神秘的月球 第14期

 　　So in 1994 a small unmanned orbiter Clementine

　　于是柯蕾曼堤号无人太空船

　　was sent back to the moon,

　　在1994年再度前往月球

　　the first spacecraft to make the journey in more than 20 years.

　　这是20多年来首度展开这趟旅程的太空载具

　　And this mission would go somewhere new.

　　而这次的任务也不同于以往

　　Technology had moved on since the 70s,

　　科技自70年代后有了长足进步

　　and so Clementine would be able to reach an area

　　所以柯蕾曼堤号可以抵达

　　of the moon that had never been seen in detail before.

　　月球从未被详仔观察过的区域

　　The lunar poles.

　　那就是月球的两极地带

　　Clementine spent 2 months bombarding

　　柯蕾曼堤号花了两个月

　　the moon with radio waves,

　　对地球放送无线电波

　　and in doing so,

　　因此

　　it made a discovery that scientists had never dreamt of.

　　有了科学家做梦也想不到的重大发现

　　They found what appeared to be patches of ice.

　　他们发现了像冰层的地方

　　Its radar¹ was getting signals being bounced back

　　太空船的雷达

　　from the surface very strongly in a way

　　收到了强大的回传讯号

　　that was consistent with their being patches of ice down there.

　　让人觉得下方应该是有冰层

　　And er it's not a lot of ice- it could er, could fill er,

　　那些冰层并不大，融解的话

　　could fill plenty of Olympic sized swimming pools,

　　可以装满很多座标准游泳池

　　but if you were to melt it and spread,

　　但若将融化的水量

　　spread it out over the lunar surface it

　　均匀分布在月球表面

　　would be I don't know a millimetre thick or something.

　　水的深度大概只有一公厘左右

　　But you're not going to produce oceans

　　所以这些冰层

　　on the moon from this ice.

　　不可能形成海洋

　　But enough there for humans to exploit.

　　但是让人类利用绰绰有余

　　The existence of water on the moon even if it was frozen

　　月球上有冰层的事实

　　changed everything.

　　改变了一切

　　The bleak² and barren landscape wasn't so inhospitable after all.

　　看来荒芜贫瘠的月球，毕竟没有那么不适合人类居住

　　Suddenly the possibilities seemed endless.

　　突然间出现了无穷无尽的可能性

　　With life-sustaining water,

　　有了能维持生命的水

　　the moon could one day be a base in space,

　　月球未来很可能成为太空中的基地

　　a stepping stone to the rest of the universe.

　　征服宇宙的踏脚石

　　Humans might even live there one day.

　　有朝一日甚至可以让人类居住

　　The love affair was back on.

　　熄灭的爱火重新燃起

　　As if to drive home the renewed fascination³,

　　仿佛为了进一步撮合人类与月球的情缘

　　45 years after President Kennedy's famous pledge

　　在肯尼迪总统承诺

　　to take us to the moon,

　　要让人类征服月球的45年之后

　　another US President launched a new mission.

　　另一位美国总统推动了一项新任务

　　Returning to the moon is an important step

　　重返月球是我们太空计划中

　　for our space programme.

　　很重要的一步

　　Establishing and extending human presence

　　进驻月球

　　on the moon could vastly reduce

　　可大幅降低

　　the cost of further space exploration.

　　未来探索太空的成本

　　Making possible very more ambitious missions.

　　让我们得以推动更具企图心的任务

　　The moon is a logical step toward further progress and achievement.

　　追求未来的进步与成就，月球是顺理成章的下一步

　　Human beings are headed into the cosmos⁴.

　　人类即将征服宇宙

　　It may have lacked some of his predecessor's rhetorical flourish,

　　布希总统的演讲也许少了甘迺迪总统的华丽辞藻

　　but 35 years after the last man stepped off the moon,

　　但在最后一名太空人登陆月球的35年之后

　　we are finally going back.

　　我们终于要回去了

　　NASA has already started planning the new lunar mission.

　　航太总署已经开始规划新的登月任务

　　And it's going to be big.

　　这次的规模将不同凡响

　　We are planning to go to the moon in a particular,

　　我们打算以不同于

　　different way than what we did with Apollo Apollo was short,

　　阿波罗计划的方式前往月球

　　sortie missions,

　　阿波罗计划都是短期任务

　　and we're planning to go to the moon to stay.

　　这次我们打算长期停留

1 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

2 bleak   

adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的

参考例句：

• They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
• The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。

3 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？