☊ 碧瓏司の→ßeℒongŚ

🎁 MP3音檔 (按右鍵可下載聽)：
http://online1.tingclass.net/voas…/2015/20150211sa_space.mp3

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🎁 中英文稿：
Christmas 2003 was bittersweet for Mars scientists. Because one gift they desperately wanted never arrived: The British-built spacecraft Beagle 2 was scheduled to land on the Red Planet, radio home the good news and begin a search for life. Instead, mission controllers heard nothing. They finally declared the Beagle 2 lost after months of silence. Many space scientists thought it crash-landed or broke up in the thin Martian atmosphere.
對於研究火星的科學家們來說，2003年聖誕節是苦樂參半的。因為他們極其想要的一份禮物沒有到來：英國建造的飛船“獵兔犬2號”本應降落於該紅色星球上，然後為科學家們傳達回好消息，並開始尋找生命跡象。然而，該任務的指控人員沒收到任何信息。經過幾個月的沉默，他們最終宣布“獵兔犬2號”丟失了。許多太空科學家認為它在火星稀薄的大氣中迫降或分解了。
But now Beagle 2's final resting place has been found. New images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed the spacecraft in its intended landing region, a massive impact basin near the Martian equator.
但現在“獵兔犬2號”的最後安息地已被發現。美國宇航局的火星偵察軌道器傳回的新圖像顯示該飛船在其預定著陸區——火星赤道附近一個巨大的撞擊盆地。
The two-meter-wide lander is little more than a low-resolution lump of pixels in the images. But investigators gathered enough information to piece together what probably went wrong: the probe's solar panels seem to have only partially deployed, throttling Beagle 2's power and preventing it from phoning home. Without contact with mission control, the probe was doomed to a slow demise before it could perform any science.
在圖像中，這個兩米寬的著陸器更像是一個像素分辨率很低的腫塊。但研究人員收集了足夠的信息來拼湊出可能出錯的原因：探測器的太陽能電池板似乎只有一部分展開了，限流了“獵兔犬2號”的電源，致使其無法向地球傳送信息。無法聯繫任務控制中心，在其無法執行任何科學任務前探測器注定要緩慢死亡。
Nevertheless, the lander appears intact, and the remains of a parachute and an atmospheric-entry cover lie hundreds of meters away. Beagle 2 may now be considered a partial success, delivering the United Kingdom a very late Christmas gift: the nation's first soft landing on another planet.
不過著陸器看起來完好無損，而降落傘和進入大氣層的封蓋的遺骸躺在幾百米外。現在“獵兔犬2號”可被認定為部分成功了，也算是送給英國一個晚來的聖誕禮物：該國在另一星球的第一次軟著陸。
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