经济学人讣告||铭记机遇号火星探测器
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导读
“机遇号”火星探测器是如何登陆火星的？
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听力|精读|翻译|词组
Remembering a robot
铭记机遇号火星探测器
英文部分选自经济学人Obituary版块
Remembering a robot
铭记机遇号火星探测器
Obituary: The Mars Rover was declared lost on February 12th
讣告：美国航天局宣布，机遇号火星探测器于2月12日失联
Humankind’s longest-lived emissary to Mars outlasted expectations by a factor of ten
人类史上超预期设计寿命10倍的极限火星使者
注：小编依然记得上次讣告纪念非人类是在15年7月2日发的一篇文章，故事主人公是一只三花猫，是为了纪念6月22日离世的日本贵志川线铁路贵志站站长小玉(猫）。这只流浪猫的后代在被任命为贵志站站长后，奇迹般地使这条原本濒临倒闭的铁路线重获新生。原文链接：
https://www.economist.com/obituary/2015/07/02/the-cats-miaow?from=groupmessage&isappinstalled=0
It travelled more than 500m kilometres simply as a passenger, sleeping dreamless, vacuum-packed. The five-and-a-half-month voyage was devoid of all interest until the very end, when the spacecraft lost 20,000kph of its velocity in just over six minutes as it plunged through an alien sky to the desert below. Parachutes spread and airbags deployed. The package bounced, rolled and came to rest.
在真空封闭的太空舱里，这位乘客踏踏实实地睡了一觉，一觉无梦，醒来时已距地球5亿公里之遥了。这段旅程持续了五个半月，实在乏味，只是在最后的降落阶段才略显刺激。宇宙飞船在穿过火星的天空时急剧减速，仅6分多钟就减掉了2万迈（公里每小时），然后一头扎进底下的沙漠里。舱外的降落伞弹开了，舱内的安全气囊也打开了。最后，太空舱在地上弹了几下，滚了几圈，停了下来。
Four hours after landing on January 25th 2004, it opened its eyes. Its makers, back on Earth, looked through them at a landing site as perfect as they could have wished for. Opportunity’s landing on Meridiani Planum, a little south of the Martian equator, had not been a particularly precise affair—it could have come down anywhere in an ellipse some 100km long and 18km wide. But by chance the spot where it had ended up, about 25km from the centre of the target, was inside a small crater dug out by a meteorite impact. On the side of that crater the scientists saw straight away the distinctive strata of sedimentary rock. Nothing of the sort had ever before been seen beyond the Earth. It was exactly the type of thing the robot had been sent to find.
2004年1月25日，登陆火星四小时后，她睁开了眼睛。她就是机遇号火星探测器。制造者们在地球上通过她的双眼打量着周围。着陆点超乎预期的完美---位于火星赤道略偏南的子午线高原。其实，科学家并未特别精确地选择机遇号的着陆点，只要原在一个约100公里长18公里宽的椭圆型区域内着陆就可以。但是，最终她意外地落入了一个陨石撞击形成的小陨石坑里，偏离目标中心约25公里。在坑壁上，科学家们一眼就看见了独特的沉积岩地层。这类岩层以前从未在地球以外的星球上发现过，正是机遇号被派往火星寻找的目标之一。
Opportunity was officially mer-b, the second of the two rovers of the Mars Exploration Rover programme; mer-a, Spirit, had landed a few weeks earlier in the great Gusev Crater, almost half the planet away. Unofficially, it was Oppy, and often a she. The two rovers’ missions were due to last 90 sols—a sol being the 24 hours and 40 minutes it takes Mars to turn on its axis. Faced with that time limit, Opportunity’s minders were thrilled not to have to spend any of those precious sols just looking for interesting rocks.
机遇号的官方称谓是“火星探测器二号”，是“火星探测计划”发射的两个探测器中的第二个。“勇气号”是“火星探测器一号”，早于机遇号几个星期登陆，着落在火星另一面的巨大坑洞—古谢夫陨石坑里。机遇号有一个非官方的昵称“奥比”，也经常被称呼为“她”。两个探测器的预计任务时间均为90火星日—1个火星日为24小时40分钟，是火星自转一周的时间。机遇号一着陆就发现了沉积岩，让面临时间压力的科学家们欣喜若狂，他们再不必从珍贵的90个火星日中抽时间只为寻找那些目标岩石。
注释：
sols: 是用于火星测量时间的专业名词
For the first 56 sols, Opportunity never strayed more than ten metres from that propitious landing site. It took pictures with its various cameras, ground holes with its little rasping drill, dug a trench by spinning one wheel while it kept the others locked, measured the spectra of various minerals. The scientists concluded that the sediments they saw had been laid down in a salty dying sea. If that had been all Opportunity had ever told them, the mission would have been counted a great success.
