On this day in space! Aug. 6, 2012: NASA lands huge Curiosity rover on Mars with a rocket-powered sky crane

太空史上的这一天！2012 年 8 月 6 日：美国国家航空航天局借助火箭动力空中起重机，将大型 “好奇号” 火星车成功着陆火星

On Aug. 6, 2012, NASA's Curiosity rover successfully touched down on the Martian surface.

2012 年 8 月 6 日，美国国家航空航天局的 “好奇号” 火星车成功登陆火星表面。

At the time, the Curiosity rover was the biggest and most ambitious Mars rover that NASA ever launched. Its landing involved a new kind of maneuver that had never been tried before using something called a "sky crane." Like previous rovers that have landed on Mars, Curiosity used a parachute and rocket engines to slow down as it descended through the Red Planet's atmosphere.

当时，“好奇号” 火星车是美国国家航空航天局发射过的体积最大、研发目标最宏大的火星车。它的着陆采用了一套前所未有的全新操作方案，依靠一种名为 “空中起重机” 的装置实现。和此前登陆火星的火星车一样，好奇号在穿过这颗红色星球大气层下降的过程中，使用降落伞与火箭发动机减速。

But while other rovers used airbags to cushion the last part of the fall, Curiosity's rocket-propelled sky crane hovered over the ground and gently lowered it with cables. Touchdown was confirmed at 1:31 a.m. EDT (0531 GMT), though it was 10:31 p.m. PDT on Aug. 5 at Curiosity's JPL control room.

但其他火星车依靠气囊缓冲着陆最后阶段的坠落冲击，而好奇号采用火箭驱动的空中起重机在地面上方悬停，通过缆绳将火星车缓缓下放。美国东部时间凌晨 1 点 31 分（格林尼治标准时间 05:31）确认着陆成功；而在喷气推进实验室（JPL）的好奇号控制室，当地太平洋时间还是 8 月 5 日晚 10 点 31 分。

15 Amazing Mars Photos by NASA's Curiosity Rover

美国国家航空航天局 “好奇号” 火星车拍摄的 15 张惊艳火星照片

The Curiosity Mars rover was built by engineers and scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The space center's motto is ambitious: "Dare Mighty Things." With Curiosity, JPL may have dared more mightily than it ever had before.

“好奇号” 火星车由美国加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳市美国国家航空航天局喷气推进实验室的工程师与科学家研制。该航天中心的座右铭极具气魄：**“敢为非凡之事（Dare Mighty Things）”**。凭借好奇号项目，喷气推进实验室完成了前所未有的大胆挑战。

First, there's the rover's immense size. It weighs nearly 1 ton on Earth and is the size of a small car. It's powered by a nuclear battery and was the first of a new family of massive rovers to land on Mars. The sky crane landing approach was a big departure from the direct touchdowns of the Viking landers, as well as the bouncy airbag landings of the Mars Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity missions.

首先是这辆火星车巨大的体型。它在地球上重近一吨，大小相当于一辆小型轿车。它依靠核电池供电，也是新一代大型火星车家族中首台登陆火星的探测器。空中起重机着陆方案与海盗号着陆器的直接着陆方式、以及火星探路者号、勇气号和机遇号任务所采用的气囊弹跳着陆方式有着很大区别。

It all had to go right autonomously during a time NASA called the "7 minutes of terror" — the time it took for the landing, which would happen faster than the rover could get instructions from flight controllers on Earth due to the signal travel time to reach Mars. And it all worked spectacularly.

整个着陆过程必须全自动完成，NASA 将这一阶段称为**“恐怖七分钟”**。受地火之间的信号传输时延限制，着陆全程耗时很短，快到火星车来不及接收地球地面控制人员发来的指令。而整套流程最终取得了圆满成功。

Curiosity not only aced its landing at Gale Crater on Mars, but it changed Mars landings forever. NASA repeated the feat nine years later with the successful landing of the Perseverance rover at Jezero Crater on Mars in February 2021. Curiosity and Perseverance are the largest rovers ever to explore Mars and set a new benchmark for what is possible on other planets.

好奇号不仅在火星盖尔撞击坑完美完成着陆，还永久改写了火星着陆技术的发展格局。九年后，美国国家航空航天局复刻了这一壮举：2021 年 2 月，毅力号火星车在火星耶泽罗撞击坑成功着陆。好奇号与毅力号是迄今为止探索火星的体积最大的两台火星车，它们为地外行星探测树立了全新标杆。

As of this writing, Curiosity has spent 14 years exploring Mars, drilling into rocks and finding new clues about water on Mars and the planet's potential habitability in the ancient past. It's still going strong, even if it got a rock stuck on its drill for a few days earlier this year.

撰写本文时，好奇号已经在火星上开展了 14 年探测工作。它钻探岩石，不断发掘新线索，助力研究火星上的水以及这颗星球在远古时期潜在的宜居性。尽管今年早些时候它的钻头曾被一块岩石卡住数日，但至今依然运转良好。

Want more space history? Check out our full On This Day In Space Story archive and watch our On This Day In Space videos on YouTube.

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