“慧更斯”号抵达土星卫星

 

Huygens Spacecraft Arrives at Saturn¹ Moon

“慧更斯”号抵达土星卫星

 

After a seven-year ride to Saturn on the U.S. Cassini spacecraft, the European Space Agency's Huygens probe is finally at its destination.

 

The agency's director general is Jean Jacques Dordain.

 

Jean Jacques Dordain: We have a signal, meaning that we know that Huygens is alive. So the dream is alive.

 

Huygens separated from Cassini on Christmas Day and moved gradually toward Titan for the final, blazing descent Friday at 28,000 kilometers per hour. It deployed² two parachutes to slow it and a heat shield to protect it from searing friction³ with the moon's atmosphere.

 

U.S. space agency official Al Diaz told a news conference at European Space Agency mission control in Darmstadt, Germany that Huygens signal means this engineering process worked as designed.

 

Al Diaz: It means that probably one of the most difficult entry activities ever done has just been accomplished⁴ successfully, because otherwise, the parachute would not have triggered the transmitter and the transmitter would not be sending a signal.

 

On its two-and-a-half hour journey down to Titan's surface, Huygens was to collect data on the moon's obscuring atmosphere, whose methane⁵ and nitrogen composition is believed to have been similar to that of the young Earth before oxygen and eventually life appeared. If it survived the collision with Titan's surface, it was to have spent another two hours transmitting images to the Cassini orbiter for relay back to Earth.

 

Mission controllers will not know how this part of the project went until Cassini turns back to Earth to send the data later today. But European Space Agency science director David Southwood says he is elated at the progress so far.

 

David Southwood: As far as I'm concerned, the baby is out of the womb, but we've yet to count the fingers and toes. So we've still got along way to go, but it's a major step, a major engineering step that was very critical. You can probably detect a certain relief on my face. That's real.

 

So little is known about Titan's surface because of its atmospheric⁶ shroud⁷ that mission scientists could not say before the descent whether Huygens would land on solid ground or on liquid. They speculate that it could hit solid methane ice, rock, or a chemical sea.

 

Whatever the case, scientists will have to piece together the data, which mission operations chief Claudio Sollazzo says will come down in batches⁸.

 

Claudio Sollazzo: For us, it's a bit like when you collect pieces of a jigsaw⁹ puzzle, and then you have to put it all together, and only at the end you see the figure, the image.

 

After the U.S. Cassini orbiter relays the signals from Huygens, it will return to its normal orbit. It arrived in August for a four-year mission to study Saturn.

 

David McAlary, VOA news, Washinton.

 

注释：

probe [prEub] n. 探测器

descent [di5sent] n. 降落

transmitter [trAnz5mitE] n. 传导物

obscuring [Eb5skjuEriN] adj. 朦胧的

detect [di5tekt] vt. 察觉

orbiter [5R:bitE(r)] n. 人造卫星

1 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

2 deployed   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的过去式和过去分词 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• Tanks have been deployed all along the front line. 沿整个前线已部署了坦克。
• The artillery was deployed to bear on the fort. 火炮是对着那个碉堡部署的。

3 friction   

n.摩擦，摩擦力

参考例句：

• When Joan returned to work,the friction between them increased.琼回来工作后，他们之间的摩擦加剧了。
• Friction acts on moving bodies and brings them to a stop.摩擦力作用于运动着的物体，并使其停止。

4 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

5 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

6 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

7 shroud   

n.裹尸布，寿衣；罩，幕；vt.覆盖，隐藏

参考例句：

• His past was enveloped in a shroud of mystery.他的过去被裹上一层神秘色彩。
• How can I do under shroud of a dark sky?在黑暗的天空的笼罩下，我该怎么做呢？

8 batches   

一批( batch的名词复数 )； 一炉； （食物、药物等的）一批生产的量； 成批作业

参考例句：

• The prisoners were led out in batches and shot. 这些囚犯被分批带出去枪毙了。
• The stainless drum may be used to make larger batches. 不锈钢转数设备可用来加工批量大的料。

9 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。