美国有线新闻 CNN NASA计划四个太空探索新项目

NASA, the National Aeronautics¹ and Space Administration, has four ideas it's looking at as possible future missions.

美国国家航空航天局（简称NASA）正在研究涉及未来可能任务的四个设想。

Two of them would focus on Venus. One of them would explore Jupiter's moon Io and one of them would fly by Neptune²'s moon Triton. I keep saying would because these are just ideas at this point. They'll each be researched by a team over a period of nine months and when the final proposals are made NASA will then decide whether to turn them into actual missions.

其中两个任务会聚焦金星。一个探索木星的卫星“艾奥”，最后一个任务则要飞往海星的卫星海卫一。我一直用“可能会”这个词，是因为这些目前还只是想法。每项任务都将由一个小组进行九个月的研究，最终方案确定后，NASA将决定是否将其转化为实际任务。

So what would scientists hope to learn from all this? As far as Venus goes, one thing they're interested in is its atmosphere which is toxic³ another is the planet's surface which is hot enough to melt lead. Venus' scorching⁴ rocky landscape could be mapped.

那科学家希望从这一切中学到什么？就金星来说，他们感兴趣的其中一件事是其有毒的大气层，另一件事是这颗行星温度高到足以熔化铅的表面。金星灼热的岩石风貌可以被绘制出来。

Jupiter's moon Io is believed to be the most volcanically⁵ active place in our solar system so NASA would like to find out more about the eruptions⁶ that happen there. And Triton, a moon that orbits Neptune could also be mapped and studied to see if there are signs of an ocean beneath the moon's surface.

木星卫星“艾奥”被认为是我们太阳系中火山活动最活跃的天体，因此NASA想进一步了解那里发生的火山爆发。海卫一是围绕海王星运行的卫星，其也可以被绘制出来并加以研究，以确定月球表面下是否有海洋存在的迹象。

None of these missions would involve astronauts. Robotic spacecraft would be doing the traveling and of course all of them would come at a cost. In fact, the teams that are assigned these subjects will each receive $3 million just to come up with their proposals.

所有这些任务均不涉及宇航员。机器人宇宙飞船将完成太空旅行，当然所有这些都要付出代价。事实上，分配到这些项目的团队每人将获得300万美元来提出方案。

If any of those are approved for missions, space.com says each one would be limited to a price of $500 million but that doesn't include the costs of launching the spacecraft and supporting it while it's in space. And for reference, the Juno mission alone from developing the spacecraft to getting it off the ground to processing all of its information was more than $1 billion. NASA could choose to give two of these new missions the green light.

space.com表示，如果任何一个项目获准执行，那每项任务的资金上限为5亿美元，但这并不包括发射宇宙飞船以及在太空中为其提供支持的费用。作为参考，仅“朱诺”任务，从宇宙飞船的研发到将其送离地面、再到处理所有信息，耗资就超过了10亿美元。NASA可以选择批准其中两项新任务。

1 aeronautics   

n.航空术，航空学

参考例句：

• National Aeronautics and Space undertakings have made great progress.国家的航空航天事业有了很大的发展。
• He devoted every spare moment to aeronautics.他把他所有多余的时间用在航空学上。

2 Neptune   

n.海王星

参考例句：

• Neptune is the furthest planet from the sun.海王星是离太阳最远的行星。
• Neptune turned out to be a dynamic,stormy world.海王星原来是个有生气、多风暴的世界。

3 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。

4 scorching   

adj. 灼热的

参考例句：

• a scorching, pitiless sun 灼热的骄阳
• a scorching critique of the government's economic policy 对政府经济政策的严厉批评

5 volcanically   

adv.火山似地，猛烈地

参考例句：

6 eruptions   

n.喷发，爆发( eruption的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There have been several volcanic eruptions this year. 今年火山爆发了好几次。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over 200 people have been killed by volcanic eruptions. 火山喷发已导致200多人丧生。 来自辞典例句