As the countdown's, ours continues the perseverance of humanity launching the next generation of robotic explorers to the Red Planet.

隨著倒計時的到來，我們的繼續人類的堅持不懈，向紅色星球發射下一代機器人探索者。

But NASA wasn't alone.

但NASA並不孤單。

In the past two weeks, space agencies from China and the United Arab Emirates also launched missions to Mars.

過去兩週，中國和阿拉伯聯合酋長國的航天機構也向火星發射了任務。

Thes spacecraft will travel over 400 million kilometers before all reaching their destination around February 2021.

這些航天器將行駛4億多公里，然後在2021年2月左右全部到達目的地。

But in the past 13 years on Lee, seven rockets sent missions to the Red Planet.

但在過去的13年裡李，有7枚火箭向紅色星球發送任務。

So why are so many attempts to reach Mars all happening right now?

那麼，為什麼現在這麼多到達火星的嘗試都在發生呢？

Space agencies see the red planet as a key to answering one of life's biggest questions.

航天機構認為，紅色星球是回答生命中最大問題之一的關鍵。

Are we alone?

我們是一個人嗎？

The chemical signatures, the presence of past water sedimentation?

的化學標誌，存在過去水的沉積?

Everything about that planet is telling us.

那個星球的一切都在告訴我們。

Come and look for life here with cheaper, easier access to rockets and spacecraft technologies.

來這裡尋找生活，更便宜、更方便地獲取火箭和航天器技術。

And as more countries develop their technological prowess, deep space missions are increasing in numbers, not to mention Getting to Mars is kind of a flex, becoming part of this new space race as it were, is to show that you can launch really ambitious missions that gives you all the pieces you need to do much simpler things like put a bunch of satellites in low earth orbit.

隨著越來越多的國家發展自己的技術實力，深空任務的數量越來越多，更不用說去火星了，成為這場新的太空競賽的一部分，就像它一樣，是為了表明你可以發射真正雄心勃勃的任務，給你提供所有你需要做的簡單得多的事情，比如把一堆衛星放在低地球軌道上。

If you could get to Mars, you can kind of do anything.

如果你能去火星，你就可以做任何事情。

But why are they all going to Mars now?

但為什麼現在他們都要去火星呢？

Well, it comes down to planet alignment, payloads and orbital constraints.

好吧，它歸結為行星對齊，有效載荷和軌道限制。

Spacecraft are heavy but need to travel fast very, very fast, and they take a lot of effort to just get off the ground.

航天器很重，但需要快速行駛非常非常快，光是離地就需要花費很大的力氣。

So it's important to maximize efficiency and reduce weight or payload where you can.

所以要儘可能的提高效率，儘可能的減輕重量或有效載荷。

Faster, shorter trajectories or flight paths that use minimum fuel are critical for deep space exploration.

更快、更短的軌道或使用最少燃料的飛行路徑對於深空探索至關重要。

You can send up heavier flights for lower costs, but Mars and Earth orbit the sun at different distances and speeds so they aren't always aligned at the farthest point of their orbits.

你可以用較低的成本送上較重的飛行，但火星和地球以不同的距離和速度繞著太陽運行，所以它們並不總是在其軌道的最遠點對齊。

Mars and Earth are 401 million kilometers away from each other, and if you try to go, then you're going to spend a long time traveling through space.

火星和地球相距4.01億公里，如果你想去，那麼你要花很長的時間在太空中旅行。

But at their closest, the two planets could be less than 60 million kilometers apart every two years.

但在它們最接近的時候，兩顆行星每兩年的距離可能不到6000萬公里。

The planets in their orbits kind of get really close together, and that shortens the distance dramatically by 100 million miles amore to getting to the Red Planet.

行星在其軌道上的距離非常近 這就大大縮短了一億英里以上的距離，從而到達紅色星球。

And that's where we're at in this current launch window from mid July to mid August.

而這也是我們目前這個7月中旬到8月中旬的啟動窗口。

Waiting for that planetary alignment gives you a huge advantage in terms of speed allows you to send bigger spacecraft that could do more thanks to the planets, different orbits, this window to launch last for about a month, and it only comes around every 26 months.

等待行星排列給了你一個巨大的優勢，在速度上允許你發送更大的航天器，可以做更多的感謝行星，不同的軌道，這個發射窗口持續一個月左右，它每26個月才會出現。

So if NASA hadn't launched perseverance by August 15th, it would have had to wait until 2022 to try again.

所以，如果NASA沒有在8月15日之前發射毅力號，就只能等到2022年再試一次。

But being close is only part of the launch strategy.

但是，親近只是發射戰略的一部分。

When you send a spacecraft from Earth, it doesn't just go straight to Mars.

當你從地球上發送一個航天器時，它不會直接去火星。

You launch a spacecraft, you get it sort of parked around the earth, and it's circling the earth at thousands of miles an hour.

你發射了一個航天器，你讓它停在地球周圍，它以每小時幾千英里的速度繞著地球轉。

And then at just the right moment, you fire the spacecraft engines so that it gets on this path to Mars and just sort of coast thrust.

然後在適當的時候，你啟動航天器的引擎 讓它在通往火星的道路上前進，然後用海岸推力。

The time that path is known as the home and transfer orbit.

這條路徑的時間被稱為原點和轉移軌道。

You can see that here on elliptical path that fluidly connects Earth's orbit around the sun, toe other planets orbits.

你可以看到，這裡的橢圓路徑 將地球繞太陽的軌道和其他行星的軌道流暢地連接起來。

In this case, the planet in question is Mars.

在這種情況下，有關的行星是火星。

Once you fire engines, you're sort of like coasting down this river toward Mars because the gravitational pole off the planets in the velocity of your spacecraft is this gonna, like, pull you right toward Mars.

