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Curiosity, NASA's rover bound for Mars, is set to touch down in August. |
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Now, scientists say they know with even more accuracy where it will land. |
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美國太空總署送往火星的探測車好奇號,預計將在八月降落。科學家表示,他們現在已經更加確知了這部探測車將降落的地點。 |
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The summer landing will be the start of a Martian road trip that will take months or possibly a year as Curiosity makes its way toward its final destination, the Gale Crater, said Curiosity contributor James Wray, an assistant professor of Earth and Atmospheric Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology. |
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好奇號在夏季期間降落之後,將展開一場耗時數月乃至一年的火星漫遊之旅,好奇號將前往其最終目的地蓋爾隕石坑,好奇號研發參與者,同時也是喬治亞理工學院地球暨大氣科學助理教授的詹姆斯.雷伊表示。 |
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"The most important thing perhaps is that we are steering to a different place in Gale Crater, which is a giant mountain of sedimentary rock," Wray said. |
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Unlike Curiosity's predecessors, Opportunity and Spirit, "we are going with the intention of having to drive a long distance before even getting to what we want to study because the mountain is too steep," Wray said. |
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「最重要的一點,也許是我們將驅車前往蓋爾隕石坑的一個不同地點,也就是一座由沉積岩構成的巨山,」雷伊說。不同於好奇號前一代的「機遇號」與「勇氣號」,「我們這次打算先行駛跋涉一段很長的距離,再前往我們想研究的地點,因為那座山太陡了」,雷伊說。 |
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However, the new landing destination has been pinpointed with accuracy previously impossible and will shave several months off Curiosity's drive to Gale Crater. |
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Strategically, the new landing site makes sense. |
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"The public and scientists will have to be more patient to get the really juicy stuff," Wray said. |
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不過,現在以先前達不到的精確程度定位了新的降落地點,將可讓好奇號前往蓋爾隕石坑節省幾個月的路程。這個新的降落地點合乎策略效益。「在取得真正重要的發現之前,大眾與科學家都必須更有耐心,」雷伊說。 |
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The "juicy stuff" that Curiosity seeks to uncover is evidence of life as we know it -- past or future -- on the Martian surface. |
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好奇號希望得到的「重要的發現」是在火星表面上找出有我們所知的生命型態存在的證據──不論是過去或未來的型態。 |
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Gale Crater was created more than 3 billion years ago when Mars was struck by a meteorite and now houses three miles of sediment, providing the perfect location for such an investigation. |
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Wray said examining Gale Crater will be similar to going through Earth's history by examining the layers of the Grand Canyon and learning, by the thickness and makeup of the rocks, if they were carved by oceans, lakes or air. |
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蓋爾隕石坑形成於三十多億年前,是火星遭到一顆隕石撞擊的結果。現在,這個隕石坑容納有三英里的沉積物,正是從事調查行動的理想地點。雷伊表示,檢視蓋爾隕石坑就像是藉著檢視大峽谷的岩層探究地球的歷史,並且由岩層的厚度與岩石的構造了解那些岩石究竟是受到海水、湖水還是空氣的侵蝕。 |
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"We'll start down at the base, and we'll just climb up as high as we can during the mission and move forward in time in Martian history and see how the environment changed," Wray said. |
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「我們將從底部開始,在任務期間盡可能往上爬,在火星從古至今的歷史中慢慢前進,看看那裡的環境如何改變,」雷伊說。 |
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Gale Crater is ideal, he said because scientists have seen clay minerals and sulfates from orbit, both of which require the presence of water at one time, a key ingredient for life as we know it. |
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他說,蓋爾隕石坑非常理想,因為科學家在軌道上看過那裡有黏土礦物與硫酸鹽,這兩者都需要有水存在才會形成,而水則是我們所知的生命型態的關鍵要素。 |