(单词翻译:单击)
If you're looking for a public figure with an astronomical approval rating, think Curiosity. The Mars rover has been a huge hit in terms of both public and scientific interest.
如果你在寻找一位在天文学方面有影响力的公众“人物”,考虑考虑“好奇号”吧 。这个火星探测器成功地引起了公众和科学界的兴趣 。
NASA seems to love Curiosity, too. So much so that the space agency is planning to launch a similar rover to Mars in 2020. Former astronaut John Grunsfeld, now NASA's science chief, announced the new rover mission December 4th during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
美宇航局似乎也很热衷“好奇号” 。热衷到如此程度以至宇航局计划于2020年发射一颗相似的探测器 。美国地球物理学协会12月4号在旧金山举行了会议,在会议中前宇航员、现任美航局科学理事会首席长官约翰·格伦斯菲尔德宣布了这项计划 。
With the unveiling of the $1.5-billion rover plan, NASA now has seven current or planned missions to Mars. But no trips dedicated to more exotic places like Titan or Europa, which also might harbor extraterrestrial microbes—and which have received considerably fewer robot visitors.
算上这项耗资15亿美元的探测器计划,美航局目前有7项火星任务 。但是探测器进入土卫六和木卫二这两个地方造成了严重的危害,也许对外星微生物也造成了伤害,这两处接待的机器人游客数量已经大幅减少 。
Plus it's unclear how well the 2020 rover will mesh with existing blueprints for Mars exploration. Long-term plans drawn up by planetary scientists called for a series of missions ultimately bringing samples from Mars back to Earth. But the new rover may not help achieve that goal.
此外,2020年的探测器探索火星时能否做到与现有蓝图一致也未可知 。由行星科学家们提出来的长期计划包括一系列的任务,目的是将火星上的样本带回到地球 。然而,这个新的探测器可能实现不了那个目标 。
So Curiosity has been a hit. But would a knockoff visit be a mission, or a miss?
因此,“好奇号”可能过于热门了 。但是“山寨的”探测之旅到底是任务,还是失误呢?
原文译文属可可原创,未经允许请勿转载!