In the last couple of weeks, three agencies have sent spacecraft to the Red Planet.

在過去的幾週裡，已經有三個機構將太空船送往這顆紅色星球上了。

The United Arab Emirates launched Hope on July 19th, China launched Tianwen-1 on the 23rd, and the U.S. just launched Perseverance.

阿拉伯聯合大公國 (下簡稱阿聯) 於 7 月 19 日發射了希望號，中國於 23 號發射了天問一號，以及美國剛發射了毅力號 (7 月 30 號)！

With so much happening, it might seem like there's a competition here, but really, the culprit is just orbital mechanics.

這麼多事情同時發生，看起來這之中似乎有著競爭關係，但事實上這一切都是因為行星繞行軌道而起。

Theoretically, you could go to Mars whenever, but it's really only practical every 26 months.

理論上來說，你可以隨時前往火星，但實際上每 26 個月才能出發一次。

During that launch window, Earth and Mars are arranged in such a way that getting to Mars takes way less fuel than normal.

在發射窗口期間，地球和火星的排列使到達火星所需的燃料大大減少。

And this summer happens to be an ideal launch window.

而這個夏天出現了理想的發射窗口。

So now, we have three missions heading to Mars.

所以現在我們才有三個前往火星的任務。

First, the UAE's Hope orbiter.

第一個是阿聯的希望號軌道飛行器。

This mission is all about climate and weather.

此次任務主要在於研究火星的天候氣象。

It'll study Mars's weather for a full Martian year, and it'll also study the hydrogen and oxygen in the planet's upper atmosphere, both of which will help answer an important question: Where is Mars's air?

它會在火星上觀測整整一年火星年的氣象，研究在其大氣層上層的氫氣以及氧氣，這兩者會幫忙回答一個很重要的問題：火星的空氣去哪裡了？

We know the planet used to have a much thicker atmosphere, because there used to be liquid water on the surface, and maintaining that requires a certain amount of atmospheric pressure.

我們知道這個星球曾經有較厚的大氣層，因為地表上曾經有水存在過，且要維持這些水需要有一定量的大氣壓。

But today, Mars is super dry, and its atmospheric pressure is only 0.6 percent of Earth's.

但今日，火星上非常乾燥，且大氣壓力僅有地球的 0.6%。

Data from other missions suggest that charged particles from the Sun stripped away most of that gas, and Hope plans to study this in more detail, reconstructing the history of Mars's climate and linking it to its current weather.

其他任務所提供的資料指出太陽的帶電離子帶走了大部分火星上的氣體，而希望號計畫在這部分上多做研究，重新建立火星氣候的歷史以及了解其與現在氣候之間的關係。

It's also planning to build the first weather map of the whole planet, something that will come in handy for research, and maybe even for future settlement.

同時它也計劃首次建立整個星球的氣候圖，對於未來的研究而言會相當便利，甚至有益於未來火星移民計劃。

Because at least for now, the UAE is hoping to start a community on Mars by 2117.

但至少就現在而言，阿聯希望能在 2117 年之前於火星上建立人類社區。

Meanwhile, Tianwen-1 is planning to study Mars from the outside in, tackling its atmosphere, surface, and subsurface.

同時，中國的天問一號計劃由外而內研究火星，主要研究火星的大氣、地表和地表以下物質。

Unlike Hope, this is a multipart mission with an orbiter and a rover, so it'll be able to focus on multiple aspects of Mars at the same time.

與希望號不同，天問一號是一個由軌道飛行器和探測車所組成的多工任務，所以它能夠同時研究火星的多方面領域。

Like, both pieces will study different parts of Mars's atmosphere: The orbiter will focus on charged atoms in the upper atmosphere, and the rover will focus on weather near the ground.

上述提到的兩個儀器會研究火星大氣的不同面向：飛行器研究大氣上層的帶電離子，而探測車則研究接近地表的氣候。

Meanwhile, for surface research, the orbiter will handle mapping, while the rover will handle chemical analysis.

同時對於地表的研究，飛行器會負責掃描製圖，而探測車會處理化學分析。

And for the subsurface research, both the rover and the orbiter will use radar to map the locations and depths of water ice deposits in Utopia Planitia in the northern hemisphere.

而地下研究，探測車和飛行器都會使用雷達繪製北半球烏托邦平原水冰沉積物的位置和深度圖。

These deposits were only discovered by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2016, so with Tianwen-1 scientists will be able to study them from the ground for the first time.

這些沉積物只有在 2016 年時由火星偵察軌道飛行器發現，所以透過天問一號，科學家們將能首次從地面對其進行研究。

Finally, NASA's Perseverance rover.

最後，是 NASA 的毅力號探測車。

It's headed to Jezero Crater, also in the north, where a meandering river once deposited lots of clay and carbonate sediments.

它正前往耶澤羅撞擊坑，同樣位於星球北邊，那裡蜿蜒的河流曾經沉積了大量的粘土和碳酸鹽沉積物。

On Earth, material like this has preserved some of the earliest signs of life.

