翻译实习：NASA Rover Lands On Mars To Look For Signs Of Ancient Life(3)

NASA Rover Lands On Mars To Look For Signs Of Ancient Life(3)

NASA登岸车在火星降落，查找太古生命迹象（3）

火星降落很简单失败

Perseverance was on its own during its descent, a maneuver often described by NASA as "seven minutes of terror."

在降落的历程中，毅力号只能靠它本身，NASA常把这个降落的练习历程称为“惊魂七分钟”。

Flight controllers waited helplessly as the preprogrammed spacecraft hit the thin martian atmosphere at 12,100 mph(19,500kph), or 16 times the speed of sound, slowing as it plummeted. It released its 70-foot(21-meter)parachute and then used a rocket-steered platform known as a sky crane to lower the rover the final 60 or so feet(18 meters) to the surface.

当这台已经预编步伐的飞行器以1.2万英里每小时（1.9万公里每小时）——即音速的16倍——突入火星淡薄的大气时，飞行操纵组的人们只能无助的等候着它快速降落及渐渐的减速。探测器开释出它70英尺（21米）的降落伞，然后使用一个火箭平台——被称为天空起重机——来完成最终60英尺（18米）的降落历程。

It took a nail-biting 11minutes for the signal confirming the landing to reach Earth, setting off back-slapping and fist-bumping among flight controllers wearing masks against the coronavirus.

又花了令人发急不安的11分半钟，确认登岸乐成的信号才抵达地球，为防新冠而戴着口罩的飞行操纵构成员们开始相互拍背，击肘庆贺。

Perseverance promptly sent back two grainy, black-and-white photos of Mars' pockmarked, pimply-looking surface, the rover's shadow visible in the frame of one picture.

毅力号很快传回了两张低像素的好坏照片，上面表现出火星坑坑洼洼，如丘疹般的火星外貌，在一张照片中，探测器的暗影清楚可见。

"Take that, Jezero!" a controller called out.

“来吧，泽耶罗！”操纵组一名成员高喊道。

NASA said that the descent was flawless and that the rover came down in a "parking lot" - a relatively flat spot amid hazardous rocks. Hours after the landing, Matt Wallace, NASA deputy project manager, reported that the spacecraft was in great shape.

NASA表现降落很完善，探测器降落在一处“停车场”——那是一片混乱漫衍的岩石中相对平展的所在。降落伍数小时，NASA项目副司理马特・华莱士陈诉称航天器状态精良。

Mars has proved a treacherous place for the world's spacefaring nations, the U.S. included. In the span of less than three months in 1999, a U.S. spacecraft was destroyed upon entering orbit because engineers had mixed up metric and English units, and an American lander crashed on the surface after its engines cut out prematurely.

火星对全天下的太空飞行来说都是一个伤害重重的地方，美国也不破例。在1999年不到三个月的时间，一艘美国航天器就在举行轨道时由于工程师弄混了米制与英制单元而被毁，一个美国登岸器也由于它的引擎过早封闭而坠毁在火星外貌。