Remembering a robot

銘記機遇號火星探測器

英文部分選自經濟學人Obituary版塊

Remembering a robot

銘記機遇號火星探測器

Obituary: The Mars Rover was declared lost on February 12^th

訃告：美國航天局宣布，機遇號火星探測器于2月12日失聯(lián)

Humankind’s longest-lived emissary to Mars outlasted expectations by a factor of ten

人類史上超預期設計壽命10倍的極限火星使者

注：小編依然記得上次訃告紀念非人類是在15年7月2日發(fā)的一篇文章，故事主人公是一只三花貓，是為了紀念6月22日離世的日本貴志川線鐵路貴志站站長小玉(貓）。這只流浪貓的后代在被任命為貴志站站長后，奇跡般地使這條原本瀕臨倒閉的鐵路線重獲新生。原文鏈接：

https://www./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.

在真空封閉的太空艙里，這位乘客踏踏實實地睡了一覺，一覺無夢，醒來時已距地球5億公里之遙了。這段旅程持續(xù)了五個半月，實在乏味，只是在最后的降落階段才略顯刺激。宇宙飛船在穿過火星的天空時急劇減速，僅6分多鐘就減掉了2萬邁（公里每小時），然后一頭扎進底下的沙漠里。艙外的降落傘彈開了，艙內的安全氣囊也打開了。最后，太空艙在地上彈了幾下，滾了幾圈，停了下來。

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，登陸火星四小時后，她睜開了眼睛。她就是機遇號火星探測器。制造者們在地球上通過她的雙眼打量著周圍。著陸點超乎預期的完美---位于火星赤道略偏南的子午線高原。其實，科學家并未特別精確地選擇機遇號的著陸點，只要原在一個約100公里長18公里寬的橢圓型區(qū)域內著陸就可以。但是，最終她意外地落入了一個隕石撞擊形成的小隕石坑里，偏離目標中心約25公里。在坑壁上，科學家們一眼就看見了獨特的沉積巖地層。這類巖層以前從未在地球以外的星球上發(fā)現(xiàn)過，正是機遇號被派往火星尋找的目標之一。

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.

機遇號的官方稱謂是“火星探測器二號”，是“火星探測計劃”發(fā)射的兩個探測器中的第二個?！坝職馓枴笔恰盎鹦翘綔y器一號”，早于機遇號幾個星期登陸，著落在火星另一面的巨大坑洞—古謝夫隕石坑里。機遇號有一個非官方的昵稱“奧比”，也經常被稱呼為“她”。兩個探測器的預計任務時間均為90火星日—1個火星日為24小時40分鐘，是火星自轉一周的時間。機遇號一著陸就發(fā)現(xiàn)了沉積巖，讓面臨時間壓力的科學家們欣喜若狂，他們再不必從珍貴的90個火星日中抽時間只為尋找那些目標巖石。

注釋：

sols: 是用于火星測量時間的專業(yè)名詞

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個火星日，機遇號一直在這個有利著陸點的10米范圍內行走。她用自身配備的各種相機拍攝巖壁照片；用小銼鉆在巖壁上鉆孔；其他輪子鎖定的同時，一個輪子旋轉著在巖壁上開挖出一個塹壕；測量各種礦物的光譜?？茖W家推斷，沉積巖所處的地方曾經是一片正在消失的含鹽海洋。即使 機遇號傳回來的信息僅止于此，這項任務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個火星日，她前往更廣闊的世界冒險。

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.

在衛(wèi)星圖片的指引下，機遇號向一公里外一個更深的隕石坑——，“堅忍撞擊坑”進發(fā)。他駛進撞擊坑里，，四處探查，把這一年剩下的時間都用來調查勘探這個隕石坑。一位人類地質學家可能一下午就能優(yōu)哉游哉地完成或者超預期完成這些測評任務。然而，距離最近的人類地質學家卻在地球上，可能再過幾十年才上的得來火星。

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.

