阿聯酋本月將發射阿拉伯世界首個登陸火星計劃

The first of three international missions to Mars gets underway Tuesday when a Japanese H-2A rocket boosts a United Arab Emirates spacecraft known as "Hope" into space for a seven-month voyage to the red planet. It will be the first interplanetary mission ever attempted by an Arab nation.

三個登陸火星的國際任務中的首個任務於週二準備就緒，由日本的H-2A火箭搭載阿聯酋的“希望號”宇宙飛船進入太空，開始爲期七個月的通往這顆紅色星球的航行。這將是阿聯酋國家第一個星際任務。

A little more than a week later, China plans to launch its Tianwen 1 mission, sending its first orbiter and a surface rover to Mars while NASA presses ahead with launch of the agency's $2.4 billion Perseverance Mars rover, equipped with a small drone-like helicopter, on July 30. All three will reach their target in 2021.

一個多星期後，中國計劃執行“天問一號”任務，向火星發射第一個軌道飛行器和一個表面探測器。此前在7月30日，美國航空航天局發射了價值24億美元的“毅力號”火星探測器，配備一個小型無人機直升機。這三個任務將於2021年達到指定地點。

The three missions are taking advantage of a planetary launch window that only comes around once every 26 months when Earth and Mars are in favorable positions in their orbits around the sun. This year's launch window closes in mid August, and any spacecraft delayed past then will face two years of expensive storage.

這三個任務利用了行星發射窗口，26個月纔會出現一次，此時地球和火星在圍繞太陽的軌道上處於發射有利位置。今年的發射窗口截止8月中旬，超過這一時限沒有發射的航天器就要再等上兩年，而且保存費用昂貴。

The European Space Agency had planned to join Emirates, the United States and China, sending a powerful rover to Mars during the current window. But ESA recently was forced to stand down until the next window, primarily because of problems with the parachutes needed to help lower the rover to the martian surface.

歐洲航天局計劃加入進來，和阿聯酋航空公司、美國以及中國一起，在目前這一發射窗口內向火星發射一個強大的探測器。但最近，歐洲航天局被迫暫停發射，要等到下一個窗口了，主要是因爲幫助探測器降落到火星表面的降落傘出了故障。

And so, the UAE will lead the way this year with the Emirates Mars Mission, and if all goes well, Hope will brake into orbit around Mars next February to kick off a complex mission to shed new light on the physics and chemistry of the martian atmosphere.

因此，阿聯酋今年將帶頭執行阿聯酋航空公司的火星任務。如果一切順利，“希望號”將於明年二月份減速進入火星軌道，開始執行一項複雜的任務，刷新人類對火星大氣的物理和化學認識。