印度準備在全球太空競賽中登月

印度準備在全球太空競賽中登月

India is looking to take a giant leap in its space program and solidify its place among the world's spacefaring nations with its second unmanned mission to the moon, this one aimed at landing a rover near the unexplored south pole.

印度正尋求在其太空計劃上邁出一大步，并通過其第二次無人登月任務鞏固其在世界航天國家中的地位。這次無人登月任務的目標是在尚未探索的南極附近著陸一艘月球車。

The Indian Space Research Organisation plans to launch a spacecraft using homegrown technology on Monday, and it is scheduled to touch down on the moon September 6 or 7.

印度空間研究組織計劃周一發(fā)射一艘使用國產技術的航天器，并計劃于9月6日或7日登陸月球。

The NZ$211 million Chandrayaan-2 mission will analyse minerals, map the moon's surface and search for water.

耗資2.11億新西蘭元的“月船二號”任務將分析月球礦物，繪制月球表面地圖，并尋找水源。

It will "boldly go where no country has ever gone before," ISRO said in a statement.

ISRO在一份聲明中說，它將“勇敢地走向一個從未有過的國家”。

With India poised to become the world's fifth-largest economy, the ardently nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to show off the country's prowess in security and technology.

隨著印度即將成為世界第五大經濟體，由納倫德拉莫迪(Narendra Modi)總理領導的民族主義政府熱衷于展示該國在安全和技術方面的實力。

India successfully test-fired an anti-satellite weapon in March, which Modi said demonstrated the country's capacity as a space power alongside the United States, Russia and China. India also plans to send humans into space by 2022, becoming only the fourth nation to do so.

今年3月，印度成功試射了一枚反衛(wèi)星武器。莫迪說，這表明印度有能力與美國、俄羅斯和中國比肩成為太空強國。印度還計劃在2022年前將人類送入太空，成為世界上第四個將人類送入太空的國家。

The country's ambitions are playing out amid a resurgent space race.

該國的雄心壯志在一場復蘇的太空競賽中得到了體現。

The US — which is marking the 50th anniversary this month of the Apollo 11 mission that made Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin the first humans on the moon — is working to send a manned spacecraft to the lunar south pole by 2024.

美國將于本月慶祝阿波羅11號登月計劃50周年，該計劃使尼爾·阿姆斯特朗和巴茲·奧爾德林成為登上月球的第一人。美國計劃在2024年之前向月球南極發(fā)射載人飛船。

In April, an unmanned Israeli craft crashed into the moon in a failed attempt at the first privately funded lunar landing.

今年4月，一艘以色列無人駕駛飛船在首次私人資助的登月嘗試中撞向月球，但以失敗告終。

Decades of space research have allowed India to develop satellite, communications and remote sensing technologies that are helping solve everyday problems at home, from forecasting fish migration to predicting storms and floods.

數十年的太空研究使印度得以發(fā)展衛(wèi)星、通訊和遙感技術，幫助解決從預測魚類遷徙到預測風暴和洪水等國內日常問題。

India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, whose name is Sanskrit for "moon craft," orbited the moon in 2008 and helped confirm the presence of water.

印度的第一次探月任務“月船一號”(Chandrayaan-1)于2008年繞月飛行，幫助證實了月球上存在水。

In 2013-14, India put a satellite into orbit around Mars in the nation's first interplanetary mission.

2013年至2014年，印度將一顆衛(wèi)星送入火星軌道，這是該國首次執(zhí)行星際任務。

Some have questioned the expense in a country of 1.3 billion people with widespread poverty and one of the world's highest child mortality rates.

一些人質疑，在這個有著13億人口、普遍貧困、兒童死亡率居世界前列的國家，這么做是否值得。

But author and economic commentator Gurcharan Das said that the cost of the second moonshot is small compared with India's overall budget and that the project could have a multiplier effect on the economy.

但作家兼經濟評論員Gurcharan Das表示，與印度的總體預算相比，第二次探月計劃的成本很小，而且該項目可能對經濟產生乘數效應。

He called on India to get the country's private sector more involved in research and development, which he said could yield "huge benefits" beyond the realm of space travel.

他呼吁印度讓該國的私營企業(yè)更多地參與研發(fā)，他表示，研發(fā)可能帶來超出太空旅行領域的“巨大利益”。

The spacecraft will have a lunar orbiter, lander and a rover. The lander will carry a camera, a seismometer, a thermal instrument and a NASA-supplied laser retroreflector that will help calculate the distance between the Earth and the moon.

太空船將有一個月球軌道器，著陸器和一個月球車。著陸器將攜帶一個照相機、一個地震儀、一個熱儀器和一個由美國宇航局提供的激光反射鏡，這將有助于計算地球和月球之間的距離。

The lunar south pole is especially interesting because a much larger portion of it is in shadow than the north pole, presenting a greater possibility of water. Water is an essential ingredient for life, and finding it is part of science's broader goal of determining whether there is life elsewhere in our solar system.

月球南極特別有趣，因為它的陰影部分比北極大得多，更有可能存在水。水是生命的基本成分，發(fā)現水是科學確定太陽系其他地方是否有生命這一更廣泛目標的一部分。

This will be the first rover to look for water at the south pole.

這將是第一個在南極尋找水源的月球車。