無人確定機遇號能否爬出“忍耐撞擊坑”，但是，她做到了。隨后被派去檢查自己降落過程中脫離的防熱護盾。在她燃燒著穿越火星大氣層時，該護盾起著保護作用。現(xiàn)在，該護盾則成為一個閃閃發(fā)光的紀念碑，聳立在這個坑坑洼洼的平原上。它并不是唯一一個從天上掉落的東西。機遇號繼續(xù)行進時遇到了一顆隕石，其巖性絕非火星可產。之后她拍了一小段火衛(wèi)一的視頻，像一個影子劃過太陽的表面?；鹦l(wèi)一是火星眾多小衛(wèi)星中相對比較大的一顆。

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個火星日，機遇號抵達“維多利亞撞擊坑”，該隕石坑直徑為800米，距其著陸地點7公里。機遇號的制造者都心知肚明：給機遇號和勇氣號設計90個火星日的工作壽命，非常保守。，這只是確?！巴瓿晒ぷ魇姑壁A得贊譽的低標準。。但是沒有人預料到她的工作壽命會超過設計壽命的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，機遇號在火星也并非一帆風順。她曾陷在煉獄（Purgatory Ripple）沙丘中，熬過了幾個火星日;后來，一個轉向馬達又壞了。探索維多利亞撞擊坑時，她遇上了一場全球性的沙塵暴，切斷了與地球的聯(lián)系，太陽能電池板上也布滿了火星灰。不過，幸運的是，沙塵暴過后，掀起沙塵暴的颶風也把電池板吹干凈了，甚至比之前更干凈。自任務開始以來，機器人肩膀上的一個關節(jié)就出現(xiàn)了故障，最終失靈。

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個火星日，在古謝夫隕石坑（Gusev）執(zhí)行任務的“勇氣號”，未能如期通過無線電與地球取得聯(lián)系;從此便杳無音信。機遇號繼續(xù)長途跋涉，前往“奮進撞擊坑”（Endeavour crater），這個撞擊坑比她一開始降落的隕石坑大1000倍。為了紀念“勇氣號”，機遇號到達的撞擊坑邊緣被命名為“勇氣點”。2012年8月6日，更先進、更大的漫游者“好奇號”，在數(shù)千公里外的伊奧利亞蒙斯山腳下著陸。科學家和工程師們對這個新來者關懷備至，以致晾在一邊的機遇號自力更生了9天，然后出發(fā)前往勘探奇趣的蒙脫石粘土層。這種粘土是一顆歐洲人造衛(wèi)星在約克角(Cape York)探測到的。約克角是奮進號北緣的一處更遠的山峰。

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.

年復一年，令人意想不到的是，機遇號仍沿著奮進撞擊坑邊緣漫游，直到進入毅力谷，落在隕坑底部。2018年6月10日，第5,111個火星日，服役逾7個火星年的機遇號在駛向谷底時再度遭遇沙塵暴，斷了太陽能來源，與地球失聯(lián)。幾個月后，這場巨大沙塵暴平息。已經把機遇號當做家人的工作人員，翹首企盼火星車太陽能板上的沙塵能被風吹盡，結果卻事與愿違。向她發(fā)送了1000多條恢復聯(lián)系的指令，卻未受到回復。之后，機遇號于2月12日被宣布失聯(lián)。

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.

如果將來有相當一部分人能登上火星，親自探索，其中必有人必會沿著機遇號的軌跡，進入毅力谷，尋找機遇號的桿架（該桿架分裝著各個角度的攝像機，該擬人化設計生動形象，像萌萌的大眼睛）以此方式致敬這位遠行并洞察火星歷史的“先驅者”。在那之前，想象一下，機遇號首次到達維多利亞坑的扇形邊緣時，火星軌道上的HiRise攝像機拍下她的倩影。她俯視著連綿起伏的沙丘，如同落在山峰上的一個小點，那“銳利的眼睛”靜靜地注視著一顆新行星在她面前游弋。

注釋

High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment，高分辨率成像科學實驗照相機

翻譯組：

Alex，不務正業(yè)的理工男

Lucia，英語專業(yè)學生，經濟學人愛好者

Echo，愛英音的翻譯專業(yè)學生，權游超級粉絲

Daisy，老少女小黛絲，跨界女神經，學語言，搞藝術

校核組：

Lee，愛騎行的婦女之友，Timberland粉

Li Xia, 女， 愛爬山的自由翻譯，美食狂人

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