纪录片《火星任务》 第12期 正确的飞行轨迹

Oh, nice!

好球

They need to figure out how far

他们要根据

the ball needs to travel depending on where the receiver is.

外接球手的位置判断球应当扔多远

How fast the receiver's running in that direction.

还要考虑外接球手的移动速度

Most quarterbacks don't sit down and calculate that on paper.

四分卫可没时间坐下来拿纸算

Set, go!

准备 开始

It's all done in their head

他们不用多想

instinctively¹ without thinking about it.

而是下意识地做出动作

For spacecraft,

对航天器而言

we do it on paper, or these days, on computers.

我们就得用纸算了 现在是计算机算

The other thing a quarterback does

四分卫还要干的一件事

is put spin on the ball.

就是让球旋转

Spiral so that the ball flies in the correct trajectory².

旋转使球保持正确的飞行轨道

So we also are spinning our spacecraft,

我们同样也会让航天器旋转

so it maintains its attitude...

这样它才能保持姿态

and so that we can point the solar rays back at the Sun

使太阳能板朝向太阳

and communicate back to the Earth.

并与地球保持通讯

And so, the actual rotation³ of the ball

所以其实橄榄球的旋转

is similar to the rotation of the spacecraft.

和航天器的旋转很相似

They make it sound simple,

听起来很简单

but firing a spacecraft across the solar system

但是让一个航天器在太阳系中穿梭

involves some really complex ballistic calculations.

涉及到极其复杂的弹道学计算

1 instinctively   

adv.本能地

参考例句：

• As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

3 rotation   

n.旋转；循环，轮流

参考例句：

• Crop rotation helps prevent soil erosion.农作物轮作有助于防止水土流失。
• The workers in this workshop do day and night shifts in weekly rotation.这个车间的工人上白班和上夜班每周轮换一次。