PBS高端访谈:美国"机智号"火星直升机首飞成功（在线收听）

Well, NASA has made plenty of history with spaceflights to Mars, but, today, a new chapter: It flew on Mars for the very first time. Miles O'Brien takes us out of this world.

美国国家航空和宇宙航行局(NASA)在火星上创造了很多历史，但是，今天，一个新的篇章：它第一次在火星上飞行。下面由迈尔斯·奥布莱恩带我们穿越太空。

Altimeter data confirmed that Ingenuity has performed its first flight.

高度计的数据证实了“机智”号进行了第一次飞行。

When the data and the early images came down proving history was made 180 million miles away, the Mars Ingenuity team erupted with joy.

当数据和早期图像被记录下来，证明历史是在1.8亿英里以外形成的，火星创新团队爆发出了喜悦。

Project manager MiMi Aung ripped up the contingency speech she wrote in case things did not go as well as they did.

项目经理米米昂撕毁了她写的应急演讲稿，以防事情不像他们做的那样顺利。

Ingenuity took off, hovered and landed on Mars, the first powered controlled flight on another planet.

“机智”号在火星上起飞、盘旋和着陆，这是在另一个星球上的第一次动力控制飞行。

We can now say that human beings have now flown a rotorcraft on another planet.

我们现在可以说人类已经在另一个星球上驾驶了一架旋翼飞机。

Mars changes the equation for flight with wings or rotors. The gravity is about one-third of Earth's, and the carbon dioxide atmosphere is much thinner.

火星用机翼或旋翼改变了飞行方程式。那里的引力大约是地球的三分之一，二氧化碳大气层要薄得多。

It's about 1 percent compared to here right on Earth. Even though you're able to lift, right, you have to spin very fast to lift. Because the atmosphere is so thin you can't lift as much mass.

与地球上相比，这个比例大约是1%。即便你能举起来，你必须快速旋转才能举起来。因为大气层太薄，你不能举起那么多的质量。

Here on Earth, helicopter blades typically spin about three or 400 revolutions per minute. Ingenuity's blades spin at about eight times faster, 2,400 RPMs.

在地球上，直升机叶片通常每分钟旋转3到400转。“机智”号飞机的叶片旋转速度是它的8倍，每分钟2400转。

The key challenge for the team, make the helicopter as small and light as possible to fit on Perseverance and to be flight-worthy.

团队面临的关键挑战是，让直升机尽可能的小和轻，以适应“毅力”号和飞行价值。

To find compact components, they didn't have to look much farther than their own smartphones.

要想找到紧凑的部件，他们只需要看看自己的智能手机就行了。

The advancement of the cellular phone technologies, and, also, autonomous cars are also starting to have reliable lightweight sensors,

移动电话技术的进步，还有，自动驾驶汽车也开始拥有可靠的轻量化传感器，

right, and their lightweight computers on their phones. And drone community has also advanced electronic components.

是的，还有他们手机上的轻型电脑。而无人机社区也拥有先进的电子元件。

Ingenuity is a technology demonstrator, so its goals are modest.

“机智”号是一种技术示范，所以它的目标是谦逊的。

The plan is to fly only five flights, no higher than 15 feet, no farther than 160 feet downrange, and no longer than a minute-and-a-half.

计划只飞行五次，高度不超过15英尺，降落范围不超过160英尺，飞行时间不超过1分半钟。

If history serves as a guide, Ingenuity could usher in a new era of mobile exploration on Mars.

如果以历史为鉴，人类的智慧可能会引领一个移动探索火星的新时代。

We have imaging data.

我们有成像数据。

Yes!

耶！

In 1997, the first Mars rover, Sojourner, was also a technology demonstration project.

1997年，第一个火星漫游者“旅居者”也是一个技术示范项目。

The size of a microwave oven, it led to larger and more capable successors, Spirit and Opportunity in 2003, Curiosity in 2012, and now Perseverance. Lori Glaze is director of NASA's Planetary Science Division.

它带来了更大更有能力的后继者，2003年的“勇气”和“机遇”，2012年的“好奇”，现在是“毅力”。洛里·格莱兹是美国宇航局行星科学部主任。

The helicopters can actually help to do reconnaissance, to scope out a new site or actually to access places that we can't actually access,

直升飞机可以帮助进行侦察，寻找新的地点或者进入我们无法进入的地方

to collect samples, potentially, or carry scientific instrumentation to do some institute science from the helicopter.

，收集样本，或者携带科学仪器在直升飞机上做一些科学研究。

Just as it was 118 years ago at Kitty Hawk, this first flight is likely just the beginning of a new era of aviation. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien.

就像118年前在“小鹰”号上发生的那样，这次首次飞行可能只是航空新时代的开始。这里是“PBS新闻一小时”，我是迈尔斯·奥布莱恩。