每日一翻：Half-Century Anniversary of a Mars Mishap

In recent days, both the unmanned Antares rocket and the Virgin Galactic space plane had catastrophic failures. Because space is a very risky business. And it always has been. November 5th marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 3, America’s first mission to Mars. But don’t expect any NASA celebrations. The mission failed completely.

最近，无人火箭和维珍银河航天飞机遭遇了灾难性的失败。因为空间探测是一项危险的工作，并且一直以来都是。11月5号是美国第一颗火星探测器水手3号发射五十周年的纪念日。但是不要指望美国宇航局会有任何庆祝活动，因为那次发射完全失败了。

When Mariner 3 reached space, it was supposed to unfurl solar panels. But a glitch kept the panels tucked away. With only battery power, the spacecraft went dead just 8 hours and 43 minutes later. So Mariner 3 fell silent, although it presumably did fly past the red planet months later.

当水手三号抵达太空，这时应该展开太阳能电池板。但是一个小故障使电池板无法展开。凭借仅有的电池电能，飞行器在8小时43分钟后走向终结。所以水手三号失联了，尽管几个月后大概也飞过了这颗红色星球。

Fortunately, NASA had an identical spacecraft ready for Mars. After hasty modifications to prevent the same problem, Mariner 4 blasted off on November 28th, 1964. The following July, it became the first ship to fly past our planetary neighbor—that we’re sure of.

幸运的是，美国宇航局还为火星准备了一个完全相同的探测器。经过匆忙地修改来避免同一问题再次发生，水手四号在1964年11月28号被发射升空。接下来的七月，我们非常确定它成为了第一个飞过我们的近邻——火星——的。

But this successful mission shocked researchers. Back in 1964, even some respected scientists thought Mars was home to primitive life—if not the intelligent beings that colorful astronomers like Percival Lowell imagined. And the cameras on Mariner 4 sent back pictures of a barren, cratered world, devoid of any obvious Martians.

但是这次成功的发射使科学家感到震惊。回到1964年，甚至是一些德高望重的科学家也认为火星是远古人类的家园，如果不是，那就是像帕西瓦尔·罗威尔这样聪明的富有想象力的宇航员想象的。但是水手四号上的摄像机传回了大量贫瘠的，坑坑洼洼的，没有任何火星人的图片。

—written by Ken Croswell, voiced by Steve Mirsky