This illustration shows a simulated view of NASA’s InSight lander descending on its parachute toward the surface of Mars. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

这幅图显示了美国国家航空航天局洞察号InSight着陆器降落在火星表面的模拟视图，降落伞上朝。

图片来源:加州理工学院/美国宇航局/喷气推进实验室

On Nov. 26, NASA’s InSight spacecraft will blaze through the Martian atmosphere and attempt to set a lander gently on the surface of the Red Planet in less time than it takes to hard-boil an egg. InSight’s entry, descent and landing (EDL) team, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, along with another part of the team at Lockheed Martin Space in Denver, have pre-programmed the spacecraft to perform a specific sequence of activities to make this possible.

2018年11月26日，美国宇航局的“洞察”号宇宙飞船将在火星大气层中燃烧，并试图在比煮鸡蛋所需的时间更短的时间内，在火星表面轻轻地着陆。总部设在加利福尼亚州帕萨迪纳的美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的“洞察”号InSight的登陆、降落和着陆（EDL）任务小组，与另一部分在丹佛洛克希德·马丁太空团队的成员一起，已经以执行特定的任务序列对航天器进行了预编程，来实现上述目标。

The following is a list of expected milestones for the spacecraft, assuming all proceeds exactly as planned and engineers make no final changes the morning of landing day. Some milestones will be known quickly only if the experimental Mars Cube One (MarCO) spacecraft are providing a reliable communications relay from InSight back to Earth. The primary communications path for InSight engineering data during the landing process is through NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Mars Odyssey. Those data are expected to become available several hours after landing.

以下是航天器预期里程碑的时间表，假设所有进展都按计划进行，并且工程师在着陆这天的早晨没有做出最后变更的话。只有当实验火星立方体一号（MarCO）宇宙飞船提供从InSight到地球的可靠的中继通信时，一些里程碑式的事件才会很快为人们所知。在着陆过程中，“洞察”号工程数据的主要通信路径是通过美国宇航局的火星轨道侦察器”奥德赛”来传递。这些数据预计在着陆后几个小时就可以获得。

If all goes well, MarCO may take a few seconds to receive and format the data before sending it back to Earth at the speed of light. The one-way time for a signal to reach Earth from Mars is eight minutes and seven seconds on Nov. 26. Times listed below are in Earth Receive Time, or the time JPL Mission Control may receive the signals relating to these activities.

如果一切顺利，MarCO可能需要几秒钟的时间来接收和格式化数据，然后以光速发送回地球。11月26日，信号从火星到达地球的单程时间是8分7秒。下面列出的时间是在地球接收时间，或者JPL任务控制可以接收与这些活动有关的信号的时间。

• 11:40 a.m. PST (2:40 p.m. EST) – Separation from the cruise stage that carried the mission to Mars

• 上午11:40 太平洋时间（2:40点，美国东部时间）从巡航阶段分离，进入着陆火星的使命阶段。

   

• 11:41 a.m. PST (2:41 p.m. EST) – Turn to orient the spacecraft properly for atmospheric entry

• 上午11:40 太平洋时间（2:40点，美国东部时间）轨道变换，开始进入火星大气层。

   

• 11:47 a.m. PST (2:47 p.m. EST) – Atmospheric entry at about 12,300 mph (19,800 kph), beginning the entry, descent and landing phase

• 11:47 a.m. 太平洋时间（2:47点，美国东部时间）–进入火星大气层.速度为英里约12300英里/每小时（19800公里/每小时），开始登陆、降落和着陆（EDL）程序。

   

• 11:49 a.m. PST (2:49 p.m. EST) – Peak heating of the protective heat shield reaches about 2,700°F (about 1,500°C)

• 11:49 a.m. 太平洋时间 (2:49 p.m. 美国东部时间) –洞察号的热防护罩达到高温峰值，2700°f（约1500°c）

   

• 15 seconds later – Peak deceleration, with the intense heating causing possible temporary dropouts in radio signals

  15秒后，减速达到最大值，由于强烈的摩擦热量，无线电信号可能暂时中断；

   

• 11:51 a.m. PST (2:51 p.m. EST) – Parachute deployment

  11:51 a.m. 太平洋时间 (2:51 p.m. 美国东部时间)–降落伞展开

   

• 15 seconds later – Separation from the heat shield

  15秒后，热防护罩分离

   

• 10 seconds later – Deployment of the lander’s three legs

  10秒后，着陆器的的三条腿展开部署

   

• 11:52 a.m. PST (2:52 p.m. EST) – Activation of the radar that will sense the distance to the ground

  11:52 a.m. 太平洋时间 (2:52 p.m. 美国东部时间)，着陆雷达开机，侦测到地面的距离

   

• 11:53 a.m. PST (2:53 p.m. EST) – First acquisition of the radar signal

  11:53 a.m. 太平洋时间 (2:53 p.m. 美国东部时间) —第一次采集雷达信号

   

• 20 seconds later – Separation from the back shell and parachute

  20秒后，降落伞与着陆器的背壳分离。

   

• 0.5 second later – The retrorockets, or descent engines, begin firing

  0.5秒后的，着陆火箭系统发动机开始点火。

   

• 2.5 seconds later – Start of the “gravity turn” to get the lander into the proper orientation for landing

  2.5秒后，启动“重力转向”使着陆器进入正确的着陆方向

   

• 22 seconds later – InSight begins slowing to a constant velocity (from 17 mph to a constant 5 mph, or from 27 kph to 8 kph) for its soft landing

  22秒后，InSight开始减慢到恒定速度（从17英里/每小时减慢到恒定5英里/每小时，或者从27公里/每小时减慢到8公里/每小时），以实现软着陆。

   

• 11:54 a.m. PST (2:54 p.m. EST) – Expected touchdown on the surface of Mars

  11:54 a.m. 太平洋时间 (2:54 p.m. 美国东部时间)–预期的着陆在火星表面的时间。

   

• 12:01 p.m. PST (3:01 p.m. EST) – “Beep” from InSight’s X-band radio directly back to Earth, indicating InSight is alive and functioning on the surface of Mars

  12:01 p.m. 太平洋时间 (3:01 p.m. 美国东部时间)——“嘟”的一声将从“洞察”号的X波段无线电频道直接传回到地球，显示“洞察”号还活着，并且在火星表面开始工作了。

   

• No earlier than 12:04 p.m. PST (3:04 p.m. EST), but possibly the next day – First image from InSight on the surface of Mars

  不迟于太平洋时间时间11月27日下午12:04（美国东部时间下午3:04），但可能第二天——我们将收到来自火星表面InSight的第一张照片。

   

• No earlier than 5:35 p.m. PST (8:35 p.m. EST) – Confirmation from InSight via NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter that InSight’s solar arrays have deployed

不迟于太平洋时间时间11月27日下午5:35（美国东部时间晚上8:35）——通过NASA的”奥德赛”号火星轨道探测器确认InSight的太阳能板阵列已经展开部署。

//翻译转载自NASA官网