翻译天堂 2016-04-26
本文选自本文选自《华盛顿邮报》2016.04.06期，有关的NASA 2030年火星计划的一篇文章，全文几乎没有生词，篇幅很短，比较容易理解。本期参考译文由网友@果酱冰沙 提供，经我修改后发出，如有不妥，欢迎指出！
原文链接：http://weibo.com/ttarticle/p/show?id=2309403962061716623168
Are we there yet? Mars visits possible by 2030s.
2030年的火星之旅，我们会去吗？
What a Mars outpost might look like with vehicles to get around. NASA hopes to put humans on the planet by the 2030s.
火星探测目前看起来仅仅只是火星探测车在火星巡逻，到2030年，美国航天局有望将人类送往火星。
Harrison Smith | 547 words
哈里森·史密斯
Tired of your normal routine of homework and chores? Bored by the tick-tock of Earth's seasons? Well, how about a trip to Mars, a world away from life here on Earth?
你是否厌倦了日常的家务琐事？也厌倦了地球上一成不变的四季更迭？好吧，来一次火星之旅，去感受与地球生活截然不同的火星生活？
It would take six to eight months' travel by rocket, if the planet is lined up with Earth in the right way, but if you don't mind the wait and the risks, you could be among the first humans to set foot on the Red Planet.
如果火星和地球处于恰当的位置，搭载火箭去火星旅行需要6-8个月。假如你不介意这漫长而危险的旅途，你很可能成为第一批登上火星的人。
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)wants to send humans to Mars by the 2030s in an effort to determine whether there is, or was, life on the planet.
为了确认火星上是否存在生命，美国国家航空航天局想要争取在2030年将人类送上火星。
"The kids who are reading KidsPost," says Ellen Stofan, chief scientist at NASA, "are the ones we'll be sending to Mars."
美国国家航空航天总局的首席科学家艾伦·斯托芬说：“我们会从每天阅读华盛顿邮报儿童专版的孩子中间挑选一些，参与到火星之旅中去。”
Stofan, 55, is one of the principal architects of that mission,which she'll discuss April 17 at the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington.
斯托芬今年55岁，是火星任务的主要筹划者之一，4月17日在华盛顿召开的美国科学与工程艺术节上，她将就这一任务进行讨论。
She advises the head of NASA, former astronaut Charles Bolden, on all of the agency's scientific projects. On any given day, she might be meeting with researchers in her Washington office to discuss experiments on the International Space Station,where astronauts are studying the effects of spaceflight on human health. Or she might be planning a new study of planets outside of our solar system.
斯托芬向曾做过宇航员的美国航天局局长查尔斯·博登就这一机构的所有科学计划提出建议。将来某一天，斯托芬可能在华盛顿办公室与研究员们召开会议，对国际空间站的实验进行讨论，探究一下国际空间站上宇航员正在进行的有关宇宙飞行对人类健康影响的那些实验。或者她可能会计划一些新的有关太阳系之外的研究课题，
Or she might be working on her biggest project, that trip to Mars.
不过她也许会继续推进目前登上火星的计划。
"It's part of our nature to explore," says Stofan, "but for me,it's about the science."
斯托芬说:“探索是人类的天性，但是对我来说，这是为了科学”。
Her father, a NASA scientist, took her to her first rocket launch when she was 4. The rocket blew up on the launchpad(no one was inside), but Stofan was hooked. She studied planetary geology - that's rocks from other planets, and how those planets change over time - in college and graduate school and joined NASA as a researcher.
斯托芬的父亲也是一名美国国家航空航天总局的科学家，在她4岁时第一次带她见证了火箭发射的场景。那枚火箭在发射台就爆炸了（当时里面没有人），但斯托芬却对此着了迷。她大学期间学习了行星地质学（有关外地陨石和外星球随时间变化的学科），毕业之后就加入美国国家航空航天总局成为了一名科研人员。
She was named chief scientist in 2013 and is doing her best to keep the agency on track for its 2030s Mars goal. NASA has two rovers on the planet, Curiosity and Opportunity, and a third is set to arrive around 2022. The rovers are searching for signs of life, but "it's going to take geologists on Mars cracking open rocks to find evidence of life," Stofan says.
