歐洲、俄羅斯推遲聯(lián)合火星探測器任務

歐洲、俄羅斯推遲聯(lián)合火星探測器任務

The European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos said Thursday they are postponing a planned joint mission to Mars until 2022, in part due to travel restrictions resulting from the new coronavirus outbreak

歐洲航天局(European Space Agency)和俄羅斯聯(lián)邦航天局(Roscosmos)周四表示，他們將原定的聯(lián)合火星任務推遲到2022年，部分原因是由于新爆發(fā)的冠狀病毒導致旅行限制。

The ExoMars mission was due to launch this year but concerns about possible technical problems had already prompted both agencies to discuss the delay.

ExoMars任務原定于今年發(fā)射，但由于擔心可能出現(xiàn)技術問題，兩家機構已開始討論推遲發(fā)射的問題。

“We want to make ourselves 100% sure of a successful mission,” European Space Agency Director General Jan Woerner said in a statement. ”We cannot allow ourselves any margin of error. More verification activities will ensure a safe trip and the best scientific results on Mars.”

歐洲航天局總干事?lián)P·韋爾納在一份聲明中說:“我們希望百分之百地確保任務成功。”“我們不能允許自己有任何誤差。更多的驗證活動將確保在火星上安全旅行并獲得最佳科學成果。”

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, said the delay was primarily due to technical problems, compounded by the coronavirus outbreak, “which left our experts practically no possibility to proceed with travels to partner industries.”

俄羅斯聯(lián)邦航天局局長德米特里·羅戈津(Dmitry Rogozin)表示，計劃推遲主要是由于技術問題，再加上冠狀病毒的爆發(fā)，“這讓我們的專家?guī)缀鯖]有機會前往合作行業(yè)。”

The mission’s goal is to put a rover on the red planet to help determine whether there has ever been life on Mars. Scientists hope the rover, packed with high-tech instruments and named after British chemist Rosalind Franklin, will be able to dig for biological signatures of life below the martian surface and also provide further insights into the planet’s history of water.

該任務的目標是將探測器送上火星，以幫助確定火星上是否曾經(jīng)有過生命?？茖W家們希望這艘滿載高科技儀器、以英國化學家羅莎琳·富蘭克林的名字命名的火星車，能夠在火星表面下挖掘生命的生物特征，并進一步了解火星的水歷史。

The postponement is another setback for the ExoMars program after the 2016 launch of an orbiter and a test lander. The Trace Gas Orbiter was successfully deployed, but the Schiaparelli lander malfunctioned and crashed on the surface of Mars, highlighting the difficulty of putting a probe on the planet.

推遲發(fā)射是ExoMars計劃在繼2016年發(fā)射軌道飛行器和測試著陸器之后的又一次挫折。當時微量氣體軌道器成功部署，但斯基亞帕雷利著陸器出現(xiàn)故障墜毀在火星表面，突顯了在火星上放置探測器的困難。

So far, the United States is the only country to successfully land a functioning probe on Mars. NASA’s Curiosity and InSight landers are still in operation on the planet.

到目前為止，美國是唯一一個成功將探測器送上火星的國家。美國宇航局的“好奇號”和“洞察號”著陸器仍在火星上運行。

NASA’s science mission chief, Thomas Zurbuchen, said ESA and Roscosmos made a “tough decision” in delaying the ExoMars mission.

美國國家航空航天局的科學任務負責人托馬斯·祖布臣說，歐洲航天局和俄羅斯宇航局做出了一個“艱難的決定”，推遲了聯(lián)合火星任務。

“Launching & safely landing a spacecraft on Mars are extremely demanding and require many technologies & systems to function perfectly,” he wrote on Twitter.

他在推特上寫道:“在火星上發(fā)射和安全著陸航天器的要求非常高，需要很多技術和系統(tǒng)才能完美運作。”