獵戶座飛船試飛將開啓火星探索之旅

For the first time since Apollo 17 returned from the moon in 1972, NASA is scheduled to loft an astronaut capsule on Thursday to soar beyond low Earth orbit.

美國航空航天局(NASA)預定本週四把一個可以載人的太空艙發射到低地軌道之外的地方，這還是1972年阿波羅17號從月球返回之後的第一次。

No one will be aboard this flight test of the new capsule, Orion, but NASA hopes it is the first step toward human exploration of the solar system, including an eventual landing on Mars. Orion’s first manned mission is planned for the early 2020s.

新的太空艙名爲“獵戶座”(Orion)，這次試飛不會載人，但NASA希望它會開啓包括登陸火星在內的人類新一輪太陽系探索的第一步。獵戶座首次載人飛行任務安排在2020年代初。

“Thursday is the beginning of that journey,” Mark Geyer, Orion’s program manager, said at a news conference on Tuesday.

“本週四是旅程的開始，”“獵戶座”項目負責人馬克·格耶(Mark Geyer)在本週二的新聞發佈會上表示。

Orion, which looks like a larger version of the cone-shaped Apollo capsule, is sitting atop a Delta IV Heavy rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Liftoff is scheduled for 7:05 a.m. Thursday, minutes after sunrise. In case of bad weather, the launching can be pushed back by up to two hours and 39 minutes.

“獵戶座”的外形與阿波羅(Apollo)錐形太空艙相近，但是體積更大，它已經搭載在了佛羅里達州卡納維拉爾角空軍基地的德爾塔IV重型火箭上。升空時間定於本週四上午07時05分，日出之後不久。如遇惡劣天氣，發射最多可延遲2小時39分鐘。

The rocket’s second stage should push the 11-foot-long Orion into an elliptical orbit that reaches 3,600 miles above the Earth’s surface on its second orbit. (By contrast, the International Space Station is about 250 miles from Earth.)

火箭的第二級將把11英尺（合3.35米）長的”獵戶座”推送到一個橢圓軌道上，其第二軌道距離地球表面約3600英里（參考：國際空間站距離地球大約250英里）。

Orion will then re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 20,000 miles per hour, close to the speeds of a capsule returning from the moon, and temperatures on its heat shield will approach 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

然後“獵戶座”將以每小時2萬英里的速度重新進入地球大氣層，這與太空艙從月球返回的速度很接近。而“獵戶座”隔熱板上的溫度將接近4000華氏度（約合2200攝氏度）。

At the end of the four-and-a-half-hour flight, it will splash down in the Pacific Ocean, about 600 miles off the coast of Baja California, and will be pulled from the water by an amphibious Navy ship, the Anchorage. The capsule will then be trucked back to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida for closer examination.

四個半小時的飛行結束後，“獵戶座”將會墜入距離加利福尼亞州海岸約600英里處的太平洋水域，由美國海軍兩棲艦“安克雷奇拉”號(Anchorage)打撈出水，然後用卡車運回佛羅里達州的肯尼迪航天中心，接受仔細檢查。

The flight, estimated to cost $375 million, will provide a full-scale test of the performance of Orion’s parachutes, heat shield and other systems, with 1,200 sensors recording data.

這次飛行估計耗資約3.75億美元，它使用了1200個傳感器來記錄數據，將全面測試“獵戶座”的降落傘、隔熱罩和其他系統的性能。

“We expect it to go fine, but you really have to fly it to test it out,” Mr. Geyer said.

“我們認爲這次飛行會很順利，但你必須做升空測試才行，”格耶說。

While the capsule will not be carrying any people, it will be taking mementos and artifacts. They include a small sample of lunar soil, part of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil and several artistic works, like poems by Maya Angelou and a recording of the Mars movement from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”

雖然這次試飛不會載人，但太空艙裏會裝有一些紀念品和工藝品。其中包括一小份月球土壤樣品，一塊霸王龍化石的一部分和一些藝術作品，比如瑪婭·安傑洛(Maya Angelou)的詩歌，以及古斯塔夫·霍爾斯特(Gustav Holst)《行星》組曲中的火星部分錄音。

Also aboard will be some items from “Sesame Street”: Cookie Monster’s cookie, Ernie’s rubber ducky and Grover’s cape, part of a collaboration between NASA and the children’s television program to promote science and math education.

