2019年经济学人 ＂机遇号＂火星探测器失联(3)（在线收听）

That said, it had not all been plain rolling. Opportunity had spent a few harrowing sols stuck in sand at Purgatory Ripple; later, one of its steering motors failed. While it was exploring Victoria it was caught in a global dust-storm that cut it off from Earth and covered its solar panels with dirt. Happily, though, the same winds that drove the storms also blew the panels clean, or cleaner, after their passing. A joint in the shoulder of its robot arm, dicky since the mission started, finally seized up.

话虽如此，事情并非一帆风顺。“机遇号”用了数个火星日才摆脱“炼狱沙丘”；再然后，有一个转向马达坏了。在探索维多利亚州的过程中，“机遇号”遭遇了一场火星沙尘暴，致使与地球失联，太阳能电池板上布满了灰尘。不过，令人高兴的是，引起沙尘暴的风，也能将太阳能电池板吹干净。自开始执行任务以来，其机械手臂上的一个关节就很脆弱，最终停止运转。

On March 30th 2011, Sol 2,155 of its mission to Gusev, Spirit failed to check in with Earth by radio as scheduled; it was never heard from again. Opportunity continued its long trek to Endeavour crater, 1,000 times larger than the crater in which it had started off. The point where it reached the rim was named Spirit Point, in memoriam. On August 6th 2012 a newer, bigger rover, Curiosity, landed at the foot of Aeolis Mons, thousands of kilometres away. Opportunity looked after itself for nine days to allow the scientists and engineers to make a fuss of the newcomer, then set out to study the intriguing smectite clays that a European orbiter had detected on Cape York, a peak further along Endeavour’s rim.

2011年3月30日，第二个太阳日，勇气号在飞往古谢夫的任务中，未能如期通过无线电与地球取得联系；从此再无消息。“机遇号”继续长途跋涉，来到“奋进”陨石坑，比它出发时的陨石坑大1000倍。为纪念，到达的陨坑边界被称为“勇气点”。2012年8月6日，一辆更新、更大的火星车“好奇号”在数千公里外的埃奥里斯蒙斯山脚下着陆。在科学家和工程师们一直对新布置的好奇号更加上心时，“机遇号”自己行进了9天，然后开始研究一颗欧洲人造卫星在约克角发现的有趣的蒙脱石粘土，约克角是“奋进”陨石坑边缘更远的山峰。

In Perseverance Valley

身处“毅力谷”

As the unexpected years went by, Opportunity continued along the hilly rim of Endeavour until it came to Perseverance Valley, which cuts through towards the crater floor. It was heading down the valley when, on June 10th 2018—Sol 5,111, well over seven Martian years of service—another dust storm cut it off from Sun and Earth. When, after months, the global storm subsided, the rover’s minders, now family, waited for its solar panels to be blown clean. It appears they were not. After over 1,000 messages attempting to restore contact, Opportunity was declared lost on February 12th.

随着计划外使用时间的流逝，“机遇号”继续沿着“奋进”陨石坑边缘前进，一直走到“毅力谷”，“毅力谷”直通火山口底部。2018年6月10日，第5111个火星日，已经工作了7个火星年的“机遇号”正沿着山谷行进，另一场沙尘暴损坏了其太阳能组件，也切断了与地球的联系。数月之后，这场全球性的风暴终于平息，”机遇号”的负责人员（现在成了家人），等待太阳能电池板被风吹干净。而事实并未如期。在向”机遇号”发送了超1000条消息试图取得联系后，于2月12日正式宣布”机遇号”失联。

If more than a handful of people ever get to explore Mars in person, surely one day someone will follow its tracks down Perseverance, looking for the mast on which its cameras are mounted—separated for stereoscopy, easily anthropomorphised—to honour a pioneer who travelled far and provided insight after insight into the history of Mars. Until then, imagine her as she was photographed by the orbiting HiRise camera after first reaching the scalloped rim of Victoria, looking down onto its rolling dunes: a tiny speck perched on a promontory peak, a new planet swimming before her eagle eyes, watched in silence from the skies.

如果更多人亲自探索过火星，那么毫无疑问总有一天有人将会追寻“机遇号”在“毅力谷”的踪迹，寻找安装了摄像头的桅杆——分离达到了立体视觉效果，容易出现拟人的效果——这都是为了纪念一位在深入了解火星历史后远赴火星并提供宝贵资料的先驱者。在那之前，想象一下，当她第一次到达维多利亚环形山的扇形边缘时，俯视着起伏的沙丘，轨道上的"高分辨率制图科学实验"相机拍摄到了这一幕：一个微小的斑点栖息在海角的山峰上，一颗新的行星在她鹰般锐利的眼睛前游动，就这样在天空中静静注视着。