【阅读拓展】祝融号着陆火星,中国向航天梦迈向一大步

【阅读拓展】祝融号着陆火星，中国向航天梦迈向一大步
5月15日，中国祝融号火星车成功着陆火星，这项航天任务技术难度非常高，是我国航天领域取得的一项重大突破。

近日，美国NPR发表了一篇相关文章，大家来了解一下吧。

China Lands On Mars In Major Advance For Its Space Ambitions China landed a spacecraft on Mars for the first time on Saturday, a technically challenging feat more difficult than a moon landing, in the latest step forward for its ambitious goals in space.
Plans call for a rover to stay in the lander for a few days of diagnostic tests before rolling down a ramp to explore an area of Mars known as Utopia Planitia. It will join an American rover that arrived at the red planet in February.
China’s first Mars landing follows its launch last month of the main section of what will be a permanent space station and a mission that brought back rocks from the moon late last year.
“China has left a footprint on Mars for the first time, an important step for our country’s space exploration,” the official Xinhua News Agency said in announcing the landing on one of its social media accounts.
The U.S. has had nine successful landings on Mars since 1976. The Soviet Union landed on the planet in 1971, but the mission failed after the craft stopped transmitting information soon after touchdown.
A rover and a tiny helicopter from the American landing in February are currently exploring Mars. NASA expects the rover to collect its first sample in July for return to Earth in a decade.
China has landed on the moon before but landing on Mars is a much more difficult undertaking. Spacecraft uses shields for protection from the searing heat of entering the Martian atmosphere, and uses both retro-rockets and parachutes to slow down enough to prevent a crash landing. The parachutes and rockets must be deployed at precise times to land at the designated spot. Only mini-retro rockets are required for a moon landing, and parachutes alone are sufficient for returning to Earth.
Xinhua said the entry capsule entered the Mars atmosphere at an altitude of 125 kilometers
(80 miles), initiating what it called “the riskiest phase of the whole mission.”
A 200 square meter (2,150 square foot) parachute was deployed and later jettisoned, and then a retro-rocket was fired to slow the speed of the craft to almost zero, Xinhua said. The craft hovered about 100 meters (330 feet) above the surface to identify obstacles before touching down on four buffer legs.
“Each step had only one chance, and the actions were closely linked. If there had been any flaw, the landing would have failed,”said Geng Yan, an official at the China National Space Administration, according to Xinhua.
Touchdown was at 7:18 a.m. Beijing time (23:18 Friday GMT; 7:18 p.m. EDT), although more than an hour passed before ground controllers could confirm the landing was a success,
Xinhua said. The rover had to open its solar panels and antenna, and then it took more than 17 minutes for its signals to traverse the distance between Mars and Earth.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a congratulatory letter to the mission team, called the landing “an important step in our country’s interplanetary exploration journey, realizing the leap from Earth-moon to the planetary system and leaving the mark of the Chinese on Mars for the first time. ... The motherland and people will always remember your outstanding feats!”
NASA Associate Administrator Thomas Zurbuchen tweeted his congratulations, saying, “Together with the global science community, I look forward to the important contributions this mission will make to humanity’s understanding of the Red Planet.”
China’s Mars landing was the top trending topic on Weibo, a leading social media platform, as people expressed both excitement and pride.
The Tianwen-1 spacecraft has been orbiting Mars since February, when it arrived after a 6 1/2-month journey from Earth. Xinhua described the mission as China’s first planetary exploration.
The rover, named after the Chinese god of fire Zhurong, is expected to be deployed for 90 days to search for evidence of life. About the size of a small car, it has ground-penetrating radar, a laser, and sensors to gauge the atmosphere and magnetic sphere.
China’s space program has proceeded in a more cautious manner than the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the height of their space race.
The launch of the main module for China’s space station in April is the first of 11 planned missions to build and provision the station and send up a three-person crew by the end of next year. While the module was successfully launched, the uncontrolled return to Earth of the rocket drew international criticism including from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
China has said it wants to land people on the moon and possibly build a scientific base there. No timeline has been released for these projects. A space plane is also reportedly under development.
【词汇解析】
1. land v.使（飞机）平稳着陆
The pilot landed the plane safely.
飞行员驾驶飞机安全着陆。

land主语也可以是飞机，作不及物动词
The plane landed safely.
2. spacecraft n.航天（飞行）器；宇宙飞船；太空船
这里指的是祝融号任务火星车，天问一号探测器、天宫一号目标飞行器和实验空间站等都可用spacecraft表示。

3. challenging adj.富于挑战性的；困难而有趣的；需充分发挥能力的：
Teaching young children is a challenging and rewarding job.
教育儿童是一项具有挑战性和有意义的工作。

4. feat n. 业绩，功绩，壮举
They climbed the mountain in 28 days, a remarkable feat.
他们28天爬上了那座山，了不起的壮举。

5. rover n. 探测器
这里指祝融号，此前登录月球的玉兔号就是lunar rover，月球车。

6. launch v.发射（武器或宇宙飞船）
A test satellite was launched from Cape Canaveral.
一颗实验人造卫星从卡纳维拉尔角发射升空。

7. space exploration 太空探索
8. social media accounts 社交媒体账号，微博、公众号、抖音等都属于社交媒体。

9. transmit v.传输，发送，传送（电子信号、信息等）
The US Open will be transmitted live via satellite.
美国公开赛将通过卫星现场直播。

10. touchdown n.（飞机或航天器的）着陆，降落，接地（同landing）
动词形式为touch down（同land on）
Tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Louisiana.
龙卷风在亚拉巴马州和路易斯安那州登陆了。

11. expect v.预料，预期，预计
expect to do sth.
I expect to be back within a week.
我预计一周之内回来。

expect sb/sth to do sth.
I didn’t expect him to stay so long.
我没有料到他会呆那么久。

expect (that)
There’s the doorbell –I expect (that) it’ll be my mother.
有人按门铃，估计是我母亲。

12. undertaking n.任务；事业
Starting a new business can be a risky undertaking.
创办新企业有时是一项有风险的事业。

13. shield n. 护盖，护罩；保护物
The immune system is our body’s shield against infection.
免疫系统是我们人体抵抗感染的盾牌。

14. the searing heat 灼热，酷热
15. parachute n. 降落伞
16. deploy v.利用，调动
a jo
b in which a variety of professional skills will be deployed
要用到多项专业技术的工作
17. the designated spot 指定地点，指定位置
18. jettison v.除掉，放弃；（尤指从正在行驶的飞机或船上将物品）抛弃，丢弃The scheme was jettisoned when the government found it too costly.
政府发觉这项计划花费太大后就放弃了。

19. hover v.（鸟、昆虫）盘旋；（直升机）悬停
flies hovering above the surface of the water
盘旋在水面上方的苍蝇
20. flaw n.缺点，瑕疵（同defect, shortcoming）
A design flaw caused the engine to explode.
一个设计上的缺陷引起了引擎爆炸。

21. traverse v. 跨过，穿过，横越，横穿
two minutes to traverse the park
横穿公园的两分钟
22. leap n.骤变；剧增；激增（本文指向前迈进的一大步，飞跃）
a leap in profits利润跃升
23.science community 科学界
24. the top trending topic on Weibo 微博热搜榜首
25. orbit v.沿轨道运行；环绕…运行
The satellite orbits the Earth every 48 hours.
这颗人造卫星每48 小时绕地球运行一周。

26. gauge v.（用某种仪器或方法）测量，测出：
The thermostat will gauge the temperature and control the heat.
恒温器可测量温度，并控制热度。

27. crew n.一队工作人员：
a TV camera crew 电视摄影队。