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It finally happened. Last week, after eight months of listening and hoping, NASA and the entire world had to say goodbye to the Opportunity rover on Mars.
这一天终于还是来了。上周，在经历了长达8个月关注与期盼后，美国宇航局（NASA）与全世界不得不跟火星上的机遇号说再见了。
I'm not crying; you're crying. The end of the mission was thanks to a planet-wide dust storm that started last May and obscured the Sun for months.
我没有流泪，是你们在流泪。这次任务之所以结束是因为火星发生了一次全境范围的尘暴，这次尘暴始于去年5月，遮天蔽日长达数月之久。
It blocked too much light for too long, which prevented Oppy's solar panels from charging its batteries and keeping its internal electronics warm enough to work.
由于尘暴遮挡光线的情况持续了太久，所以机遇号的太阳能电池板无法为电池蓄能，而且机遇号内部的电子设备温度过高，无法运作。
NASA first lost contact with the rover back in June, and despite sending it thousands of signals, and even accounting for the possibility of things like broken radios, they just never heard from it again.
NASA第一次与机遇号失去联系是在6月。那时候，虽然发送了上千次信号，而且也考虑了无线设备受损的可能性，但机遇号还是没有再返回过信号。
So last Wednesday, the team decided it was officially time to put the rover to bed.
因此，上周三，该小组决定是时候官方宣布机遇号寿终正寝了。
Now, Opportunity stands as a monument to human achievement.
如今，机遇号已经成为人类成就的里程碑。
But even though we've officially had to say goodbye, that hasn't stopped some people from wondering if we'd tried harder, could we have saved Oppy?
不过，虽然我们不得不官方宣布它的离去，但还是会有一些人想知道我们是否曾竭尽全力挽救过机遇号。
The short answer is not really, at least, not unless engineers had designed the rover differently from the beginning.
答案很简单，至少不是真的，除非工程师们从一开始就设计出了不同的探测器。
Since Opportunity was mainly powered by solar panels, it was always at the mercy of giant dust storms like this.
由于机遇号主要由太阳能电池板供能，所以它基本上要受与这次类似的大型尘暴的摆布。
And since there aren't any other rovers nearby, it's not like we could have sent something over to brush it off.
而且由于机遇号附近没有其他探测器，所以我们也没法派其他探测器去帮忙。
So even from the start, engineers knew that a bunch of dust would be bad news.
所以，即便是从一开始，工程师们就知道，只要出现尘暴，那就必定是大事不好。
Now, if Oppy had been powered by nuclear energy, like the Curiosity rover, it would have survived, no problem.
现在，如果机遇号是由核能供能，像好奇号那样的话，机遇号就能渡过这一劫，这是毫无问题的。
But back when Opportunity was designed, solar panels were really the only viable option.
但设计机遇号的时候，太阳能电池板是仅有的选择。
Even today, the type of plutonium that Curiosity uses to charge its batteries is in super short supply, the majority of it actually came from making nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
即便是今天，好奇号用来给电池充电的钚供不应求，大多数钚实际上来自于冷战时期制造核武器期间产出的。
So back when Opportunity was being built, NASA primarily used it for deep-space missions, like the Voyagers or New Horizons.
所以在机遇号还在建造的时候，NASA主要将其用于深空任务，比如旅行者号和新视野号。
Opportunity was given a tiny bit of plutonium to generate heat, but that was mainly to help supplement the electrical heaters, which were powered by solar panels.
机遇号也配备了少量的钚来发热，但这主要是为了助力补充电热器，电热器主要是由太阳能电池板功能的。
I mean, to be fair, Oppy was originally made for a 90-day mission, so it's not like it needed a bunch of plutonium.
讲真，机遇号一开始的设定是进行90天的任务，所以不需要很多钚。
And really, even if this storm had never come along, the rover would have died eventually.
但说实话，即便没有发生这场尘暴，机遇号终究还是会退役的。
Its batteries were slowly becoming less and less efficient, so even if the skies on Mars had stayed beautiful and clear, Opportunity would have eventually lost power.
机遇号电池的效能在逐渐降低，所以，即便火星天空始终澄澈，机遇号最后也会耗尽能量。
So one way or another, our rover wasn't going to last forever.