2013年，斯托芬被任命为首席科学家，目前她正在努力为2030年的火星计划做准备。美国国家航天航空局在火星上安置了两部探测车，分别是好奇号和机遇号，第三辆预计会在2022年抵达火星。探测车正在火星上搜寻生命迹象，但斯托芬说：“要想在火星上找到生命存在的证据，还需要让地质学家们去火星上凿开岩石做一些相关的工作。"
What might they find? The surface of Mars was once very watery, and it seems likely thatmicrobes - tiny organisms such as bacteria - were common and are preserved as fossils.
在火星上能找到什么呢？火星表面曾经富含水分，此外，微生物（小型的有机物，比如细菌等）普遍都以化石的形式保存着。
"On Earth, we find bacteria underground in mines and even in nuclear waste. Life has adapted to incredibly harsh conditions.Is that true for Mars also?" she wonders.
“在地球上，生命能够适应各种严酷的环境，我们能在地下的矿里找到细菌，甚至还能在核废料里面找到细菌。这一点在火星上是否同样适用呢？”她对此提出疑问。
A human mission to Mars will face many challenges, especially in landing a craft on the surface, Stofan says. If astronauts are to spend a lot of time on the planet, they'll need to find a way to grow food and will probably need to go underground to find protection from the high-energyparticles that penetrate Mars's thin atmosphere.
斯托芬表明，人类登陆火星的任务将面临重重挑战，尤其是飞船着陆的问题，如果宇航员想要长期居住在火星，他们必须找到种植作物的方法；也许还得去地底下，以防受到来自火星稀薄大气层的高能粒子辐射的伤害。
"We're going to need a team to go to Mars," Stofan says,"people with a huge range ofbackgrounds." That means scientists of all kinds: engineers and computer programmers,geologists and chemists, and even botanists (plant scientists).
斯托芬说：“我们还需要组建一支队伍，队员们要有不同的背景。”也就是说，我们需要研究各领域的科学家，比如工程师、电脑程序员、地质学家、化学家，以及植物学家。”。
It also means involving more women and people of color."We're never going to solve the tough challenges that we have," she says, "if we're not tapping into all of our populations."
这也意味着这支去火星的队伍将包含更多女性及有色人种。:“如果我们不将所有人口利用起来，我们将永远不能解决所面临的艰难险阻。”
我们同样需要更多女性和不同肤色的人们加入。斯托芬说：“如果我们不倾尽全力，我们将永远解决不了那些艰难险阻。”
【词汇短语】
NASA n. NASA is a U.S. government organization concerned with spacecraft and space travel. NASA is an abbreviation for "National Aeronautics and Space Administration." 美国国家航空航天局（MTI常考词汇！重点记忆！）
outpost n. (group of soldiers at an) observation point some distance away from the main army 前哨（站）.
chore n. A chore is a task that you must do but that you find unpleasant or boring. 琐事
例：She sees exercise primarily as an unavoidable chore.
她把锻炼主要看作是不得不做的琐事。
tick-tock 钟表的滴答声（在文中理解为“一成不变的状态”）
KidsPost 《华盛顿邮报》儿童专版
hooked adj. If you are hooked on something, you enjoy it so much that it takes up a lot of your interest and attention. 被…迷住的
例：Many of the leaders have become hooked on power and money.
很多领导人都变得迷恋权力和金钱。
rover n. 行星探测车
microbe n. tiny organism that can only be seen under a microscope, esp one that causes disease or fermentation 微生物; （尤指）病菌, 酵母菌.
organism n. (a) (usu small) living being with parts that work together （通常指微小的）生物, 有机体:
bacteria n. Bacteria are very small organisms. Some bacteria can cause disease. 细菌
harsh adj. Harsh climates or conditions are very difficult for people, animals, and plants to live in.严酷的
例：...the harsh desert environment. …严酷的沙漠环境。
particle n. In physics, a particle is a piece of matter smaller than an atom such as an electron or a proton. 粒子
penetrate v. If something or someone penetrates a physical object or an area, they succeed in getting into it or passing through it. 进入; 穿透
例：X-rays can penetrate many objects. X射线能穿透很多物体。
botanist n. A botanist is a scientist who studies plants. 植物学家
