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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
2014 Year of Space Technology Benchmarks, Setbacks 2014年,太空标准检查技术遭遇挫折
WASHINGTON—
Space technology this year reached some important goals, culminating with the spectacular landing of a space probe on a comet, millions of kilometers from Earth. But there were some setbacks, too.
The biggest achievements of 2014 happened in the last half of the year.
In August, after a decade-long flight, the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft became the first man-made object to enter into orbit around a comet, more than 400 million kilometers away.
In November, Rosetta launched a probe, named Philae, that made the first soft landing on the comet.
Its rugged1 surface caused the probe to settle down in partial shade, but lander manager Stephan Ulamec counseled patience.
“Our original fear that the lander would overheat is not relevant anymore," he said. "We are in the shadow. So we can operate much longer in principle but we have to be patient and wait for a little bit more time until we have enough solar power to reactivate Philae.”
Orbiting Mars
In September, the U.S. scientific satellite MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile2 Evolution Mission) entered an orbit around Mars, with the mission of learning what happened to the Red Planet's atmosphere and water.
MAVEN principal investigator3 Bruce Jakosky says scientists now know that Mars once had a much denser4 atmosphere and that it has changed significantly over the last few billion years. What they still don’t know is how and why that happened.
“We are trying to understand what the cause of that climate change has been, and we are looking at the role that escape to space may have played in removing the atmosphere and changing the atmosphere,” Jakosky said.
A few days later, MAVEN was joined by India’s spacecraft Mangalyaan, making India the first nation to reach Mars' orbit successfully in the first attempt. Its mission was to develop technologies and experience for future explorations.
NASA's Orion capsule
In December, using its largest rocket, the Delta5 IV Heavy, NASA conducted a nearly perfect first launch and retrieval of its new space capsule Orion, designed for manned deep space explorations.
Orion program manager Mark Geyer said it was hard to have a better day.
“It’s a difficult mission. It’s a tough environment to fly through," said Geyer. "It's tough objectives that we set up for this flight. But it appears that Orion and the Delta IV Heavy were nearly flawless. Great job by the team.”
In the future, the Orion capsule will fly on top of a more powerful rocket, the Space Launch System.
NASA plans to send it to circumnavigate the moon in 2018, while the first flight with astronauts is planned for 2021.
Setbacks for private space industry
The budding private space industry in the U.S. suffered two setbacks this year. In October, Orbital Sciences Corporation’s cargo6 rocket Antares, bound for the International Space Station, exploded soon after liftoff. Later that month, Virgin7 Galactic’s experimental space vehicle SpaceShip Two broke up in the middle of a test flight, killing8 one of the two pilots.
Both companies said the mishaps9 will not deter10 them from trying to develop reliable spacecraft for near orbit flights.
1 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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2 volatile | |
adj.反复无常的,挥发性的,稍纵即逝的,脾气火爆的;n.挥发性物质 | |
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3 investigator | |
n.研究者,调查者,审查者 | |
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4 denser | |
adj. 不易看透的, 密集的, 浓厚的, 愚钝的 | |
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5 delta | |
n.(流的)角洲 | |
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6 cargo | |
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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7 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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8 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
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9 mishaps | |
n.轻微的事故,小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
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10 deter | |
vt.阻止,使不敢,吓住 | |
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