所以，无论怎样，机遇号都无法永久运行。
But that doesn't take away from the fact that it did amazing work during its 15 years of operation.
但这并不影响一个事实——机遇号在运行15年期间做了惊人的发现。
Opportunity was the first rover to identify sedimentary rocks on another world, and it discovered what came to be called blueberries.
机遇号是第一个在外太空发现沉积岩的探测器，此外，机遇号还发现了我们现在称为蓝莓的东西。
They're gray spheres of a mineral called hematite that formed from acidic groundwater.
蓝莓是赤铁矿这种矿物质的灰色球体，它是从酸性地下水形成的。
And speaking of water, Oppy also found veins of gypsum at the rim of a crater, which were likely deposited by water, along with clay minerals in the crater that suggest it could have been hospitable to life.
说到水，机遇号还在一个火山口的边缘发现了石膏脉，这种石膏脉很有可能是由水沉积形成的。再加上该火山口处还发现了粘土矿物，这些都表明火星可能宜居。
And in the end, it sent us over 200,000 images that will produce even more science and inspire us for years to come.
最后，机遇号还向地球发送了20多张图像，供我们进一步科学研究，并为未来的研究提供启示。
Oh, and all of this was despite a lot of setbacks.
哦！不过机遇号也遇到过很多困难。
While it was on Mars, Opportunity got trapped in a sand dune, survived another planet-wide dust storm, lost steering capabilities of its two front wheels, and also lost the ability to use its flash memory.
在火星的时候，机遇号曾困在一个沙丘中，从一次火星全境范围内的尘暴中死里逃生，它的2个前轮失去了控制方向的能力，也失去了使用闪存的能力。
So it's kind of poetic that its final resting place is near Mars's equator in a place called Perseverance Valley.
所以，机遇号最后落脚在火星迟到附近一个名为毅力谷的地方还是颇为玄学的。
For more than a decade, Opportunity has been one of our best tools for understanding Mars, and the scientists who drove it and analyzed its data have made the best of a lot of tough situations.
过去10几年来，机遇号是我们了解火星的利器之一，操纵机遇号并分析其数据的科学家们充分利用了艰难的条件。
But the good news is, even while we're mourning the loss of Opportunity, we can still look to humanity's other efforts to understand the Red Planet, too.
但有一个好消息是：在我们默哀机遇号寿终正寝之际，人类了解火星的其他方法还是可期的。
For example, the Curiosity rover is still ticking and making new observations all the time.
比如，好奇号一直也在进行持续的最新观测。
And NASA's InSight lander recently finished setting up its suite of instruments on Mars to study what's going on underneath the planet's surface.
NASA的洞察号探测器最近也在火星上完成了整套设备的安置，其目的是研究火星地表以下的情况。
And there are two more rovers in the immediate works as well.
即将投入使用的还有2个探测器：
The ESA's Rosalind Franklin will explore an area near the Martian equator after it arrives in 2021.
欧洲航天局（ESA）的罗莎琳?富兰克林将在2021年抵达后开始探索火星赤道附近的一个区域。
And that same year, NASA's currently-unnamed Mars 2020 rover is set to land a bit farther east.
此外，2021年，NASA现在还未命名的火星2020年探测器也将着陆在稍往东的位置。
So even though the Opportunity rover is shut down for good, there's a lot to look forward to on Mars.
所以，虽然机遇号彻底退役了，但火星研究的未来依然可期。
And maybe one day, when we start sending humans to the Red Planet, we'll be able to brush off the dust and tell Oppy how it exceeded our expectations and did a good job right up until the very end.
而且或许某一天，人类会开启载人航天飞往火星，那时候的我们将不会畏惧尘暴，也会告诉机遇号它超出了我们的期望，它的任务完成得很好。
If you want to keep up with all of these missions, and the discoveries we're going to make, follow along by subscribing at youtube.com/scishowspace.
如果大家想持续跟进这些任务和我们的发现，欢迎订阅并关注youtube.com/scishowspace。
And as always, thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News!
在此再次感谢《太空科学秀》粉丝们的支持！
