探寻火星生命
If you're planning a trip to Mars, now is the time to go.
如果你想去火星旅行，现在可开始筹谋了。
For a month or so, Earth and Mars line up in a way that makes it possible to go from one to the other.
在大约一个月前，地球和火星排成了一条直线，使从星际旅行成为了可能。
Miss that window, and you have to wait two years for the next opportunity.
错过了这个机会的话，你就得等上两年才能等到下一个机会。
The United Arab Emirates, China and the United States all have missions scheduled for launch in July.
阿联酋、中国和美国都计划在7月发射飞船到火星去。
NASA's entry is a six-wheeled rover called Perseverance.
美国国家航空航天局的火星车是名为“毅力号”的六轮火星漫游者。
It's aiming for Jezero crater, a spot on Mars that scientists think was once a lake where microbes could have lived.
它的目标是杰泽罗陨石坑，这是火星上的一个地方，科学家认为这里曾经是一个湖泊，微生物可能曾在那里生活过。
Landing is set for Feb. 18, 2021.
登陆时间定为2021年2月18日。
Kathryn Stack Morgan is the mission's deputy project scientist.
凯瑟琳·斯戴克·摩根是这次任务的科学家副主任。
Other rover missions have seen signals of carbon that could have been left behind by microbial life, but, she says, "We haven't been able to necessarily link the presence of that carbon to a particular pattern of texture that we see in the rock that we think could have been left behind by life."
其他的漫游者任务已经看到了可能是微生物留下的碳的信号，但是她说，“我们还没能把这种碳的存在和我们在岩石中看到的特定纹理联系起来，我们认为这种纹理可能是生命留下的。”
Even if Perseverance detects carbon and sees a pattern in a rock that could have been left behind by life, the claim that there was once life on Mars would be extraordinary, and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
即使“毅力号”探测了到碳，并在岩石中发现了可能是生命留下的痕迹，火星上曾经有过生命的说法也会是不寻常的，而不寻常的说法需要不寻常的证据。
"Very likely, we'll have to return those samples to Earth to make that definitive conclusion about whether these samples contain life in them," Morgan says.
“很有可能，我们将不得不把这些样本带回地球，以确定这些样本中是否含有生命，”摩根说道。
Happily, that's just what Perseverance is designed to do.
令人高兴的是，这正是“毅力号”的目标。
It won't actually bring back the samples, but it will collect rock samples, put them in containers and seal the containers so a future mission can bring them back to Earth.
它实际上不会带回样本，但它会收集岩石样本，把它们放在容器里，然后密封容器，以便将来的任务可以把它们带回地球。
"Our sampling system was particularly challenging in that we also had to keep it very, very clean," says Matthew Wallace, the rover's deputy project manager.
“我们的采样系统特别具有挑战性，因为我们还必须保持它非常、非常干净，”漫游者的副项目经理马修·华莱士说。
"The reason we needed to do that is the science community is looking for trace signatures from billions of years ago.
“我们需要这样做的原因是，科学界正在寻找的是数十亿年前的痕迹。”
“Trace chemical signatures. ”
“追踪者化学印迹。”
“We don't want to confuse the search for those ancient signs of life [with material] we took with us to Mars and brought back."
“我们不想把寻找这些古老生命迹象的工作与我们带到火星并带回的材料混在一起。”
It's going to be a while before the samples get back to Earth.
这些样本要返回地球还需要一段时间。
If all goes well, it will happen in 2031.
如果一切顺利的话，也要2031年去了。
问题
文中提到了美国的火星车叫什么名字？
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