评论
打印
"Touchdown confirmed. We are safe on Mars. [Cheers.] Time to see where our Curiosity will take us."
“着陆完毕。我们安全抵达火星。现在来看看我们的好奇号漫游车将带我们去何方。”
The control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory late in the evening of August 5th, Pacific time, when word arrived that the Curiosity rover had landed safely on Mars. The one-ton rover, which dwarfs all Mars landers that came before it, will now spend a planned two years exploring the Martian surface. The mission is expected to cost $2.5 billion.
太平洋时间8月15日深夜，美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的控制室收到好消息：好奇号漫游车安全登录火星。这个漫游车重达一吨，令之前所有的火星探测器相形见绌。按照计划它将在火星表面进行为期两年的探测行动。这个项目预计将花费25亿美元。
Curiosity's task is to investigate the inside of Gale Crater, where a giant mound of sedimentary deposits may provide evidence of a wetter, possibly habitable Mars billions of years ago.
好奇号漫游车的任务是调查盖尔陨坑内部。盖尔陨坑有大量的沉积物，这可能会提供证据证明几十亿年前的火星更加湿润，适于居住。
But first it had to survive an elaborate landing sequence, which appears to have gone smoothly. Curiosity landed on time and on target and soon beamed back grainy photos of its wheels and its shadow.
但首先它必须通过精心设计的登录程序，这似乎进展得很顺利。好奇号漫游车准时准点着陆，很快便传回它自己的轮子和影子的模糊照片。
Given the carlike size of the rover and the challenges of landing on Mars, Curiosity's landing goes down as one of the greatest parking jobs in history.
鉴于它类似于汽车的身形，以及在火星上着陆的种种挑战，好奇号的着陆堪称是历史上最伟大的“停车”。
原文译文属可可原创，未经允许请勿转载！
