This illustration shows a simulated view of NASA’s InSight lander descending on its parachute toward the surface of Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

這幅圖顯示了美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局洞察號(hào)InSight著陸器降落在火星表面的模擬視圖，降落傘上朝。

圖片來(lái)源:加州理工學(xué)院/美國(guó)宇航局/噴氣推進(jìn)實(shí)驗(yàn)室

On Nov. 26, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will blaze through the Martian atmosphere and attempt to set a lander gently on the surface of the Red Planet in less time than it takes to hard-boil an egg. InSight’s entry, descent and landing (EDL) team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, along with another part of the team at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, have pre-programmed the spacecraft to perform a specific sequence of activities to make this possible.

2018年11月26日，美國(guó)宇航局的“洞察”號(hào)宇宙飛船將在火星大氣層中燃燒，并試圖在比煮雞蛋所需的時(shí)間更短的時(shí)間內(nèi)，在火星表面輕輕地著陸�？偛吭O(shè)在加利福尼亞州帕薩迪納的美國(guó)宇航局噴氣推進(jìn)實(shí)驗(yàn)室的“洞察”號(hào)InSight的登陸、降落和著陸（EDL）任務(wù)小組，與另一部分在丹佛洛克希德·馬丁太空?qǐng)F(tuán)隊(duì)的成員一起，已經(jīng)以執(zhí)行特定的任務(wù)序列對(duì)航天器進(jìn)行了預(yù)編程，來(lái)實(shí)現(xiàn)上述目標(biāo)。

The following is a list of expected milestones for the spacecraft, assuming all proceeds exactly as planned and engineers make no final changes the morning of landing day. Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are providing a reliable communications relay from InSight back to Earth. The primary communications path for InSight engineering data during the landing process is through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours after landing.

以下是航天器預(yù)期里程碑的時(shí)間表，假設(shè)所有進(jìn)展都按計(jì)劃進(jìn)行，并且工程師在著陸這天的早晨沒(méi)有做出最后變更的話。只有當(dāng)實(shí)驗(yàn)火星立方體一號(hào)（MarCO）宇宙飛船提供從InSight到地球的可靠的中繼通信時(shí)，一些里程碑式的事件才會(huì)很快為人們所知。在著陸過(guò)程中，“洞察”號(hào)工程數(shù)據(jù)的主要通信路徑是通過(guò)美國(guó)宇航局的火星軌道偵察器”奧德賽”來(lái)傳遞。這些數(shù)據(jù)預(yù)計(jì)在著陸后幾個(gè)小時(shí)就可以獲得。

If all goes well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26. Times listed below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the signals relating to these activities.

如果一切順利，MarCO可能需要幾秒鐘的時(shí)間來(lái)接收和格式化數(shù)據(jù)，然后以光速發(fā)送回地球。11月26日，信號(hào)從火星到達(dá)地球的單程時(shí)間是8分7秒。下面列出的時(shí)間是在地球接收時(shí)間，或者JPL任務(wù)控制可以接收與這些活動(dòng)有關(guān)的信號(hào)的時(shí)間。

• 11:40 a.m. PST (2:40 p.m. EST) – Separation from the cruise stage that carried the mission to Mars

• 上午11:40 太平洋時(shí)間（2:40點(diǎn)，美國(guó)東部時(shí)間）從巡航階段分離，進(jìn)入著陸火星的使命階段。

   

• 11:41 a.m. PST (2:41 p.m. EST) – Turn to orient the spacecraft properly for atmospheric entry

• 上午11:40 太平洋時(shí)間（2:40點(diǎn)，美國(guó)東部時(shí)間）軌道變換，開(kāi)始進(jìn)入火星大氣層。

   

• 11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) – Atmospheric entry at about 12,300 mph (19,800 kph), beginning the entry, descent and landing phase

• 11:47 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間（2:47點(diǎn)，美國(guó)東部時(shí)間）–進(jìn)入火星大氣層.速度為英里約12300英里/每小時(shí)（19800公里/每小時(shí)），開(kāi)始登陸、降落和著陸（EDL）程序。

