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The vanguard of space exploration is the rover. Well, orbiters and landers too, but rovers are especially useful.
太空探索的先锋是探测器，当然也有人造卫星和着陆器，不过探测器的作用是极为特殊的。
They can rove around and do science for us on the ground! They sing happy birthday to themselves! They're just great.
探测器可以到处转悠，在外星表面做科学研究，他们还能为自己唱生日快乐歌！总之就是非常棒。
We've roved a bunch on the Moon and Mars, so we've got a lot of experience designing awesome science bots,
我们在月球和火星表面已经进行过相当范围的活动，所以在设计精良的科学工具方面，我们还是有很多经验的。
but as we expand our exploration to other bodies in the solar system, we've gotta make sure we have the right bot for the job.
但随着我们将探索的视野扩展到太阳系的其他星体时，就要确保所使用的探索工具是正确的。
This is part of why NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts program, or NIAC, exists.
这方面也是美国宇航局先进理念研究所(NIAC)致力的领域。
The program's goal is to develop creative technologies that can have applications for future missions,
该项目的目标是发展创新技术，应用于未来太空任务，
even though the original projects themselves may not make it to space.
不管之前的项目本身有没有实现进入太空的目标。
None of the rovers we're going to talk about today are slated to fly any time soon.
今天我们将要讨论的几个探测器都不会在短期内进入天空。
But they provide all kinds of creative solutions to the problem of navigating new terrain.
不过，他们还是为我们探索太空提供了各种创造性的解决方案。
Imagine, for instance, putting a Mars rover on Saturn's moon Titan.
比如，大家现在可以想象一下将火星探测器放在土卫六上的情况。
Titan is so cold that methane and ethane, which are usually gases on Earth, are liquids there.
土卫六温度极低，所以在地球上通常呈现为气态的甲烷和乙烷在土卫六上就以液态形式存在。
And it's got lots of methane and ethane, so it's super wet, with tons of lakes and rain made out of the stuff.
而土卫六上又有大量的甲烷和乙烷，所以土卫六湿度极高，其表面有许多湖泊，雨水充足，且成分就是甲烷和乙烷。
The Spirit rover got stuck in soft Martian soil in 2009, imagine what would happen to it on Titan!
2009年，勇气号探测器曾陷于柔软的火星土壤中，试想一下探测器到了土卫六上会怎样吧！
The Super Ball Bot is designed to solve that problem.
超级球形机器人设计的初衷就是解决这个问题。
The bot is a NIAC project developed by the engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in California.
该机器人是先进理念研究所的一个项目，由美国宇航局在加州艾姆斯研究中心(ARC)的工程师所研发。
And it's totally different from any rover we've ever deployed, it looks more like a space-age tumbleweed.
这款机器人与我们部署过的任何探测器都完全不同，因为它更像是太空里的风滚草。
It's made up of a network of springy bars that form a kind of sphere, with its science payload sitting in the middle.
这个机器人是由刚体杆构成的球体，这样有效载荷就可以集中于中部。
The bars give Super Ball Bot a property known as tensegrity in physics.
刚体杆让超级球形机器人具备了物理学上的张拉整体结构。
Tension elements like springs connect the more solid parts like bars in a way that give the machine its structural integrity.
像弹簧一样的张力结构将刚体杆这种坚固的东西联结起来，使这种机器人有了结构完整性。
Incorporating tensegrity into your design means you get a really rugged bot.
在设计中融入了张拉整体结构后，这款机器人探测器就十分结实了。
It can take lots of impact, distributing those impact forces to protect its payload.
它可以吸收冲击力，并将冲击力进行分散，以保护其有效载荷。
Super Ball Bot moves by rolling around, and can climb up and down hills easily.
超级球形机器人可以靠到处滚来移动，上下坡都是分分钟的事儿。
And because it's quasi-spherical and lightweight, it can distribute its mass over a large surface area, which helps keep it from getting stuck in the mud.
而且由于其形态类似于球形，质量又很轻，所以它能够将质量分散到表面各处，这样就不会深陷泥沼。
So it would be a great rover for a place like Titan, which is all kinds of hilly and muddy!
所以对于土卫六这种多山多泥沼的星球来说，超级球形机器人是极好的探测器。
Super Ball Bot seems to have wrapped up development in 2015, but now that we know a tumbling rover can work,
虽然2015年的时候，超级球形机器人就已经停止研发了，但既然我们知道有这么一种滚动型的探测器，
we could end up using the technology in future missions.
所以或许未来的太空任务里我们还能用到这种技术。
Titan isn't the only place in the solar system with weird weather, though. There's also Venus.
不过，土卫六并不是太阳系里唯一一个气候怪异的星球，同样怪异的还有金星。
The planet's atmosphere has crushingly high pressures, is made of acid, and can melt lead. So obviously we super want to go there.
金星大气层压强极高，其组成成分酸度极高，连铅都可以熔化，所以，显然，我们非常想去金星。
That's why researchers are working on the Automaton Rover for Extreme Environments, or AREE.
因此，很多研究人员都在研究极端环境自动探测车(AREE)。
It's another NIAC project, currently being developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, or JPL.
这是先进理念研究所的另一个项目，现在正在美国宇航局的喷气推进实验室进行研发。
Venus is such an extreme environment that the longest anything human-made has lasted there is 127 minutes, back in 1982.