一旦你啟動引擎，你就像沿著這條河向火星滑行 因為行星的引力極在你的航天器的速度中會把你拉向火星

The spacecraft will then meet Mars at the intersection of their orbits about seven months down the line.

然後，航天器將在大約7個月後在它們的軌道交匯處與火星相遇。

So timing is key.

所以，時機是關鍵。

You can think of this like a quarterback throwing a football to the receiver.

你可以認為這就像一個四分衛把足球扔給接球者。

You're throwing the ball to where the receiver will be, not where the receiver is currently running.

你要把球扔到接球者會在的地方，而不是接球者目前在跑的地方。

If the timing is wrong by even an hour, and the spacecraft lacks enough fuel to correct the mistake thin.

如果時間錯了哪怕一個小時，而航天器又缺乏足夠的燃料來糾正錯誤薄。

The spacecraft might miss Mars altogether and carry on in the home in orbit alone.

航天器可能完全錯過火星，獨自在軌道上進行家。

But if the timing is right, you get to Mars.

但如果時機合適，你就會到達火星。

Depending on the mission, you might slip into Mars orbit before attempting to land on the surface, or you might go straight to the surface.

根據任務的不同，你可能會先滑入火星軌道，然後再嘗試登陸火星表面，也可能直接進入火星表面。

You've got a lander aboard that spacecraft, you deploy it and then begins what many call the seven minutes of terror.

太空梭上有一個著陸器，你把它展開，然後開始了許多人所說的七分鐘恐怖。

This is the riskiest part of the mission, the seven minutes between the spacecraft hitting the Martian atmosphere at 19,500 kilometers per hour to softly landing.

這是任務中最危險的部分，從航天器以每小時19500公里的速度撞擊火星大氣層到軟著陸的7分鐘。

So when you're plowing through the atmosphere to slow down the spacecraft, you're generating all the superheated plasma ahead of it that creates a scramble of electromagnetic radiation, which blocks out your radio signals.

所以，當你在大氣層中耕耘，使航天器減速時，你會在它前面產生所有的過熱等離子體，產生電磁輻射的擾動，從而阻斷你的無線電信號。

You can't talk to your spacecraft.

你不能和你的飛船說話。

You can't send your data, so you have to wait until it's on the ground before you can really know what's happening.

你無法發送數據，所以你必須等到數據落地後才能真正知道發生了什麼。

Communications between Earth and Mars Take it the very least 10 minutes round trip, so the landing must be perfectly automated.

地球和火星之間的通信來回至少需要10分鐘，所以登陸必須是完美的自動化。

But this is exactly what NASA is aiming to do with perseverance, which is skipping orbiting Mars and shooting straight for the surface.

但這正是美國宇航局鍥而不捨的目標，即跳過火星軌道，直射火星表面。

If the car sized nuclear powered rover safely lands, it will use its 19 highly specialized cameras to help create groundbreaking three D imagery so it can drill samples out of the soil and stash them on the rover for a future mission to come and collect them and send them back to earth.

如果這輛汽車大小的核動力漫遊車安全著陸，它將利用它的19臺高度專業化的相機幫助創造出突破性的三D影像，這樣它就可以從土壤中鑽出樣本，並把它們藏在漫遊車上，以便未來的任務來收集它們並把它們送回地球。

These will be the first ever samples of Mars sent to Earth for humanity to look at.

這將是有史以來第一份送到地球供人類查看的火星樣本。

A small helicopter is even hitching a ride on the rovers belly.

一架小型直升機甚至搭上了漫遊者的肚子。

The copter, called ingenuity, will be used to test the first ever controlled flight on another planet.

這架名為 "獨創性 "的直升飛機將被用來測試有史以來第一次在另一個星球上的控制飛行。

The goal of all of this is to learn about Mars, geology and climate, looking for livable environments and evidence of ancient microbial life on Mars.

這一切的目標是瞭解火星、地質和氣候，尋找火星上的宜居環境和古微生物生命的證據。

Yeah, you heard that right?

是的，你聽到了吧？

Life on Mars.

火星上的生命。

As for the other two missions, as we know, perseverance isn't alone on its journey to Mars.

至於另外兩個任務，我們知道，在火星的旅途中，毅力並不孤單。

One is the United Arab Emirates Hope probe.

一個是阿拉伯聯合酋長國希望探。

This is a satellite that's going to orbit Mars and try to crack some of the climatological mysteries of the Red Planet.

這是一顆衛星，它將繞著火星運行，試圖破解紅色星球的一些氣候學奧祕。

How did the season's work?

本賽季的工作情況如何？

How did the gas is?

如何做的氣體是什麼？

Move around.

四處走走。

How did those levels of gas is change over time?

這些氣體水準是如何隨著時間的推移而變化的？

And then there's China's more ambitious Tian Wen.

還有中國更有野心的田文。

One mission.

一個任務。

This is a spacecraft that has an orbiter, ah, lander and a rover on it, and it's going to try to do basically all the things you can do on Mars.

這是個航天器，上面有一個軌道器，啊，著陸器和一個漫遊車，它要嘗試做的事情基本上是你能在火星上做的所有事情。

If China succeeds, it would become the third country ever tow land on the Red Planet.

如果中國成功，它將成為有史以來第三個登上紅色星球的國家。

All three missions are major steps in space exploration and answering some of humanity's biggest questions, but we'll have to wait until February to find out if they all arrive safely, so buckle up and prepare for the ride.

這三項任務都是太空探索的重要步驟，也是回答人類最大的一些問題，但我們要等到2月份才能知道它們是否都能安全抵達，所以繫好安全帶，做好準備。