   

• 11:49 a.m. PST (2:49 p.m. EST) – Peak heating of the protective heat shield reaches about 2,700°F (about 1,500°C)

• 11:49 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (2:49 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間) –洞察號(hào)的熱防護(hù)罩達(dá)到高溫峰值，2700°f（約1500°c）

   

• 15 seconds later – Peak deceleration, with the intense heating causing possible temporary dropouts in radio signals

  15秒后，減速達(dá)到最大值，由于強(qiáng)烈的摩擦熱量，無(wú)線電信號(hào)可能暫時(shí)中斷；

   

• 11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) – Parachute deployment

  11:51 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (2:51 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間)–降落傘展開(kāi)

   

• 15 seconds later – Separation from the heat shield

  15秒后，熱防護(hù)罩分離

   

• 10 seconds later – Deployment of the lander’s three legs

  10秒后，著陸器的的三條腿展開(kāi)部署

   

• 11:52 a.m. PST (2:52 p.m. EST) – Activation of the radar that will sense the distance to the ground

  11:52 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (2:52 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間)，著陸雷達(dá)開(kāi)機(jī)，偵測(cè)到地面的距離

   

• 11:53 a.m. PST (2:53 p.m. EST) – First acquisition of the radar signal

  11:53 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (2:53 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間) —第一次采集雷達(dá)信號(hào)

   

• 20 seconds later – Separation from the back shell and parachute

  20秒后，降落傘與著陸器的背殼分離。

   

• 0.5 second later – The retrorockets, or descent engines, begin firing

  0.5秒后的，著陸火箭系統(tǒng)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)開(kāi)始點(diǎn)火。

   

• 2.5 seconds later – Start of the “gravity turn” to get the lander into the proper orientation for landing

  2.5秒后，啟動(dòng)“重力轉(zhuǎn)向”使著陸器進(jìn)入正確的著陸方向

   

• 22 seconds later – InSight begins slowing to a constant velocity (from 17 mph to a constant 5 mph, or from 27 kph to 8 kph) for its soft landing

  22秒后，InSight開(kāi)始減慢到恒定速度（從17英里/每小時(shí)減慢到恒定5英里/每小時(shí)，或者從27公里/每小時(shí)減慢到8公里/每小時(shí)），以實(shí)現(xiàn)軟著陸。

   

• 11:54 a.m. PST (2:54 p.m. EST) – Expected touchdown on the surface of Mars

  11:54 a.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (2:54 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間)–預(yù)期的著陸在火星表面的時(shí)間。

   

• 12:01 p.m. PST (3:01 p.m. EST) – “Beep” from InSight’s X-band radio directly back to Earth, indicating InSight is alive and functioning on the surface of Mars

  12:01 p.m. 太平洋時(shí)間 (3:01 p.m. 美國(guó)東部時(shí)間)——“嘟”的一聲將從“洞察”號(hào)的X波段無(wú)線電頻道直接傳回到地球，顯示“洞察”號(hào)還活著，并且在火星表面開(kāi)始工作了。

   

• No earlier than 12:04 p.m. PST (3:04 p.m. EST), but possibly the next day – First image from InSight on the surface of Mars

  不遲于太平洋時(shí)間時(shí)間11月27日下午12:04（美國(guó)東部時(shí)間下午3:04），但可能第二天——我們將收到來(lái)自火星表面InSight的第一張照片。

   

• No earlier than 5:35 p.m. PST (8:35 p.m. EST) – Confirmation from InSight via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter that InSight’s solar arrays have deployed

不遲于太平洋時(shí)間時(shí)間11月27日下午5:35（美國(guó)東部時(shí)間晚上8:35）——通過(guò)NASA的”奧德賽”號(hào)火星軌道探測(cè)器確認(rèn)InSight的太陽(yáng)能板陣列已經(jīng)展開(kāi)部署。

//翻譯轉(zhuǎn)載自NASA官網(wǎng)