新闻周刊:美国毅力号火星车即将登陆火星,成功难料（在线收听）

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Mars Rover Perseverance Offers the Best Chance Yet of Finding Signs of Life on Red Planet

毅力号火星探测车为在红色星球上探测生命迹象提供了最好的机会

BY JON JACKSON

作者：乔恩·杰克逊

After a seven-month and 125 million–mile journey, the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover will touch down on the red planet today at the expected time of 3:55 p.m. ET. The rover will first have to undergo a difficult landing that NASA refers to as the "seven minutes of terror" due to the number of challenges present and the fact that they occur too fast for radio signals to and from Earth, but it will then set forth on what is hoped to be an extraordinary mission: The most comprehensive search yet for signs of life and past presence of water on Mars.

2020毅力号火星探测车历时7个月，经过1.25亿英里的旅程，将于今天下午3点55分（美国东部时间）登陆这颗红色星球。探测车将首先经历一次艰难的着陆，美国宇航局称着陆过程为“恐怖七分钟”，原因是目前面临的挑战太多，而且发生速度太快，探测车无法向地球发送或接收无线电信号，但它随后将展开一项被寄予厚望的非同寻常的任务：最全面寻找火星上的生命迹象和曾经存在水的证据。

The site chosen for this grand exploration is the Jezero Crater. Scientists feel this crater with a diameter of approximately 30 miles was once a water-filled lake, and thus the best possible place currently known to examine the ground for past Martian life.

这次探测选择的地点是杰泽罗火山口。科学家们认为，这个直径约30英里的火山口曾经是一个充满水的湖泊，因此，这里是是目前已知的考察火星过去生命迹象的最佳地点。

Perseverance will send information in real time, while also collecting rock samples. These samples will be stored on the surface of Mars for a potential future mission to pickup and return to Earth. The rover will also be busy photographing and investigating specified target areas in the delta of Jezero. In addition to all those tasks, Perseverance will test out the Ingenuity helicopter drone to see if targeted scouting is possible on the planet.

毅力号会实时发送信息，同时也会采集岩石样本。这些样本将被储存在火星表面，以备未来可能采集样本并带回地球的任务。探测车还将忙于拍摄和调查杰泽罗三角洲的特定目标区域。除了所有这些任务外，毅力号还将试飞Ingenuity的火星直升机，看看是否有可能在火星上进行有针对性的侦察。

The work Perseverance sets out to do is based on approximately 50 years of past missions, with much of the water-searching research it's using coming from rovers in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Spirit and Opportunity rover missions, which both started in 2004, were especially instrumental in the understanding of the history of water on Mars. Then 2012's Curiosity confirmed the presence of organic molecules that could be the building blocks of life.

毅力号计划所做的工作是建立在过去50年的任务基础上的，其中大部分的探测水的研究任务都起源于20世纪90年代末和21世纪初的探测车。“勇气”号和“机遇”号火星车任务都始于2004年，这两项任务对了解火星上的水的历史有极大帮助。2012年的好奇号证实了有机分子的存在，这些分子可能是生命的组成部分。

"We've built on all of that knowledge to prepare ourselves now with the Perseverance rover," Lori Glaze, director of NASA's planetary science division, said in a NASA press conference on February 17 that involved several of the program's officials. She said that with Perseverance, NASA looks to "take that next step—to really, actually look for those signs of life."

“我们现在已经基于所有现有知识为毅力号火星车做好了准备。”美国宇航局行星科学部主任洛里·格拉斯2月17日在美国宇航局新闻发布会上表示，该项目的几名官员也参加了此次会议。她表示，美国宇航局希望凭借毅力号，“迈出下一步，真正地、切实地寻找那些生命迹象。”

As with all the prior missions, Perseverance is seen as just another building block for information and discovery—though a large one—to be used to inform future Mars landings and explorations. Perseverance could also lead the way to human exploration of Mars one day. First, though, a lot of logistics has to go right for a safe landing and the hope that all the communications gear works properly.

与之前的所有任务一样，毅力号被视为信息和发现的另一个基石，在很大程度上用来为未来的火星登陆和探索提供信息。终有一日，毅力号也会引领人类探索火星。不过，首先，为了安全着陆，以及希望所有通讯设备都能正常工作，很多后勤工作必须进行。

"This is a very fast-paced, high-stakes operation. It's kind of a race to get it done. And it also involves literally hundreds of people having to work together seamlessly. I can tell you, this is not what scientists usually do. Scientists do not usually perform under these kinds of circumstances," Ken Farley, Perseverance project scientist at the California Institute of Technology, said at the press conference. "It's a big challenge and I think we are ready."

“这是一个非常快节奏、高风险的行动。这是一场完成任务的赛跑。它还涉及到数百人的无缝合作。我可以告诉你，这不是科学家通常做的。科学家通常不会在这种情况下表现出色。”加州理工学院毅力号项目科学家肯·法利在新闻发布会上说，“这是一个巨大的挑战，我想我们已经准备好了。”