Despite the fact that we've been sending humans into space consistently for over half a century, space travel remains super dangerous.
虽然过去50多年来,我们一直在将人类送往太空,但太空旅行的危险度依然很高。
I mean, you're getting a ride from some very powerful and very controlled explosions.
毕竟人类升空是要靠强有力的控制爆破才能实现的。
And we were reminded of that danger last week, when a scheduled launch of the Soyuz rocket to the International Space Station had to be aborted mid-flight.
上周发生的事又一次提醒我们这件事的危险度——本来计划将联盟号发射到国际空间站,但中途就不得不终止飞行。
Luckily, astronaut Nick Hague and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin are safe and sound back on Earth.
所幸,宇航员尼克·海格和宇航员阿列克谢安然无恙返回地球。
But now we have to figure out exactly what went wrong before anyone else can go, which threatens ISS operations.
但现在,我们必须搞清楚哪里出了问题,然后才能再次发射人类升空,因为这样的安全问题会影响我们在国际空间站执行任务。
While there have been some upgrades made over the years, the Russian Soyuz rocket family is virtually unchanged from the late 1960s;
虽然过去这些年间有过一些提升,但俄罗斯的联盟号家族自上世纪60年代起就几乎没有什么变化:
a small capsule sits atop a 50-meter-tall rocket.
一直都是一个小型太空舱置于一个50米高的火箭上方。
At its base, that rocket is surrounded by four booster rockets to give the entire mass the necessary oomph when it's first taking off.
其底座部分被4个助推器裹住,这样火箭整体在起飞之初才能获得必要的动力。
And right now, it's the only way we have of sending humans to space.
现在,这是我们将人类送往太空的唯一一种方法。
Two minutes after liftoff, those extra boosters are supposed to break off from the central rocket.
起飞后的2分钟,额外的助推器会从中央火箭上脱落下来。
But on October 11, it looks like something went wrong with that process.
但10月11日的时候,这个流程似乎出了什么问题。
Instead of continuing their climb with the new push of the central engine, the astronauts cited feeling weightless.
在中央引擎的最新推力下,火箭不但没有上升,宇航员反而感觉到了失重。
They were suddenly in free fall.
突然直接就开始自由下落。
Shortly thereafter, the computer automatically triggered a launch abort.
随后不久,计算机就自动启动了发射失败的信号。
The crew capsule separated from the rocket and fell back to Earth, where it landed safely.
乘员所在的太空舱跟火箭脱离,向地球方向跌落,并安全着陆。
Albeit in the middle of nowhere, but they did find them.
虽然还茫然不知所措,但还是找到了着陆点。
Now all crewed launches are on hold while Russia's space agency Roscosmos investigates exactly what went wrong.
现在,所有载人发射都暂停了,因为俄罗斯太空总署(Roscosmos)还在调查哪里出了问题。
But that is not good news for the three crew members currently living on the ISS.
但这对于现在正生活在国际空间站的3名宇航员来说并不是好消息。
They were scheduled to return to the Earth in December, with a new team of three joining Hague and Ovchinin on the station and continuing operations and experiments.
他们预定于12月返回地球,然后3名新队员加入尼克·海格和阿列克谢的队伍进入国际空间站,继续执行任务并做实验。
Now their missions will either have to be extended, or they'll have to abandon the station in the Soyuz capsule currently docked.
现在,他们的任务要么延期,要么就要放弃现在已经对接的联盟号太空舱。
Even though the crew has plenty of provisions, the fuel in that lifepod is only cleared to last until January.
虽然宇航员还有很多的补给,但储备的燃料只能坚持到1月份。
If the order is made to abandon the ISS, it will be the first time since 2000 that we haven't had a single person living there.
如果下命令放弃这个空间站的话,这将会是2000年以来该空间站首次无人。
Now, it's not like the ISS is gonna fall out of the sky if there are no people on it, but we won't be able to do any maintenance.
现在,虽然该空间站不会因为没有人在而消亡,但我们还是要做一些维护工作的。
Already, the spacewalk Hague and Ovchinin had trained for, to replace the batteries on the station's solar panels, was cancelled.
两位宇航员通过培训习得的太恐怖也被取消了,而太空步本来是可以替换空间站太阳电池板的电池的。
For now, Roscosmos plans to try the launch again in the spring of 2019.
目前,俄罗斯太空总署计划于2019年春天再次尝试发射。
With an additional report coming out in the next few days, hopefully we will hear some good news.
未来几天,新报告将面世,希望那时候我们能听到一些好消息。
But unfortunately, this is not the only failure space missions have suffered this month.
但不幸的是,上述事件并非本月空间任务所遭遇的唯一一次失败。
Less than a week before the failed Soyuz launch, NASA saw two of its space-based telescopes perform emergency shutdowns.
在联盟号失败之前不到一周的时间里,美国宇航局的2架空基望远镜发生了紧急关闭。
On October 5th, the Hubble Space Telescope suffered a mechanical failure, and only 5 days later, the Chandra X-ray Observatory got a bad data reading that interfered with its momentum sensor.
