離開
進入《中英對照讀新聞》Half-Century Anniversary of a Mars Mishap 火星任務不幸事故50週年
◎李信漢
In recent days, both the unmanned Antares rocket and the Virgin Galactic space plane had catastrophic failures. Because space is a very risky business. And it always has been. November 5th marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 3, America’s first mission to Mars. But don’t expect any NASA celebrations. The mission failed completely.
近日，包括無人駕駛的天蠍火箭和維珍銀河的太空飛機都遭遇到災難性的失敗。因為太空是門非常高風險的生意，而它也將一直是。11月5日是「水手3號」發射的50週年。「水手3號」是美國第一次探測火星的任務。但別期待太空總署會慶祝。那次的任務澈底失敗。
When Mariner 3 reached space, it was supposed to unfurl solar panels. But a glitch kept the panels tucked away. With only battery power, the spacecraft went dead just 8 hours and 43 minutes later. So Mariner 3 fell silent, although it presumably did fly past the red planet months later.
當「水手3號」進入太空，它本應展開太陽能面板。但有個小故障讓太陽能面板捲藏起來。儘靠著電池電源，「水手3號」在8小時43分後就終止運作。所以，「水手3號」陷入靜默中，雖然在數月之後，它應該真的飛過了那顆紅色星球。
Fortunately, NASA had an identical spacecraft ready for Mars. After hasty modifications to prevent the same problem, Mariner 4 blasted off on November 28th, 1964. The following July, it became the first ship to fly past our planetary neighbor—that we’re sure of.
幸運的是，太空總署有另一個相同的太空船作為火星任務的備胎。在經過粗略的修正，避免發生同樣的問題後，「水手4號」於1964年11月28日發射升空。次年7月，它成為第一艘飛過我們鄰居星球的太空船－－這次我們很肯定。
But this successful mission shocked researchers. Back in 1964, even some respected scientists thought Mars was home to primitive life—if not the intelligent beings that colorful astronomers like Percival Lowell imagined. And the cameras on Mariner 4 sent back pictures of a barren, cratered world, devoid of any obvious Martians.
但這次成功的任務震驚了研究者。時光回到1964年，就連一些受人景仰的科學家都認為火星適合原始生命存活－－如果不是受到像帕西瓦爾．羅威爾這類聰明、富有傳奇色彩的天文學家想像影響的話（就不至如此）。而「水手4號」鏡頭傳回來的照片，卻是一個荒蕪，滿佈坑洞的世界，完全沒有任何一個火星人。
新聞辭典
unfurl：動詞，展開。例句：They unfurled the sails.（他們將船帆展開。）
identical：形容詞，完全相同的。例句：They wear identical coats.（他們穿一模一樣的外套。）
blast off：動詞片語，火箭發射升空。例句：The rocket will blast off tomorrow morning.（火箭將在明早發射升空。）
