NASA's Orion spacecraft captured new images of the lunar surface.
Credit: NASA
美国宇航局的猎户座宇宙飞船捕捉到了月球表面的新图像。
来源:美国国家航空航天局
When a space rock slams into the moon, the impact crater often stays for billions of years, almost frozen in time.
当太空岩石撞击月球时，撞击坑通常会停留数十亿年，几乎冻结在时间中。
That's because, unlike Earth, our lunar satellite has no weather to wash away the collision, nor intense geologic activity to blanket the surface in new rock. NASA's new Orion spacecraft — which is currently orbiting the moon on a crucial, uncrewed mission to test the capsule's spaceflight abilities — recently captured detailed images of the moon's deeply cratered ground. The space agency released these pictures from the Artemis I mission on Nov. 23.
这是因为，与地球不同，我们的月球卫星没有大气层来缓冲碰撞，也没有强烈的地质活动来覆盖表面的新岩石。美国宇航局的新猎户座宇宙飞船目前正在绕月运行，执行一项关键的、无人驾驶的任务，以测试太空舱的太空飞行能力。最近，它捕捉到了月球坑洞很深的地面的详细图像。美国宇航局于11月23日公布了这些阿尔忒弥斯1号任务的照片。
NASA snapped the black and white images with the Orion capsule's optical navigation camera, which engineers are testing for future moon flights. "Orion uses the optical navigation camera to capture imagery of the Earth and the Moon at different phases and distances, providing an enhanced body of data to certify its effectiveness under different lighting conditions as a way to help orient the spacecraft on future missions with crew," NASA wrote online.
美国宇航局用猎户座太空舱的光学导航相机拍摄了这些黑白照片，工程师们正在为未来的月球飞行进行测试。美国宇航局在网上写道:“‘猎户座’使用光学导航相机捕捉地球和月球在不同相位和距离下的图像，提供了增强的数据体，以证明其在不同光照条件下的有效性，以帮助飞船在未来的任务中与宇航员确定方向。”
Orion captured some of these images from around 80 miles above the surface. Below are a few of the new pictures of the moon, a barren desert teeming with craters and hills. Crucially, NASA suspects some of the satellite's craters contain bounties of water ice — a necessary resource for future deep space missions.
猎户座在距离地表约80英里的地方捕捉到了其中一些图像。下面是几张月球的新照片，那是一片布满环形山和山丘的贫瘠沙漠。最重要的是，美国宇航局怀疑卫星的一些陨石坑含有大量的水冰，这是未来深空任务的必要资源。
NASA's Orion spacecraft captured new images of the lunar surface.
Credit: NASA
美国宇航局的猎户座宇宙飞船捕捉到了月球表面的新图像。
来源:美国国家航空航天局
As NASA's Orion spacecraft flew by the moon on the sixth day of its mission, it captured views of the deeply cratered lunar surface.
Credit: NASA
NASA的猎户座宇宙飞船在执行任务的第六天飞过月球时，捕捉到了月球表面坑坑洼洼的景象。
来源:美国国家航空航天局
Orion's view of the moon with the blackness of space behind it.
Credit: NASA
猎户座拍摄的月球，后面是黑暗的太空。来源:美国国家航空航天局
The Orion capsule, which will one day carry up to six astronauts, has some major benchmarks just ahead. On Friday evening, NASA will fire the spacecraft's engines and send it into an orbit (called "distant retrograde orbit") that will fling it some 50,000 miles beyond the moon. There, it will orbit the moon for over six days. Then Orion will again fire its engines to leave the moon's gravity and travel back to Earth.
“猎户座”太空舱未来将搭载6名宇航员，它的一些主要基准就在前方。周五晚上，美国宇航局将启动探测器的引擎，将其送入一个轨道(称为“远距离逆行轨道”)，将它抛到月球外约5万英里的地方。在那里，它将绕月球运行6天多。然后猎户座将再次启动引擎，脱离月球引力，返回地球。
The uncrewed spacecraft is expected to splash down into the Pacific Ocean, off of San Diego, on Dec. 11. If the mission proves successful, astronauts may fly aboard Orion as early as 2024. And though the timeline is ambitious and will likely be pushed back, astronauts may again step foot on the lunar surface as soon as 2025.
这艘无人驾驶的宇宙飞船预计将于12月11日坠入圣地亚哥附近的太平洋。如果任务成功，宇航员最早可能在2024年搭乘猎户座飞船。尽管这一时间表雄心勃勃，很可能会被推迟，但宇航员最早可能在2025年再次踏上月球表面。
This time, they'll be looking to establish a permanent presence on the resource-rich moon. NASA wants to stay.
这一次，他们将寻求在资源丰富的月球上建立永久的存在。NASA想留下来。