Mars helicopter achieves fastest, furthest flight yet

火星直升飞机的飞行速度和飞行距离达到前所未有的新高度

 

The Ingenuity helicopter has successfully flown for the third time on Mars in a week. This time, the helicopter logged a flight that was faster, further and bolder than the previous ones, according to NASA.

“独创号”直升飞机本周在火星上进行了第三次成功飞行。根据NASA的介绍，与前面的飞行相比，在本次飞行中，直升飞机所记录下的飞行速度更快、飞行距离更远、飞行也更加大胆。

 

Ingenuity exceeded speeds and distances beyond what it proved capable of doing during testing on Earth before launching to Mars.

“独创号”的飞行速度和飞行距离均超过了其在发射前，在地球上测试时被证明能够实现的水平。

 

The helicopter flew at 1:31 a.m. ET, or 12:33 p.m. local Mars time. Data and imagery began streaming into the control room at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, at 10:16 a.m. ET Sunday. The Perseverance rover captured an image of the helicopter in flight and shared it shortly after.

直升飞机于美国东部时间上午1:31分或火星时间下午12:33分起飞。数据和图像在周日美国东部时间上午10:16分传入NASA位于加州帕萨迪纳的喷气推进实验室。“坚韧号”漫游车拍下了正在飞行的直升机并在之后立即对图像进行了共享。

 

The helicopter climbed to the same altitude from its second flight -- about 16 feet (5 meters) above the Martian surface -- but this time it increased its speed.

直升飞机爬升到了和第二次飞行相同的高度--距离火星地面大约16英尺（5米）-但这次的爬升速度更快。

 

During previous flights, Ingenuity was moving at about 1.1 miles per hour (0.5 meters per second). Now, the chopper has boosted that speed to 4.5 miles per hour (2 meters per second).

在之前的飞行中，“独创号”的移动速度大约在每小时1.1英里（0.5米/每秒）。现在，它的飞行速度增加到了4.5英里每小时（2米/每秒）。

 

Ingenuity flew 164 feet (50 meters) north, almost half the length of a football field, before returning to touch down at its landing site. All total, the helicopter flew for about 80 seconds, the longest yet, and a total distance of about 330 feet (100 meters)."While that number may not seem like a lot, consider that we never moved laterally more than about two-pencil lengths when we flight-tested in the vacuum chamber here on Earth," wrote H?vard Grip, Ingenuity Mars helicopter chief pilot at JPL, in an?update.

“独创号”朝北飞行了164英尺（50米），差不多相当于半个足球场，随后返回并在着陆点降落。直升飞机总共飞行了大约80秒，是目前为止时间最长的一次。总飞行距离大约为300英尺（100米）。“尽管数字看上去可能并不多，但是我们在地球上的真空房间内进行飞行测试时，它的横向飞行距离从来没有超过2根铅笔的长度”，Harvard Grip，喷气推进实验所“独创号”火星直升飞机总飞行师在最新报道中写道。

 

"And while the 4 meters of lateral movement in Flight Two (2 meters out and then 2 meters back) was great, providing lots of terrific data, it was still only 4 meters. As such, Flight Three is a big step, one in which Ingenuity will begin to experience freedom in the sky."

“尽管第二次飞行的横向距离（飞出去2米，飞回来2米）非常不错并提供了许多非常好的数据，但是也只有4米。就其本身而言，第三次飞行是一个很大的进步。在第三次飞行中，“独创号”将会在天空中体验到自由飞行。”

 

The Perseverance rover, which serves as a communication relay between the helicopter and its mission team on Earth, is also acting as a bit of a documentary filmmaker for Ingenuity.

“坚韧号”漫游车作为直升飞机和地球上任务小组之间的通信传递，也有点类似于拍摄“独创号”的纪录片制片人。

 

It captured a video of the copter's third flight that will be able to show most of the 80-second journey. The video is expected to return to Earth in the coming days.

“坚韧号”拍下了直升飞机第三次飞行的视频。长达80秒的飞行画面视频几乎都拍摄到了。视频预计会在后面返回到地球。

 

"Today's flight was what we planned for, and yet it was nothing short of amazing," said Dave Lavery, the project's program executive at NASA headquarters in Washington, in a statement. "With this flight, we are demonstrating critical capabilities that will enable the addition of an aerial dimension to future Mars missions."