在前56个火星日，机遇号一直在这个有利着陆点的10米范围内行走。她用自身配备的各种相机拍摄岩壁照片；用小锉钻在岩壁上钻孔；其他轮子锁定的同时，一个轮子旋转着在岩壁上开挖出一个堑壕；测量各种矿物的光谱。科学家推断，沉积岩所处的地方曾经是一片正在消失的含盐海洋。即使 机遇号传回来的信息仅止于此，这项任务也是取得了巨大的成功。
But on Sol 57, it ventured out into the wider world.
然而，在第57个火星日，她前往更广阔的世界冒险。
Guided by pictures from satellites above, Opportunity headed for a deeper crater, Endurance, a kilometre or so away. It drove down into it and looked around further, poking and prodding for the rest of the year. A human geologist might have accomplished as much or more by way of assessment in a leisurely afternoon. But the nearest human geologists were on another planet, and likely to remain there for some decades to come.
在卫星图片的指引下，机遇号向一公里外一个更深的陨石坑——，“坚忍撞击坑”进发。他驶进撞击坑里，，四处探查，把这一年剩下的时间都用来调查勘探这个陨石坑。一位人类地质学家可能一下午就能优哉游哉地完成或者超预期完成这些测评任务。然而，距离最近的人类地质学家却在地球上，可能再过几十年才上的得来火星。
After climbing back out of Endurance—no one had known whether it would be able to—Opportunity was sent off to inspect the jettisoned heat-shield that had protected it as it burned down through the Martian atmosphere, now a glinting monument on the pockmarked plain. It was not the only thing that had fallen from the sky. As it rolled on, Opportunity came across a meteorite, its lithology distinctively un-Martian. Later it took a little video of Phobos, the larger of Mars’s small moons, passing as a shadow across the face of the Sun.
无人确定机遇号能否爬出“忍耐撞击坑”，但是，她做到了。随后被派去检查自己降落过程中脱离的防热护盾。在她燃烧着穿越火星大气层时，该护盾起着保护作用。现在，该护盾则成为一个闪闪发光的纪念碑，耸立在这个坑坑洼洼的平原上。它并不是唯一一个从天上掉落的东西。机遇号继续行进时遇到了一颗陨石，其岩性绝非火星可产。之后她拍了一小段火卫一的视频，像一个影子划过太阳的表面。火卫一是火星众多小卫星中相对比较大的一颗。
On Sol 946, in September 2006, Opportunity reached Victoria Crater, seven kilometres from its landing site, 800 metres across. Its makers knew that the 90-sol lifetime they had promised for Opportunity and Spirit was conservative, a low bar to ensure some kudos for “mission accomplished”. But none had expected it to be surpassed by a factor of ten.
2006年9月，第946个火星日，机遇号抵达“维多利亚撞击坑”，该陨石坑直径为800米，距其着陆地点7公里。机遇号的制造者都心知肚明：给机遇号和勇气号设计90个火星日的工作寿命，非常保守。，这只是确保“完成工作使命”赢得赞誉的低标准。。但是没有人预料到她的工作寿命会超过设计寿命的10倍。
That said, it had not all been plain rolling. Opportunity had spent a few harrowing sols stuck in sand at Purgatory Ripple; later, one of its steering 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 joint in the shoulder of its robot arm, dicky since the mission started, finally seized up.
即便如此，机遇号在火星也并非一帆风顺。她曾陷在炼狱（Purgatory Ripple）沙丘中，熬过了几个火星日;后来，一个转向马达又坏了。探索维多利亚撞击坑时，她遇上了一场全球性的沙尘暴，切断了与地球的联系，太阳能电池板上也布满了火星灰。不过，幸运的是，沙尘暴过后，掀起沙尘暴的飓风也把电池板吹干净了，甚至比之前更干净。自任务开始以来，机器人肩膀上的一个关节就出现了故障，最终失灵。
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 trek to Endeavour crater, 1,000 times larger than the crater in which it had started off. The point where it reached the rim 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 intriguing smectite clays that a European orbiter had detected on Cape York, a peak further along Endeavour’s rim.
