美国宇航局NASA与失联太空13年的卫星重新取得联系 [美国媒体]

NASA makes contact with satellite lost in space 13 years ago

美国宇航局NASA与失联太空13年的卫星重新取得联系



Proving that things tend to turn up when you least expect them, NASA has just rediscovered a satellite it lost in space more than a decade ago. The Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) was launched in 2000 to create the first comprehensive images of atmospheric plasma.

NASA最近重新发现了失联太空十多年的一颗卫星，这真是应了那句话：柳暗花明又一村啊！这颗“磁层顶到极光全球探测成像仪”(IMAGE) 卫星,于2002年发射升空，创建了第一个大气等离子体综合图像。

 It completed its initial mission in 2002, but failed to make contact again on a routine pass by the Earth in 2005. Scientists hoped an eclipse in 2007 would kickstart a reboot, but when it didn't the mission was declared over, and IMAGE was expected to spend the rest of its days floating peacefully through the universe. Earlier this month, however, an amateur astronomer spotted it in the skies.

它于2002年完成了初始任务，但是在2005年它绕经地球的常规过程中，NASA却未能再次与其取得联系。科学家们希望2007年的日食将重新启动卫星，但是当它没有重启之后，任务便宣告结束。IMAGE卫星剩余的时间应该会安静地漂浮在宇宙中。然而，在本月早些时候，一位业余天文学家在天空中发现了它。

It's taken NASA a couple of weeks to confirm that the mysterious observation was indeed IMAGE, because the types of hardware and operating systems used in the satellite no longer exist. Other systems have been updated several versions beyond what they were at the time, requiring significant reverse-engineering. But after some tinkering, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab in Laurel, Maryland, successfully collected telemetry data from the satellite, confirming its ID. The team will now spend the coming weeks analyzing data from the satellite to learn more about the state of the spacecraft, and maybe a little about what it's been up to all these years.

NASA花了几个星期的时间来确认这一神秘的观测结果确实为IMAGE卫星，因为卫星中使用的硬件和操作系统类型已经不复存在。相比IMAGE卫星使用的系统，其它的系统已经更新好几个版本了，这需要大量的逆向开发工作。但经过一些修修补补之后，位于美国马里兰州劳雷尔市的约翰霍普金斯应用物理实验室从卫星上成功地收集到遥感勘测数据，确认了它的身份。接下来该实验室将花费数周的时间分析卫星的数据，以了解更多卫星相关情况，也许还可以知道这些年来它发生了什么事情。

注释：the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab约翰霍普金斯大学应用物理实验室，是一个非营利性的研究和开发中心，同时也是世界一流研究型私立大学约翰·霍普金斯大学的一个下属机构。该实验室主要从事民用和军用太空计划研究，包括导弹、防空及对国家安全的分析等。


Mark
Give that amateur astronomer a reward!

给那个业余天文学家一个赞！

Alan
Didn't they have an old Windows 98 machine in the back of a closet like I do?

他们没有跟我一样在壁橱后面还有一台旧的Windows 98电脑吗？

The Wrath of Khan
The message it sent back was "We are the Borg. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile.”

它传回来的信息是“我们是博格人。我们将吸收你们种族的生物和技术独特性。你们的文化将会习惯为我们服务。抵抗是徒劳的。”

注释：Borg博格人，是《星际迷航》种虚构的一个宇宙种族，星际迷航系列中最大的反派。

EarMode
I'm sure when they made contact tack it replied with: your system requires 5,000 updates. Do you wish to continue: y/n

我敢肯定，当他们与卫星取得联系时，卫星会回复说：你的系统需要5000更新。您希望继续吗？是或者否？


The Man
I bet the satellite has spent its years in hiding evolving into a higher dimensional being like V-GER from Star Trek.
我敢打赌，那颗卫星之前肯定已经悄悄演变成一个更高维度的存有，就像星际迷航里的威者一样。

Chris A
Ok, these satellites work for decades in SPACE. Why can't I get an electronic device to work for more than a YEAR here on earth? Sooooo shaking my head!!!

好吧，这些卫星能在太空中工作几十年。那为什么我在地球上找不到能用超过一年的电子设备呢？我狂摇头！！！

Dont Be A Tool!
Well, that really didn’t say a whole lot except they found it!

嗯，除了说找到了卫星，他们真的没有透露全部的信息！

Anonymous
Is takes a while to extrapolate the data, and then to see if there was anything unexpected in it, which I doubt.

推断数据是需要一段时间的，到时候再看看有没有什么意想不到的发现，正如我怀疑的那样。

Flounder 111
This article really should be about the astronomer that discovered it. The satellite is LITERALLY worth hundreds of millions of dollars. And the story of how he found it is far more interesting than what NASA has to say about it now, because they are still in "cover your *** " for not being able to find something this important even with all their tremendous resources.

这篇文章应该说说发现这颗卫星的那个天文学家。毕竟这颗卫星实际上价值数亿美元。而且他发现它的故事比NASA现在所说的要有趣得多，因为他们仍然在隐瞒你什么，不然他们拥有巨大的资源，不会找不到这个重要的东西。

TomS
What equipment did he have to find the satellite? Wow. Quite an achievement.

他需要什么样的设备才能找到卫星？天呐，真是相当伟大了。

Tomcat45
made in america

美国制造的

Bucky
Great story AND nice to read something that hasn't anything to do with Trump

伟大的故事，还有，很高兴读到一些与特朗普无关的东西。

MarkF
After reading this article of how after 13 years they were able to locate this satellite, I have renewed hope we will find Hillary's 30,000 missing emails.
在读完这篇文章之后，卫星13年了还可以找到，我又重燃了希望，我们会找到希拉里丢失的那3万封邮件的。

注释：希拉里邮件门指美国前国务卿、民主党潜在总统候选人希拉里·克林顿被曝担任国务卿期间使用私人电子邮箱、而非官方电子邮箱与他人通信，涉嫌违反美国《联邦档案法》。2015年3月，希拉里承认在任职国务卿期间使用私人邮箱处理约6万封邮件，其中3万封因涉及私人生活已被其团队删除。