10月5日,哈勃太空望远镜发生了机械故障。而仅5天后,钱德拉X射线天文台错误的数据存储也影响到了动力传感器。
Because they're a bit too out of the way to send any technicians, all of our space-faring technology has programming that instructs them to enter a safe mode when they detect something wrong.
因为它们离得太远,无法发给技术人员,所以,所有宇宙飞行的技术都进行了编程,会指引它们在发现情况有异之后就进入安全模式。
They lock themselves into a safe position, including pointing their mirrors away from the Sun and their solar panels toward it, and switch over to backup hardware.
它们将自己锁定在了安全的位置,比如,让镜片远离太阳,让太阳能电池板贴近太阳,并转向备份硬件。
It happens more often than you might think.
其发生的频率比我们想象得要高。
For example, the infrared Spitzer telescope automatically entered safe mode back in 2006, and the Dawn spacecraft has done it at least twice - once in 2011, and again in 2014.
比如,2006年的时候,红外线的史匹哲太空望远镜可以自动进入安全模式;黎明号已经至少2次成功进入安全模式了——一次在2011年,一次在2014年。
It's just weird that two events happened so close to one another, and to a failed rocket launch.
奇怪的是:两次事件发生的间距很近,跟失败的火箭发射也很近。
In Hubble's case, it comes down to the failure of one of its gyroscopes, which allows us to precisely orient the telescope.
在用哈勃观测的那次,失败的原因是:其中一个陀螺仪发生了故障。而该陀螺仪的作用就是让我们可以准确定位望远镜。
During the last crewed service mission in 2009, astronauts installed 6 new gyroscopes, but with the most recent breakdown, there are only three that still work.
上一次载人航天是在2009年,几名宇航员安装了6个新的陀螺仪。但在最近发生一次故障后,能运转的陀螺仪只剩下3个了。
Hubble only runs on three at a time, though, and the gyroscopes are going to break down over time.
哈勃每次只能在3个陀螺仪上运转,而随着时间的流逝,陀螺仪会发生损坏。
This most recent one was in its death throes for the past year.
最近的一次是是去年的垂死挣扎。
And if necessary, it is perfectly capable of running on just one.
有必要的话,完全可以实现仅在一个陀螺仪上运转。
So this mechanical failure isn't the end of the world; it's not even the end of Hubble.
所以这种机械故障不会导致世界默认,甚至不会导致哈勃停机。
Unfortunately, when we tried to switch Hubble over to its final backup gyro, the craft kept reporting that it was rotating 100 times faster than it actually was.
不幸的是,当我们试图将哈勃转向最后一个备份陀螺仪的时候,陀螺仪一直显示报告称:其旋转速度是以前的100倍。
Strangely, it's only the baseline rate that's off.
这就很奇怪了,因为当时的速度只是基线速度而已。
It is accurately reporting any changes in speed.
而且,实际上,速度也没发生任何改变。
But it's enough of a problem that we can't use Hubble at the moment.
但它既然导致哈勃当前无法使用,那也就不是一个小问题了。
Chandra also had a gyroscope problem, although it seems to have just been a temporary glitch.
钱德拉X射线天文台的陀螺仪也发生了问题,虽然看起来只是一个临时性故障。
For three seconds, the gyroscope sent bad data that made the computer think it was moving faster than it was.
有那么3秒钟的时间里,该陀螺仪发送了错误的数据,导致计算机以为自己的转速比平时要快。
The telescope seems to be back to normal now, but mission scientists plan to keep an eye on that gyroscope for a while.
钱德拉X射线天文台的望远镜现在似乎已经恢复正常了,但负责该任务的科学家还是准备继续盯着陀螺仪一阵子。
These satellite failures are really just a sign of NASA's ageing soldiers in the battle to study the universe.
这些卫星发生的故障只能表明美国宇航局的一些“战士们”已经老矣,不能继续为研究宇宙做贡献了。
Chandra was launched in 1999, and Hubble in 1990.
钱德拉X射线天文台是1999年发射的,哈勃是1990年发射的。
Still, both telescopes are doing some amazing and great science up there, so here's hoping we get at least a few more years out of them.
虽然年头很久了,但这两个望远镜还是做出了令人叹为观止的科学成就,所以我们还是希望他们能再坚持几年。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News!
感谢收看本期的《太空科学秀》!
Guess what? You are all invited to a livestream extravaganza!
本期有惊喜哦!大家可以实况观看我们的节目了!
This Monday, October 22nd, we are having an eight-hour-long livestream, during which we will encourage people to join our Patreon,
10月22日,也就是本周一,我们将进行长达8小时的实况播出。播出期间,我们会鼓励大家加入我们的粉丝团。
and we will maybe explode some pumpkins and do trivia and experiments, and have a spooky science hour, and lots of other fun things.
现场可能还会突现南瓜,我们还能做一些其他的东西和实验,在体验科学充盈的同时做一些快乐的事情。
Trust me, we have plans. Shenanigans begin at 1pm Eastern, over on the main SciShow channel.
相信我,我们是有备而来!美国东部时间下午1点,惊喜连连,尽在《太空科学秀》。
Mark your calendars. We'll see you there!
记得日子哦,不见不散!