美国有线新闻 CNN 美国“毅力号”火星车成功登陆火星

A rover that launched last July 30th was scheduled to arrive on Mars yesterday and scientists were hoping that the Perseverance¹ mission would help them figure out if life was ever present on the red planet.

去年7月30日发射的火星车计划于昨日抵达火星，科学家希望这“毅力”号任务能帮助他们弄清楚这颗红色星球（指火星）上是否存在生命。

The mission's cost is $2.7 billion. It was scheduled to last two years. If all goes as planned during that time, the Perseverance rover is set to travel 15 miles studying Mars' climate and geology and collecting samples of Martian soil that could one day be brought back to Earth, if another mission succeeds in sending a spacecraft to pick them up.

这项任务耗资27亿美元。计划在火星进行为期两年的研究。如果这期间一切按计划进行，“毅力”号火星车将行驶15英里，研究火星的气候和地质，并采集火星土壤样本，如果另一项任务成功发射飞船，这些样本将来可能被带回地球。

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. The rover first had to undergo an extensive check out period, a kind of booting up on Mars. It had to unfold and download software. It's got to deploy² a $23 million drone helicopter who's purpose is to find out if powered chopper flight is possible on Mars. And before any of that can happen, Perseverance had to make a safe landing on the red planet.

但我们已经超越了自己。火星车首先要经历一个较长的检查期，就像是在火星上启动一样。它必须打开并下载软件。同时火星车上要安装一架价值2300万美元的无人直升机，以确定动力直升机能否在火星上飞行。在这一切发生之前，“毅力”号必须先在这颗红色星球上安全着陆。

But as you heard a moment ago, getting the rover down safely is the tricky³ part. Mars is about 127 million miles away from Earth right now. It takes 11 minutes for radio signals to travel from Earth to Mars and the Perseverance rover landing process was set to happen over seven minutes.

但正如大家刚才听到的，让火星车安全着陆是相当棘手的部分。火星目前距离地球约1.27亿英里。无线电信号从地球传到火星需要11分钟，而“毅力”号火星车的着陆过程设定在7分钟内完成。

That's why it had to happen autonomously⁴ without scientists manually making adjustments on its way down. Yesterday evening, NASA said that Perseverance appeared to land safely on the red planet. Various spacecraft at NASA and the European Space Agency had in orbit over Mars were set to fly over the rover and check up on its health.

这就是它必须自主完成降落、没有科学家在下降过程中进行手动调整的原因。昨天晚上，美国国家航空航天局（简称NASA）表示，“毅力”号似乎已经安全降落在火星上。美国国家航空局和欧洲航天局在火星轨道上运行着各种航天器，它们随时准备飞去检查火星车的运行状态。

1 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

2 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

3 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

4 autonomously   

adv. 自律地，自治地

参考例句：

• To learn autonomously in the network environment is totally new to students. 基于网络环境下的自主学习对学生来说，是一种全新的学习方式。
• The QC-RS can operate autonomously or by remote control. QC-RS能实现自动操作或通过遥控来操作。