金星的环境非常极端，所以1982年的测试结果显示，人造物体最多能在金星坚持127分钟。
Building a rover or lander that lasts more than a couple days would be a major achievement, mainly because computers do not like Venus.
如果可以建造出能在金星坚持几天的探测器或者着陆器的话，那就会是巨大的成功，其难度主要在于计算机不适应金星的环境，
They overheat super quickly. But what if we could minimize the computerized aspect of the rover?
因为在这样的环境里，计算机发热极快，但如果我们能将探测器电脑特性缩减到最小，会怎样呢？
Usually, computers control both the movement and the science, but what if they just controlled the science?
一般情况下，电脑既控制着移动情况，也控制着科学方面，但如果电脑只控制科学方面呢？
That's the concept behind AREE. The rover will have high-temperature computers on board to be its brain, but it'll rely on the environment to move it around.
这就是极端环境自动探测车背后的理念，这种探测器将以高温计算机作为其大脑，但它将依赖环境来移动。
AREE was inspired by an art exhibition that involved enormous wind-propelled machines.
建造极端环境自动探测车的灵感来自于一场艺术展览，这场展览里有各种风能驱动的机器。
It just happens to be that in this case, the wind will be on another planet.
对极端环境自动探测车也是同理，只不过这风是来自另一个星球了。
The design means that if we do end up launching AREE or a mission like it, we won't have a lot of control over where it goes after it lands.
这种设计就决定了：如果我们日后真的要进行极端环境自动探测车等类似的任务的话，我们对于探测车最终落向何处就没有那么大的控制权了。
But we've done so little surface exploration on Venus that we're basically guaranteed new, interesting data wherever we explore.
但我们在进行表面进行的探索工作还很少，所以探测车落在哪里，其所获取的数据都会是新的、十分有趣的。
Meanwhile, other researchers are working on rovers to explore other worlds below the surface.
与此同时，还有一些研究人员想通过探测器来探索其他星球表面以下的部分。
If we're going to send a rover to Jupiter's moon Europa, which we totally want to do, we're gonna need a robot that can handle a subsurface ocean.
我们非常想做的一件事就是将探测器发送到木卫二，倘若要实现这个想法，那我们就需要一种能可以次表层海洋的机器人。
Enter the Buoyant Rover for Under-Ice Exploration, or BRUIE.
而冰探探路车(BRUIE)就能做到这一点。
The rover would float up against the water-ice boundary on a frozen body of water, and use the ice as a kind of floor to move around.
这种探测车在一片零点的冰水里借助浮力来紧贴着冰/水界面，将冰面作为地面来进行移动。
This isn't a NIAC project, it's run by JPL's robotics branch.
这个探测器不是先进理念研究所的项目，而是由喷气推进实验室的机器人学分支项目开展的。
But the basic goal is the same: to explore a new, out-there idea to see if it could potentially work for future missions.
但基本目标是一致的：探索一个全新的、不同寻常的点子，看看是否可以用于未来的任务中。
The team has been testing BRUIE in lakes with methane seeps in Alaska.
该小组将冰探探路车在阿拉斯加州有甲烷渗出的多个冰湖中做了实验。
These are lakes that vent methane from their floors because of some underlying geological activity, kind of like the lake version of a deep sea vent.
这些湖之所以会从表面渗出甲烷是因为存在一些地质活动，就有点像深海烟囱，只不过这里把深海换成了湖。
For now, it looks like BRUIE's excursions are all about design testing, but even the test environments could teach us a lot.
现阶段，冰探探路车出使任务基本上都是设计测试，但即便是测试环境也能让我们得到很多信息。
Methane seeps in arctic lakes have complex communities of extremophiles, microbes that can survive in extreme environments.
北极湖泊之所以有甲烷渗出的现象是因为有许多复杂的极端微生物社群。极端微生物就是能在极端条件下生存的微生物。
So as BRUIE explores these lakes, we could learn a lot about some of the most unusual forms of life,
所以，通过冰探探路车对北极湖泊的探索，我们可以了解到一些最不同寻常的生命形式，
the type of life we might find on other worlds, if there's anything else out there.
而这些生命形式是我们有可能在其他星球找到的，如果它们确实存在的话。
And ultimately, that's the goal with all these futuristic mission concepts.
而这也是我们未来所有任务理念的目标。
Developing them is a risk, it's expensive, and there's no guarantee the technology will work.
研发探测器是有风险的，不仅代价高昂，而且也不保证一定能开花结果。
And even though Super Ball Bot, AREE, and BRUIE did work, they may never get to space.
而且虽然超级球形机器人、极端环境自动探测车和冰探探路车确实有用，也没能最终进入太空。
But it's what we learn in the process that's important.
但重要的是我们在这个过程中学到的东西。
Because someday we will send rovers to explore new worlds, and thanks to projects like these, we'll know exactly how to do it.
因为总有一天，我们会将探测器送出去探索新世界，而正是因为有了这样的项目，我们才知道具体应该怎么做。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space.
感谢收看本期的《太空科学秀》。
If you're interested in more of the considerations that go into planning rover missions,
如果您对探测器任务规划感兴趣的话，您可以看看查看我们的相关视频，
you might want to check out our video about why the rovers we send to Mars don't study water.
其中有讲到为何我们发送到火星的探测器并不研究火星上的水。
