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尝试新概念 NASA火星着陆器遇挫

The U.S. space agency's test run of a Mars landing system came to a disappointing end Monday when the saucer-shaped vehicle's parachute failed to unfurl high over the Pacific Ocean.

美国太空总署（NASA）测试的火星着陆系统星期一遭到了令人失望的挫折，碟形着陆器的降落伞未能在太平洋上空展开。

It was the second attempt by NASA engineers to test the new parachute system. A similar problem plagued the device's debut¹ run last year. NASA hopes the concept will revolutionize planetary exploration.

这是NASA工程师第二次尝试测试新的降落伞系统。类似的问题在这个着陆器去年首次试飞时同样造成了麻烦。这是一个新概念，NASA希望能借由它给星际探索带来革命性的变化。

After several weather related delays, the world's largest helium balloon was launched from a military base in Hawaii to test a saucer-like device called the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD). The LDSD is designed to investigate and test breakthrough technologies for landing robotic and human missions on Mars, and safely returning large payloads to Earth.

因为天气原因延误了几次之后，一只世界上最大的氦气球从夏威夷的一个军事基地升空，以测试一种叫做“低密度超音速减速器”（LDSD）的碟形装置。LDSD 旨在测试一些突破性技术，这些技术将帮助机器人和人类着陆火星，并带着大型有效载荷安全返回地球。

"This new technology is required to land five metric tons, for human missions, maybe 30 and beyond, metric tons on the surface. So, the parachute we're using today can improve performance for landing mass by 100 to 200 percent, and that's really critical for not only future enhanced robotic missions, but human exploration of Mars," said Steve Jurczyk of the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate.

NASA 空间技术主管史蒂夫?尤尔奇科(STEVE JURCZYK) 说:“这项新技术需要能够把五吨的重量着陆在火星表面，如果是载人任务的话，也许需要超过30吨。所以，我们今天使用的降落伞可以把着陆重量提高1到2倍。这不仅对于未来的机器人着陆任务，而且对载人探索任务都至关重要。”

Scientists say the thin atmosphere around Mars requires especially strong parachutes for landing heavy and fast-moving spacecraft.

科学家说，包裹着火星的稀薄大气层需要特别加强的降落伞来降落沉重的，快速移动的航天器。

"As we started thinking about the next generation of more capable, more exciting, more bold missions to Mars, we started realizing that we didn't have the technologies in place to land them, and we had to start today, start developing those technologies. Things like inflatable drag devices, that we could inflate² at the speed of sound," explained Ian Clark of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

NASA喷气推进实验室的伊恩 ? 克拉克(IAN CLARK)说:“当我们开始考虑更强、 更令人激动、 更大胆的下一代火星探测任务时，我们开始意识到我们没有相应的着陆技术。我们必须从今天开始发展这些技术。包括可在音速的速度下充气的减速装置。”

The parachute tested Monday is 30 meters in diameter. A "flying saucer" it was carrying weighed more than 3,000 kilograms, about twice the weight of the kind of robotic rover spacecraft NASA can currently land on Mars.

星期一测试的降落伞直径是30米。它携带的"飞碟"重量超过3,000公斤，重量约是目前NASA可以着陆火星的机器人探测飞行器的两倍。

Late Monday, a NASA spokeswoman said the test failed when the parachute deployed³ but did not inflate. A similar test in June of last year suffered the same fate.

NASA一位发言人星期一晚上说，这次试验失败的原因是，降落伞打开了但是没有充气。去年6月的一个类似的试验也发生了同样的情况。