NASA与旅行者号重新建立联系，这是历史上服役时间最长的任务。
📖 逐句对照翻译
NASA has once again reconnected with its Voyager spacecraft, marking a continuation of the American space agency’s longest mission in history.
NASA再次与其旅行者号探测器建立了联系，这标志着美国航天局历史上最长任务的延续。
The two spacecraft – Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 – launched within weeks of each other in 1977.
这两艘航天器——旅行者1号和旅行者2号——于1977年相隔数周先后发射升空。
So they have been operating for more than 47 years.
因此，他们已经运营了超过47年。
NASA officials have reported several difficulties with the spacecraft in recent years, mainly communication issues.
NASA官员近年来报告了该航天器的几项困难，主要是通信问题。
The most recent problems involved the Voyager 1 spacecraft.
最近的问题涉及旅行者1号探测器。
NASA said in a statement in April it had remained out of touch with the spacecraft for the previous five months.
美国国家航空航天局在4月的一份声明中表示，在过去的五个月里，他们一直与该航天器失去联系。
Agency officials said they later learned the problem was linked to a chip inside one of Voyager 1’s onboard computers.
机构官员表示，他们后来得知问题与“旅行者1号”上一台机载计算机内的芯片有关。
The issue made data being sent by the spacecraft unreadable.
这个问题导致航天器发送的数据无法读取。
NASA said its engineers were able to fix that problem by making changes to how the spacecraft stores and reads data.
美国宇航局表示，其工程师通过改变航天器存储和读取数据的方式解决了这个问题。
Then, in October, NASA reported another communication issue that resulted in a brief delay in receiving data from Voyager 1.
随后，在10月，美国宇航局报告了另一起通信问题，导致接收旅行者1号数据短暂延迟。
That problem turned out to be linked to the spacecraft’s radio transmitter system.
结果发现，这个问题与航天器的无线电发射系统有关。
The agency said that, for some reason, Voyager 1’s fault protection system was activated when NASA sent a command for the spacecraft to turn on one of its heaters.
该机构表示，出于某种原因，当NASA向“旅行者1号”发送指令，要求其开启其中一个加热器时，探测器的故障保护系统被激活了。
This activation – meant to save power – led Voyager 1 to start sending signals to a different radio transmitter system than it normally uses.
这一旨在节省电力的激活操作，导致旅行者1号开始向不同于其通常使用的无线电发射器系统发送信号。
This meant NASA had to listen for the signals on the S-band instead of the usual X-band.
这意味着NASA不得不监听S波段的信号，而不是通常的X波段。
Once they did this, they were able to start receiving data again.
一旦他们这样做了，就能够再次开始接收数据。
NASA has said the S-band is much weaker than the X-band, so engineers were seeking to get the X-band radio communication system back online for long-term use.
NASA表示，S波段的信号比X波段弱得多，因此工程师们正设法让X波段无线电通信系统恢复运行，以供长期使用。
NASA said the agency had not used the S-band since 1981.
美国宇航局表示，该机构自1981年以来就没有使用过S波段。
Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 are NASA’s most distant operating spacecraft.
旅行者1号和旅行者2号是NASA运行距离最远的航天器。
The agency has reported Voyager 1 is exploring space from about 24 billion kilometers from Earth, while Voyager 2 is operating from about 20.5 billion kilometers away.
该机构报告称，旅行者1号正在距地球约240亿公里处探索太空，而旅行者2号则在约205亿公里外运行。
Because of this great distance, NASA says its communication with the two Voyagers takes about one day to receive data, and another day to send information back from Earth.
由于距离如此遥远，美国宇航局表示，与两艘旅行者号探测器的通信大约需要一天时间才能接收到数据，而地球发送信息回传则需要再过一天。
The two Voyagers were first designed to explore Jupiter and Saturn.
两艘旅行者号最初的设计目的是探索木星和土星。
Both spacecraft successfully carried out studies of those planets.
两艘航天器都成功地对那些行星进行了研究。
Later, Voyager 2 made the first-ever close observations of Uranus and Neptune in 1989.
后来，旅行者2号在1989年首次对天王星和海王星进行了近距离观测。
The two spacecraft then began a new mission to explore distant areas of space.
随后，这两个航天器开始了探索遥远太空区域的新任务。
In 2013, NASA announced Voyager 1 had crossed over the border dividing our solar system from interstellar space.
2013年，美国宇航局宣布旅行者1号已经越过了将我们的太阳系与星际空间分隔开的边界。
The term “interstellar” means “between stars.”
“星际”一词的意思是“恒星之间”。
Scientists say interstellar space begins where the sun's continuous flow of particles and its magnetic field stop.
科学家表示，星际空间始于太阳持续不断的粒子流及其磁场终止之处。
Voyager 2 first entered interstellar space in 2018.
旅行者2号于2018年首次进入星际空间。
NASA said the spacecraft was more than 17.7 billion kilometers from the sun at the time.
美国宇航局表示，当时该航天器距离太阳超过177亿公里。
Both Voyagers are the only spacecraft so far to explore interstellar space.
迄今为止，只有两艘旅行者号航天器探索过星际空间。
The space agency says the Voyagers are studying how the interstellar medium interacts with the solar wind.
航天局表示，旅行者号正在研究星际介质如何与太阳风相互作用。
Solar wind is the continuous flow of charged particles released by the sun.
太阳风是太阳释放的带电粒子的连续流。
The spacecraft have also provided data on the heliosphere, a kind of protective bubble around our solar system.
这些航天器还提供了关于日光层的数据，日光层是围绕我们太阳系的一种保护性气泡。
Suzanne Dodd is the current project manager for the Voyager mission at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.
苏珊娜·多德是加州美国宇航局喷气推进实验室旅行者号任务的现任项目经理。
She recently said in a statement the agency has no plans to retire the two Voyagers as long as they are communicating with mission members back on Earth.
她最近在一份声明中表示，只要这两艘旅行者号探测器仍能与地球上的任务成员保持通信，该机构就没有让它们退役的计划。
Dodd said the spacecraft are currently centered on observing how interstellar space and the heliosphere interact with each other.
多德表示，这些航天器目前的核心任务是观测星际空间与日光层如何相互作用。
"We wouldn't be doing Voyager if it wasn't taking science data," she added.
她补充说：“如果不采集科学数据，我们就不会进行‘旅行者’号计划。”
Dodd noted one reason the Voyagers have been operating for so long is that the engineers who built them provided multiple backup systems to avoid future problems.
多德指出，“旅行者”号之所以能运行如此之久，一个原因是建造它们的工程师提供了多重备份系统，以避免未来出现问题。
She said some who worked on Voyager in its earliest days have even come back from retirement to pass on knowledge to the next generation of scientists and engineers.
她说，一些在“旅行者号”项目早期工作过的人甚至已经退休后重返岗位，将知识传授给下一代科学家和工程师。
"From where I sit as a project manager, it's really very exciting to see young engineers be excited to work on Voyager,” Dodd said. “To take on the challenges of an old mission and to work side by side with some of the masters, the people that built the spacecraft – they want to learn from each other."
多德说：“作为一名项目经理，从我的角度来看，看到年轻工程师们对参与旅行者号项目充满热情，真是令人非常兴奋。他们迎接一项老旧任务的挑战，与一些大师级人物——那些建造了航天器的人——并肩工作，他们希望相互学习。”
I’m Bryan Lynn.
我是布莱恩·林恩。
Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA.
布莱恩·林恩根据美国宇航局的报道为VOA学英语撰写了这篇报道。