在地球上，像這樣的物質保留著最古老的生命跡象。

So Perseverance is going to do a lot of chemical analysis of these Mars rocks, both by taking samples and by remote spectroscopy.

因此，毅力號將通過取樣和遠程光譜對這些火星岩石進行大量的化學分析。

But it's also rocking some experimental tech: Ingenuity and MOXIE (Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment).

它也搭載了一些很酷炫的實驗技術：機智號 (Ingenuity) 和 MOXIE。

They're both proof-of-concept projects to demonstrate technology that could make future missions more flexible.

它們都是概念驗證的技術，藉此來展現這些可以使將來的任務更加靈活多變的技術。

Ingenuity, for example, is a little autonomous helicopter!

舉例來說機智號，是個小型的無人駕駛直升機！

It's super light—it will only weigh about 0.7 kilograms on Mars—and right now, it's pretty bare bones: It just has hardware to guide it, some cameras and sensors, an antenna, a solar panel and batteries, and some blades.

它非常輕巧，在火星上只有 0.7 公斤，而現在它仍是相當基本的版本：上面安裝了導向的硬體設備、一些相機和感應器、一個天線、太陽能板與電池、還有一些機翼葉片。

Someday, though, a souped-up version could be its own, standalone mission.

但或許某一天，進化版本的直昇機可以自己進行獨立任務。

Or it could act as a scout by flying ahead to collect images.

或者它可以充當偵察兵前去收集火星圖像。

But right now, we just want to see if it can get off the ground.

但就現在而言，我們只想知道它是否可以離開地面。

That's a big engineering challenge, because Mars's atmosphere is so thin that there's barely enough air for a helicopter's blades to push against and get itself airborne.

這對於工程學來說是一大挑戰，因為火星的大氣非常稀薄，薄到直升機的葉片沒有足夠的空氣可以產生推力使其升空。

To counter this, Ingenuity has fast, long blades: They're 1.2 meters from tip to tip and spin ten-times faster than many helicopter blades on Earth.

為了解決這個問題，機智號非常快速且長的葉片：這些葉片也 1.2 公尺長且旋轉速度比地球上的直升機快 10 倍。

The idea is that longer, faster blades can push against more air and generate more lift, and so far, things have gone well in tests.

概念主要是這個較長且旋轉較快的葉片可以推動更多空氣並產生更多浮力，而截至目前為止，實驗結果就算滿意。

But we'll have to see if it works on Mars itself.

但是我們仍須觀察它是否可以在火星上運行。

Meanwhile, the other tech, called MOXIE, is a tiny oxygen factory inside the rover.

另外，另外一個稱為 MOXIE 的技術，是一個在探測車裡小型的氧氣工場。

It siphons carbon dioxide from Mars's atmosphere, and uses electricity to split it into oxygen gas and carbon monoxide.

它會吸收火星大氣中的二氧化碳，然後利用電將其分解為氧氣和一氧化碳。

Despite what it sounds like, this isn't a plan to siphon all of Mars's CO2 and replace it with oxygen.

儘管聽起來很像，但這並不是要吸收所有火星二氧化碳並用氧氣代替的計劃。

The goal is just to see if this works.

目的只是看這個技術是否可行。

After all, when we send people to Mars, they're going to have to breathe, and they might also need liquid oxygen to fuel their rockets home... but bringing a giant, heavy oxygen tank isn't really practical.

畢竟，當我們把人們送到火星時，人們還是需要呼吸的，且他們會需要用液態氧氣來為自己的火箭小窩充氣，但帶上一個巨大的氧氣桶並不實際。

So eventually, they might rely on a bigger version of MOXIE.

因此就結果而言，他們仍然需要倚賴較大版本的 MOXIE。

So like I said, it's a huge year for Mars missions!

所以就如我說的，今年對於火星任務而言是個重大的一年！

Soon, we'll have three countries with three missions teaching us more about the sky, land, and water of our next-door neighbor.

不久的將來，三個國家所執行三個任務將會為我們帶來更多關於鄰居星球天空、大地以及水的資訊。

It'll be a few months before anyone gets to Mars and the data start pouring in, but we can't wait.

在所有人都抵達火星並開始傳輸資訊的時間還有幾個月，但我們等不及啦！

And as we learn more, we'll keep you updated.

當我們得到更多資訊時，會及時向你們更新的。

This week's episode of SciShow Space News is brought to you by none other than our President of Space, Adam Landers!

本集的 SciShow 太空新聞節目是由我們那位宇宙之王 Adam Landers 呈現！

Adam is one of our patrons on Patreon, who make this show possible.

Adam 是我們在 Patreon 網站上的資助人之一，也是讓這集節目得以呈現的人。

So, thanks, Adam! And thanks to all of our patrons.

所以，謝謝 Adam！也謝謝所以資助人們！

Patrons really make SciShow happen, and if you want to learn more, you can go to patreon.com/scishow.

沒有資助人們就沒有 SciShow，所以如果你想要看到更多 SciShow 節目，請前往 patreon.com/scishow 支持我們。