時(shí)差N小時(shí):火星探測車任務(wù)屆滿五周年

Five years after the NASA rover Spirit landed onMars, the six-wheeled robotic geologist and its twinOpportunity are still on the job. Expectations werefar lower when Spirit made a bouncing landing in acocoon of air bags on Jan. 3, 2004, followed 21 dayslater by Opportunity: The goal was to try to operateeach solar-powered rover for at least three months.

美國航空航天局“勇氣號”探測器登陸火星已有五年，這個(gè)六輪的地質(zhì)探測機(jī)器人還有他的好兄弟“機(jī)會號”仍在繼續(xù)工作。當(dāng)2004年1月3日“勇氣號”在繭形的氣袋上跳躍著著陸，21天后“機(jī)會號”也尾隨而來，這遠(yuǎn)比預(yù)期要好，因?yàn)樵局挥?jì)劃讓這兩個(gè)太陽能漫游者執(zhí)行3個(gè)月任務(wù)。

"That's an extraordinary return of investment in these challenging budgetary times," EdWeiler, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, said in a Decemberstatement.

美國航天航空局科學(xué)使命執(zhí)行官埃德·維勒爾在12月的聲明中說道：在如此富有挑戰(zhàn)性的財(cái)政預(yù)算年代里，這次投資的回報(bào)實(shí)在太豐厚了。

Combined, the rovers have made more than 13 miles of tracks on Mars' dusty surface andsent a quarter-million images back to Earth. Their instruments have uncovered evidence thatMars was once a far wetter and warmer place than the frigid, dusty world it is now.

綜合起來，探測器已經(jīng)在火星滿是塵土的表面行駛了13英里，并向地球傳回25萬張圖片。機(jī)器人自帶的儀器給出證據(jù)，證明火星表面曾經(jīng)非常濕潤，溫暖，不像現(xiàn)在那樣嚴(yán)寒，塵土飛揚(yáng)。

Mission managers are pressing ahead with plans for more exploration even though NASAsays either rover could fail without warning.

盡管美航局表示探測器可能會毫無征兆地失靈，但任務(wù)管理人員仍在推行更多探測計(jì)劃。