflightcomponents. In fact, many of NASA's key missions would never have left the ground without them. And it was a group of black female mathematicians, recently depicted in a Hollywood movie called Hidden Figures, who helped NASA launch an American into space.
But this hasn't been women's only contribution. Back in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to blast off into space. However, after that, space flight programmes were slow to employ women. In the USA, NASA didn't accept applications from women to become astronauts until 1978, and as missions to the Moon had ended by then, it meant Neil Armstrong's arrival on the Moon in 1969 was 'a giant step for mankind' – and also an important step for a man.
But attitudes have moved on and leading engineers at NASA have said that the first person to set foot on Mars should be a woman. The space agency aims to have a gender-balanced workforce but can only achieve that if equal numbers of men and women train for science and technology careers. As Allison McIntryre, Chief of the NASA Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility, told the BBC: "My director is a women, my former division chief is a woman. We have female astronauts. We haven't put a woman on the Moon yet. And I think that perhaps the first person to step on Mars should be a woman."
A woman landing on Mars would be an incredible achievement for being a first for womankind and would, for some, be out of this world! It would certainly inspire a younger female generation by showing what is possible. For them, the thought of other planets being a men-only destination, would be an alien concept.
词汇表
humankind 人类
exploration 探索
cosmonaut（前苏联的）宇航员
push the boundaries 挑战极限，突破极限
mission control 航天地面指挥中心
spaceflight components 航天组件
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) 美国国家航空航天局
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