2011年3月30日，第2155个火星日，在古谢夫陨石坑（Gusev）执行任务的“勇气号”，未能如期通过无线电与地球取得联系;从此便杳无音信。机遇号继续长途跋涉，前往“奋进撞击坑”（Endeavour crater），这个撞击坑比她一开始降落的陨石坑大1000倍。为了纪念“勇气号”，机遇号到达的撞击坑边缘被命名为“勇气点”。2012年8月6日，更先进、更大的漫游者“好奇号”，在数千公里外的伊奥利亚蒙斯山脚下着陆。科学家和工程师们对这个新来者关怀备至，以致晾在一边的机遇号自力更生了9天，然后出发前往勘探奇趣的蒙脱石粘土层。这种粘土是一颗欧洲人造卫星在约克角(Cape York)探测到的。约克角是奋进号北缘的一处更远的山峰。
In Perseverance Valley
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 subsided, 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.
年复一年，令人意想不到的是，机遇号仍沿着奋进撞击坑边缘漫游，直到进入毅力谷，落在陨坑底部。2018年6月10日，第5,111个火星日，服役逾7个火星年的机遇号在驶向谷底时再度遭遇沙尘暴，断了太阳能来源，与地球失联。几个月后，这场巨大沙尘暴平息。已经把机遇号当做家人的工作人员，翘首企盼火星车太阳能板上的沙尘能被风吹尽，结果却事与愿违。向她发送了1000多条恢复联系的指令，却未受到回复。之后，机遇号于2月12日被宣布失联。
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 dunes: a tiny speck perched on a promontory peak, a new planet swimming before her eagle eyes, watched in silence from the skies.
如果将来有相当一部分人能登上火星，亲自探索，其中必有人必会沿着机遇号的轨迹，进入毅力谷，寻找机遇号的杆架（该杆架分装着各个角度的摄像机，该拟人化设计生动形象，像萌萌的大眼睛）以此方式致敬这位远行并洞察火星历史的“先驱者”。在那之前，想象一下，机遇号首次到达维多利亚坑的扇形边缘时，火星轨道上的HiRise摄像机拍下她的倩影。她俯视着连绵起伏的沙丘，如同落在山峰上的一个小点，那“锐利的眼睛”静静地注视着一颗新行星在她面前游弋。
注释
High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment，高分辨率成像科学实验照相机
翻译组：
Alex，不务正业的理工男
Lucia，英语专业学生，经济学人爱好者
Echo，爱英音的翻译专业学生，权游超级粉丝
Daisy，老少女小黛丝，跨界女神经，学语言，搞艺术
校核组：
Lee，爱骑行的妇女之友，Timberland粉
Li Xia, 女， 爱爬山的自由翻译，美食狂人
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观点|评论|思考
本次观点由Cece全权执笔
Cece，消防人，经济学人粉丝
初读这篇文章，真是感觉不可思议，经济学人的讣告竟然选择了一个火星探测器，而没有选择任何一个人，最近大火的香奈儿大佬去世都没有登上经济学人，可见这个探测器非常具有价值，经济学人杂志也是非常有态度有个性的。
看完文章，才知道机遇号的经历确实是突破性的，文章中用“她”来代表机遇号，可见包括笔者在内的全部美国人，已经把机遇号当作一个有生命的与我们有感情纽带个体。
她独自一人踏上火星旅程，成功的到达那里后不断拍照完成任务，比任何人都要孜孜不倦。她走过了茫茫沙漠，穿过了龙卷风，采集了新的岩石层，透过她的眼睛，人类更加真实的把火星的面纱揭开。
另外，更重要的一点是，她超级超额完成了规定工作。假如她是一个人，本来只能活一百年，她竟然坚持活了近千年。在这千年里也没有停止工作，中间有无数次，人们都觉得火星的大风暴都会把她击垮，但没想到她都活下来了。
她个体的价值，对于地球对于人类的价值都是无限量的，希望我们都能记住她，Opportunity，她叫机遇号。
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愿景
小组
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