评论
打印
In 2021, Mars is set to receive new robotic inhabitants.
2021年，火星将迎来新的机器人居民。
But until then, we have other explorers hard at work learning what makes the Red Planet tick.
但在那之前，还有一些探索者正在努力学习如何实现登陆火星的目标。
Like NASA's InSight lander! InSight touched down in November 2018, and its first results were finally released this week in two Nature journals.
比如美国宇航局（NASA）的洞察号着陆器！洞察号于2018年11月着陆，其首次发回的结果于本周在《自然》期刊的2篇文章中发布。
The results reveal a seismically active world with magnetic and atmospheric phenomena, all begging for further investigation.
结果显示：火星是有磁场、有大气层的多地震星体。还需要进一步的研究。
InSight lives in a sediment-filled crater in the Elysium Planitia region a volcanic plain a bit north of where Curiosity is.
洞察号生活在埃律西昂平原地区一个充满沉积物的火山口，这里是火山平原，在好奇号稍北的位置。
Its mission is to learn what it's like beneath Mars's surface.
其任务是了解火星表面以下是什么样子。
And to do that, it brought along some really cool instruments.
为了实现这个目标，洞察号携带了一些很酷的仪器。
For one, it has Mars's first seismometer in forty years!
其中一个仪器是火星40年来出现的首个地震仪哦！
At first, that could seem like a weird thing to bring to Mars.
起初，看起来带这个仪器去火星会很奇怪。
Because until recently, we thought the planet was geologically dead, with not an earthquake, or... a marsquake, to be found.
因为直到最近为止，我们都一直以为火星从地质学角度来讲已经死亡了，是不会有地震的。
But the hope was that this seismometer could at least help us learn about other seismic activity, from things like meteorite impacts or dust devils.
但我们的希望是：这个地震仪至少能帮助我们了解其他地震活动，比如陨石撞击或者尘卷风之类的。
And it delivered! As of September, InSight had recorded 174 seismic events.
它也确实不负众望。截至9月，洞察号已经记录了174个地震活动。
And at least twenty-four of them bore resemblance to minor earthquakes.
其中至少有24个跟小地震都有些相似。
Now, Mars doesn't have tectonic plates, the main thing that causes earthquakes here at home, but this suggests it still has some kind of quakes!
火星没有地壳构造板块，而地壳构造板块是引发地球上出现地震的主要原因，但这表明火星上还是有某种震动存在的。
So, Mars isn't dead after all! We're still learning how these things work, but they may be caused by Mars's continual cooling over the billions of years since it formed.
所以，火星怎么说都还没有死亡！我们还在了解这些事情运作的方式，但这可能是因为自火星形成的数十亿年来，火星一直在降温。
As it cools, it contracts, which applies stress. And given enough time, the material under stress could break, causing a quake.
降温的过程中会收缩，从而产生压力。假以时日，受压的物质会断裂，引发地震。
These twenty-four events happened so deep that you and I probably couldn't feel them from the surface.
这些活动每时每刻都在发生，而且发生在很深的地方，所以咱们大概都没法从地表感受到。
But InSight could! And by looking at how the vibrations travel through the planet, it could teach us about Mars's geology and what the planet is made of.
但洞察号可以感受到！通过观测震动穿梭的方式，洞察号可以让我们了解火星的地质结构和火星的结构。
Besides the seismometer, InSight also has the first magnetometer to grace the Martian surface.
除了地震仪之外，洞察号还携带了第一个磁力计来勘测火星表面。
Mars doesn't have a planet-wide magnetic field anymore, but some of the rocks deep in its crust are still magnetic.
火星的磁场不足以覆盖整个星球，但地壳深处的某些岩石依然具有磁力。
And InSight's instrument can detect that. So far, it's measured the strength of these local magnetic fields and how they change over the course of the day.
洞察号的仪器可以勘测到磁力。目前为止，该磁力计已经测量了火星磁场的强度以及磁力在一天中不同时段的变化。
But it's also teaching about Mars a whole. Given how deep these rocks appear to be buried, scientists estimate they're about 3.9 billion years old.
但也让我们了解了火星的一些整体情况。在得知这些岩石的深度后，科学家估测到他们又39亿年的历史。
That's slightly younger than when most scientists believe Mars's planet-wide magnetic field shut down, so it could mean that field lasted a little longer than we thought!
岩石的年龄比大多数科学家认为活动磁场消失的时间要小，这可能意味着火星的磁场持续的时间比我们之前想得要久！
Finally, this is all cool, but InSight is leaving us with a few mysteries, too.
最后一点也是很酷的一点——洞察号留给了我们很多谜题。
Like, its atmospheric instruments found that night-time gravity waves are more abundant than prior data suggest.
比如，洞察号的大气层探测仪器发现：夜晚的重力波比之前数据显示的要更丰富。
Gravity waves are regular, periodic changes in air pressure, temperature, or wind speed, caused by changes in the air buoyancy.
重力波在气压、温度、风速中会出现常见的周期性变化，是由空气浮力变化引起的。
And they're entirely different from gravitational waves, the distortions in space-time we detect when black holes collide.
重力波跟引力波完全不同，引力波是黑洞发生撞击时我们探测到的时空扭曲。
But despite seeing them on Mars, we don't really know what they mean.
但虽然我们在月球上得以见到重力波，但我们不知道它们是怎么回事。
InSight also found the first evidence of infrasound on Mars sound waves with frequencies lower than what we can hear.
洞察号还发现：火星上次声的首个证据，次声的频率比人耳能听到的要低。
But again, we're not sure what that can teach us. So there's a lot left to learn!
但关于这一点，我们也不知能从中获取什么信息。还有很多要学习的内容！
And we're also waiting for two of InSight's other instruments, including its heat probe, to collect enough data to publish.
