2019年经济学人 ＂机遇号＂火星探测器失联(3)

 

That said, it had not all been plain rolling. Opportunity had spent a few harrowing sols stuck in sand at Purgatory¹ Ripple²; later, one of its steering³ motors failed. While it was exploring Victoria it was caught in a global dust-storm that cut it off from Earth and covered its solar panels with dirt. Happily, though, the same winds that drove the storms also blew the panels clean, or cleaner, after their passing. A joint⁴ in the shoulder of its robot arm, dicky since the mission started, finally seized up.

话虽如此，事情并非一帆风顺。“机遇号”用了数个火星日才摆脱“炼狱沙丘”；再然后，有一个转向马达坏了。在探索维多利亚州的过程中，“机遇号”遭遇了一场火星沙尘暴，致使与地球失联，太阳能电池板上布满了灰尘。不过，令人高兴的是，引起沙尘暴的风，也能将太阳能电池板吹干净。自开始执行任务以来，其机械手臂上的一个关节就很脆弱，最终停止运转。

On March 30th 2011, Sol 2,155 of its mission to Gusev, Spirit failed to check in with Earth by radio as scheduled; it was never heard from again. Opportunity continued its long trek⁵ to Endeavour crater⁶, 1,000 times larger than the crater in which it had started off. The point where it reached the rim⁷ was named Spirit Point, in memoriam. On August 6th 2012 a newer, bigger rover, Curiosity, landed at the foot of Aeolis Mons, thousands of kilometres away. Opportunity looked after itself for nine days to allow the scientists and engineers to make a fuss of the newcomer, then set out to study the intriguing⁸ smectite clays that a European orbiter had detected on Cape⁹ York, a peak further along Endeavour’s rim.

2011年3月30日，第二个太阳日，勇气号在飞往古谢夫的任务中，未能如期通过无线电与地球取得联系；从此再无消息。“机遇号”继续长途跋涉，来到“奋进”陨石坑，比它出发时的陨石坑大1000倍。为纪念，到达的陨坑边界被称为“勇气点”。2012年8月6日，一辆更新、更大的火星车“好奇号”在数千公里外的埃奥里斯蒙斯山脚下着陆。在科学家和工程师们一直对新布置的好奇号更加上心时，“机遇号”自己行进了9天，然后开始研究一颗欧洲人造卫星在约克角发现的有趣的蒙脱石粘土，约克角是“奋进”陨石坑边缘更远的山峰。

In Perseverance¹⁰ Valley

身处“毅力谷”

As the unexpected years went by, Opportunity continued along the hilly rim of Endeavour until it came to Perseverance Valley, which cuts through towards the crater floor. It was heading down the valley when, on June 10th 2018—Sol 5,111, well over seven Martian years of service—another dust storm cut it off from Sun and Earth. When, after months, the global storm subsided¹¹, the rover’s minders, now family, waited for its solar panels to be blown clean. It appears they were not. After over 1,000 messages attempting to restore contact, Opportunity was declared lost on February 12th.

随着计划外使用时间的流逝，“机遇号”继续沿着“奋进”陨石坑边缘前进，一直走到“毅力谷”，“毅力谷”直通火山口底部。2018年6月10日，第5111个火星日，已经工作了7个火星年的“机遇号”正沿着山谷行进，另一场沙尘暴损坏了其太阳能组件，也切断了与地球的联系。数月之后，这场全球性的风暴终于平息，”机遇号”的负责人员（现在成了家人），等待太阳能电池板被风吹干净。而事实并未如期。在向”机遇号”发送了超1000条消息试图取得联系后，于2月12日正式宣布”机遇号”失联。

If more than a handful of people ever get to explore Mars in person, surely one day someone will follow its tracks down Perseverance, looking for the mast on which its cameras are mounted—separated for stereoscopy, easily anthropomorphised—to honour a pioneer who travelled far and provided insight after insight into the history of Mars. Until then, imagine her as she was photographed by the orbiting HiRise camera after first reaching the scalloped rim of Victoria, looking down onto its rolling dunes¹²: a tiny speck¹³ perched on a promontory¹⁴ peak, a new planet swimming before her eagle eyes, watched in silence from the skies.

如果更多人亲自探索过火星，那么毫无疑问总有一天有人将会追寻“机遇号”在“毅力谷”的踪迹，寻找安装了摄像头的桅杆——分离达到了立体视觉效果，容易出现拟人的效果——这都是为了纪念一位在深入了解火星历史后远赴火星并提供宝贵资料的先驱者。在那之前，想象一下，当她第一次到达维多利亚环形山的扇形边缘时，俯视着起伏的沙丘，轨道上的"高分辨率制图科学实验"相机拍摄到了这一幕：一个微小的斑点栖息在海角的山峰上，一颗新的行星在她鹰般锐利的眼睛前游动，就这样在天空中静静注视着。

1 purgatory   

n.炼狱；苦难；adj.净化的，清洗的

参考例句：

• Every step of the last three miles was purgatory.最后3英里时每一步都像是受罪。
• Marriage,with peace,is this world's paradise;with strife,this world's purgatory.和谐的婚姻是尘世的乐园，不和谐的婚姻则是人生的炼狱。

2 ripple   

n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进

参考例句：

• The pebble made a ripple on the surface of the lake.石子在湖面上激起一个涟漪。
• The small ripple split upon the beach.小小的涟漪卷来，碎在沙滩上。

3 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

6 crater   

n.火山口，弹坑

参考例句：

• With a telescope you can see the huge crater of Ve-suvius.用望远镜你能看到巨大的维苏威火山口。
• They came to the lip of a dead crater.他们来到了一个死火山口。

7 rim   

n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界

参考例句：

• The water was even with the rim of the basin.盆里的水与盆边平齐了。
• She looked at him over the rim of her glass.她的目光越过玻璃杯的边沿看着他。

8 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

10 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

11 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 dunes   

沙丘( dune的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The boy galloped over the dunes barefoot. 那男孩光着脚在沙丘间飞跑。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat. 将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

13 speck   

n.微粒，小污点，小斑点

参考例句：

• I have not a speck of interest in it.我对它没有任何兴趣。
• The sky is clear and bright without a speck of cloud.天空晴朗，一星星云彩也没有。

14 promontory   

n.海角；岬

参考例句：

• Genius is a promontory jutting out of the infinite.天才是茫茫大地突出的岬角。
• On the map that promontory looks like a nose,naughtily turned up.从地图上面，那个海角就像一只调皮地翘起来的鼻子。