纪录片《火星任务》 第6期 火星车移动

Today, Joel's team

今天乔尔的团队

are testing the wheels of Curiosity's twin.

要测试好奇号复制品的车轮

They're low class.

它们是低级的

Is that what we call them?

我们就这样叫它们吗

That's what we call them.

没错 就这样叫

It's just one of hundreds of tests

过去九个月中

the rover has been through

火星车经历了上百种测试

in the past nine months.

这只是其中一项

That's great.

不错

The scientists want to land on Mars and explore.

科学家想要在火星着陆并进行探索

They want to explore where we land

他们想要探索降落点

and then also explore kilometres away from where we land,

然后再探索数公里外的区域

and that means we have to drive.

这意味着火星车必须能移动

We'd like to be able to drive over big rocks

我们希望它能够跨过大石头

so that we can drive close to a straight line,

那样就能直线行驶

not too much meandering¹ around,

不需要绕远

and therefore we designed a big rover.

因此我们设计了一个大型火星车

That makes it tricky².

这也令它变得棘手

The reason Curiosity is so big and expensive

好奇号体型巨大且价格昂贵的原因在于

is because of the science it will be conducting on Mars.

它将在火星上进行的科学研究

It will have to drive across difficult terrain³

它必须搭载满是仪器的小型实验室

while carrying a lab full of equipment.

穿过崎岖的地形

The scientists would like an infinitely⁴ capable vehicle.

科学家希望拥有一辆全能的交通工具

But in the real world,

但在现实中

the machine has to fit within a certain volume.

这个机器必须小于一定的体积

It has to fit within a certain mass.

以及小于一定的质量

1 meandering   

蜿蜒的河流，漫步，聊天

参考例句：

• The village seemed deserted except for small boys and a meandering donkey. 整个村子的人都像是逃光了，只留下了几个小男孩和一头正在游游荡荡的小毛驴。 来自教父部分
• We often took a walk along the meandering river after supper. 晚饭后我们常沿着那条弯弯曲曲的小河散步。

2 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

3 terrain   

n.地面，地形，地图

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• He knows the terrain of this locality like the back of his hand.他对这一带的地形了如指掌。

4 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。