我们还在等待洞察号的另外2个仪器，包括热探测器，从而能收集到足够的数据来发布。
Fortunately, the mission was expected from the outset to take twenty-four months to meet all its objectives, so our little lander is still on track.
幸运的是，这次需要24个月才能达成所有目标，所以现在还早着。
In related news, Mars's two lumpy moons, Phobos and Deimos, are scheduled to get their own visitor!
在相关新闻中，火星2个笨重的卫星火卫一和火卫二也要迎来访客了！
Last week, the Japanese Space Agency JAXA announced that their Martian Moons eXploration mission, or MMX, has entered the development phase.
上周，日本宇宙航空研究开发机构（JAXA）宣布他们对火星2个卫星的探测任务（MMX）已经进入了研发阶段。
That means it's no longer just a research project: Engineers can officially start developing hardware and software.
这意味着这不再只是一个研究项目：工程师们可以正式开始研发硬件和软件了。
Mars may have two moons to Earth's one, but they're way smaller.
地球只有1个卫星，而火星虽然有2个卫星，但这2个卫星都比月球小。
On average, Phobos is only twenty-three kilometers across, roughly the length of a half-marathon, and Deimos is about half of that.
平均来说，火卫一是由23公里的跨度，是马拉松长度的一半，而火卫二是火卫一跨度的一半。
We're also not sure how Mars got them. They may have started in the asteroid belt, then been flung towards Mars by Jupiter's gravity.
还有一点不太确定：火星是如何获得这2个卫星的。这2个卫星一开始可能在小行星带，然后在木星的引力下朝火星飞去。
Or they could have formed like Earth's moon probably did: from the debris left over after something smashed into Mars.
或者它们也可能是像地球的卫星一样形成的：在有什么物体撞击火星之后，通过撞击的残骸形成的。
One way to answer this question would be to study the moons's compositions and see how similar they are to Mars itself.
回答这个问题的一个方法是研究月球的组成，然后看看跟火星组成有何相似之处。
And that's what MMX will do! After surveying both moons, the spacecraft will land on Phobos and collect at least a ten-gram sample from at least two centimeters below the surface.
而这也正是MMX将要做的事情！在对2个卫星做完调查后，MMX将在火卫一上着陆，在地表下至少2厘米的地方收集至少10克的样本。
Then, it will return that sample to Earth for analysis.
然后将样本返回地球用于分析。
No one has ever gone to Phobos like this, but sample return missions are no stranger to JAXA.
在此之前，还没有什么物体以这样的方式登陆过火卫一。但返回样本的任务，JAXA做过很多次了。
Their Hayabusa2 probe is currently on its way home carrying a bit of the asteroid Ryugu.
隼鸟2号探测器现在正在返回地球的路上，其上面携带了少许小行星龙宫的样本。
But the MMX mission takes further strides by collecting more material and by using a corer instead of a tiny cannonball to blast material off the surface.
但MMX任务更进一步——收集更多的物质，通过岩芯提取器而非炸弹来将物质炸离表面。
The craft will also have to navigate another planet's gravitational field, rather than visit a space potato freely orbiting the Sun like Ryugu.
MMX嗨要探测另一颗星体的引力场，而不是到访一个像龙宫一样自由环绕太阳的星体。
But it will be worth it! Besides helping us understand where the moons came from, studying bits of Phobos will help scientists answer questions about the history of water in the solar system.
但这样也值了！除了能帮助我们了解月球的来源外，研究火卫一的样本还能帮助科学家解答太阳系中水历史的问题。
For instance, if the moon formed from Mars, it could carry a record of Mars's watery past.
比如，如果火卫一是从火星形成的，那么月球上就会有火星水道流过的记录。
Or if it formed in the asteroid belt, it could help us understand the space rocks that may have brought Mars and Earth their water early-on.
而如果火卫一是从小行星带来的，那么就能帮助我们了解可能带来火星和地球早期水源的太空岩石。
The mission will also provide a look at how Mars has evolved in general over billions of years.
这次任务还能让我们看到火星在过去几十亿年间的演化方式。
That's because both moons are suspected of accumulating material kicked off the planet's surface during meteorite impacts bits thrown into the air fast enough to wind up in space!
这是因为：这2颗行星都可能吸取了火星表面的物质，物质是在陨石撞击期间甩入太空的！
MMX will even help determine how humans could visit these moons and collect samples themselves.
MMX还有助于判断人类可以何种方式方位这些卫星并收集样本。
Under the current timeline, MMX is looking to launch in 2024 and return before the end of the decade.
在当前的时间线下，MMX正在准备于2024年发射，在10年结束之前返回。
Which, conveniently, leaves us plenty of time before Phobos is scheduled to be ripped apart by Mars's gravity… in 30 to 50 million years.
这就给我们留下了充足的时间，可以在火卫一因火星的引力而分崩离析之前搞定任务，而火卫一分崩离析需要3000-5000万年。
So, we've got some wiggle room — and plenty to learn in the meantime.
所以我们还有回旋的空间——与此同时还能学习很多。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News is brought to you by today's President of Space, Matthew Brant!
感谢收看由本期太空小主席马修?布莱恩特带来的节目。
Matthew is one of our patrons on Patreon, and they, along with the rest of our Patreon community, help make this show happen.
马修是我们的一位忠实粉丝，他和社群的帮助造就了这期节目。
So, thanks, Matthew! We wouldn't be able to talk about this much cool space stuff without you.
谢谢你，马修！如果没有你，我们也无法在这里就太空知识侃侃而谈。
If you want to become our next President of Space or just help support the show in some other way, you can learn more at Patreon.com/SciShow.
如果想成为下一个太空小主席或者帮助节目制作的话，可以访问Patreon.com/SciShow。