“今天的飞行在我们的计划内，但又给我们带来了惊喜”，Dave Lavery，NASA华盛顿总部项目主管在声明中表示。“本次飞行展示了直升飞机的一些核心能力，这些能力可以让直升飞机在未来的火星任务中飞得更远。”

The skies over Mars

 

火星上空

While Perseverance is able to use its cameras to snap photos and shoot video, Ingenuity is equipped with cameras of its own. The navigation camera shoots black-and-white images that help the helicopter's computer track its location during flight.

尽管“坚韧号”能够用自己的相机拍照并拍摄视频，“独创号”自己也配备了相机。导航相机拍摄的黑白画面有助于直升飞机的电脑在飞行过程中对其位置进行追踪。

 

An image from this camera shows the helicopter's shadow on the surface of Mars during Sunday's flight.

导航相机所拍摄的一副图像显示出了直升飞机在周日飞行时投射到火星地面上的影子。

 

Helicopter team members are thrilled with the images. The researchers were only able to test so much while flying the helicopter in a test chamber on Earth. The chopper wasn't able to move more than 1.6 feet (0.5 meter) in any given direction during testing, so they had no way of knowing if the navigation camera would be able to track the ground while moving further and faster.

这些图像让直升飞机的团队成员们感到振奋。研究人员在地球上的测试间测试直升飞机的飞行时，他们的测试内容非常有限。在测试阶段，飞机朝任何方向的移动距离都不会超过1.6英尺（0.5米），因此他们无法知道导航相机在飞机飞行得更远和更快的情况下是否能够追踪到地面。

 

"This is the first time we've seen the algorithm for the camera running over a long distance," said MiMi Aung, the helicopter's project manager at JPL, in a statement. "You can't do this inside a test chamber."

MiMi Aung，喷气推进实验室直升飞机项目经理在声明中表示：“这是我们第一次看到长距离运行的相机的计算程序。这在测试间是完全无法实现的。”

 

The helicopter's color camera shows the perspective of Ingenuity as it flies through the Martian atmosphere.

直升飞机上的彩色相机显示的是“独创号”在火星大气中间飞行时的视角。

 

During its second flight on April 22, Ingenuity autonomously flew for almost 52 seconds, climbing 16 feet (4.9 meters) up through the Martian atmosphere. After a brief hover, it tilted at a 5-degree angle and moved sideways for 7 feet (2.1 meters). Before touching back down safely on the surface, Ingenuity hovered again to allow its color camera to capture the view of what it looks like to fly on Mars.

在4月22日的第二次飞行中，“独创号”自动飞行了大约52秒，在火星大气中向上爬升了16英尺（4.9米）。在经过一个短暂的盘旋后，直升飞机倾斜5度并侧身向前飞行了7英尺（2.1米）。在安全返回到火星表面前，“独创号”再次盘旋以使彩色相机拍摄到在火星飞行的画面。

 

Two new images from the second flight were revealed on Sunday.

第二次飞行时的两幅新图像已在周日公布。

 

The mission team believes these images demonstrate the useful capabilities that something like Ingenuity could add to future missions, such as aerial scouting.Ingenuity, a technology demonstration, still has another week to conduct two more flights before the 31-day mission comes to an end.

任务小组认为这些图像展示了一些有用的能力，而像“独创号”这样的直升飞机可以在未来的任务中将这些能力，比如空中探测加进来。在为期31天的使命结束之前，“独创号”，作为一项技术展示，还有一周的时间再进行2次飞行。

 

"Even though we are conducting our flight tests in a tenuous atmosphere over 180 million miles (290 million kilometers) from Earth, we model our methodical approach to experimental flight on the Wright brothers' approach," Grip wrote. "Our plan from Day One has been to prepare like crazy, fly, analyze the data (like crazy), and then plan for an even bolder test in the next flight."

“尽管我们在离地球1.8亿英尺（2.9亿公里）的稀薄大气中进行飞行测试，我们采用了怀特兄弟的办法将方法运用到试验飞行中”，Grip写道。“从第一天开始，我们的计划就是尽力准备，拼命分析数据，然后计划在下一次飞行中进行更加大胆的测试。”

 

The fourth flight will likely occur within a few days.

第四次飞行将很快在未来几天内展开。

 

来源：CNN     编辑与整理：译锐翻译Susan