另外還有《芝麻街》(Sesame Street)的一些道具：餅乾怪獸(Cookie Monster)的餅乾，厄尼(Ernie)的橡皮鴨和格羅弗(Grover)的斗篷，這是NASA與這個兒童電視節目合作，促進科學和數學教育的項目的一部分。

After the flight test, NASA’s progress for future astronaut missions will be slow, hemmed in by tight federal budgets and competing visions of the agency’s future. Orion’s next flight, also without people aboard, is not expected until 2018, and the first ride for astronauts would not occur until at least 2021.

由於受到聯邦預算的嚴格控制，以及人們在NASA的未來願景上存在分歧，在這次試飛結束後，NASA在宇航員未來任務方面的步伐將會邁得很緩慢。“獵戶座”的下一次非載人飛行任務預計將在2018年進行，它的首次裁人飛行最早也是2021年了。

“We feel really fortunate to be in the budget plan, a bipartisan agreement on the budget plan, and our job is to execute to that plan,” Mr. Geyer said. “Yeah, I wish we could go faster, but I think this is a good plan.”

“被包含在兩黨贊成的預算計劃之中，讓我們感到非常幸運，而我們的任務就是執行那個計劃，”格耶說。“是的，我希望我們的步伐能更快一些，但我認爲這個計劃很不錯。”

The next destination is also unclear. NASA is pursuing the idea of capturing a small asteroid and taking it to the neighborhood of the moon, and astronauts would then fly in Orion to the asteroid to take a look. NASA officials contend that this “asteroid redirect” mission would be within its budget and would develop technologies necessary for the eventual trip to Mars.

下一個任務仍不明朗。NASA希望捕捉一個小行星，並把它帶到月球附近，然後宇航員將乘坐“獵戶座”飛到小行星上去看一看。NASA官員表示，這個“小行星重定向”任務在預算範圍之內，而且可以推動最終登陸火星所必需的技術發展。

Some skeptics have questioned whether Orion, originally part of a program started under President George W. Bush to send astronauts back to the moon, is even necessary, or a waste of billions of dollars.

“獵戶座”原本是讓宇航員重返月球計劃的組成部分，該計劃在喬治·W·布什(George W. Bush)擔任美國總統期間啓動。一些懷疑者質疑“獵戶座”是否有存在的必要，覺得這可能是在浪費數以十億計的美元。

The Obama administration canceled Orion and the entire moon program as too expensive and too far behind schedule. But many members of Congress disagreed, and NASA revived a stripped-down version of Orion to be used as a lifeboat for the International Space Station, then resumed a design very close to what had been canceled.

奧巴馬政府取消了”獵戶座“項目和整個登月計劃，理由是它的費用太昂貴，而且遠遠落後於計劃日程。但國會很多議員並不同意取消它，於是NASA重新啓動了一個精簡版的”獵戶座“項目，將其作爲國際空間站的救生艇，它的設計非常接近於被取消的那個。

NASA also started work on a heavy-lift rocket known as the Space Launch System that will carry Orion on future launchings. Together, the rocket and the capsule are estimated to cost $19 billion to $22 billion.

NASA也已經開始建造一款重型火箭，名爲太空發射系統(Space Launch System)，它將在以後的發射任務中搭載“獵戶座”。火箭和太空艙總共將耗資190億到220億美元。

Some House Republicans have pushed to revive plans to return to the moon, but have not proposed funds to build a lander.

衆議院的一些共和黨人已經在努力恢復重返月球計劃，但尚未提出建造着陸器的資金方案。