長距離飛行背后的遠征

當然，我們需要做大量準備工作，比如確定我們打算解決哪些科學問題，裝載哪些儀器，以及如何在幾十年時間里有效地操控探測器并與之通信。“新視野號”于九年半前發(fā)射，但我們的工作并未就此結束。在地球上，我們要做的事還有很多。

雖然聽起來可能有些不可思議，但這個項目自始至終都令人激動。科學團隊的會議總是既有趣又活潑，我們的每次會談都和對冥王星的大膽想象交織在一起。甚至在無數次的電話會議上，大家也經常妙語迭出。

“新視野號”已經繼續(xù)踏上征程，我的主要工作則是為冥王星大氣層建立計算機模型，以幫助我們理解最終的觀測結果。這比我預想的要難得多。此前我們從未見過冥王星這樣的行星大氣層，氣體以超音速“逃離”這樣一個冰冷星球是一種全新的情景。隨著更多觀測結果出爐，這項挑戰(zhàn)變得越來越復雜。

The long haul behind a long-haul mission

Of course we had to do tons of prep work — deciding what scientific questions we’d try to tackle, which instruments to include, how to effectively steer and communicate with the probe over decades. And our work didn’t end with the launch nine-and-a-half years ago — there was still plenty left for us to do here on Earth.

Maybe it’s surprising, but this project has been exciting all the way through. The science team meetings were always interesting and animated, and at every step our conversations were laced with wild speculation about Pluto. Even the zillions of teleconferences usually had doses of humor sprinkled throughout.

While New Horizons was plugging away on its journey, my work mostly consisted of trying to prepare computer models of Pluto’s atmosphere to help us understand our eventual observations. This was much more difficult that I had thought it would be. We’d never encountered a planetary atmosphere like Pluto’s: gases escaping at supersonic speeds from such a frigid planet are a completely new situation. And that challenge continues to complicate interpreting the observations that are rolling in right now.

破解冥王星密碼

冥王星的神秘感似乎一直有增無減，甚至是在“新視野號”發(fā)射后。除了已知的大型衛(wèi)星冥衛(wèi)一外，人們又發(fā)現了兩顆衛(wèi)星，隨后又是兩顆！神秘的冥王星引起了人們的興趣，每個新發(fā)現似乎都讓人們更好奇。2006年國際天文學聯合會將冥王星從行星降級為矮行星，這似乎進一步激起了人們的興趣。圍繞冥王星等級的政治爭吵、詭異發(fā)現以及“新視野號”的漫漫征途讓公眾對我們這個項目更感興趣，也更為支持，這也激勵了我們的團隊。

以這樣的方式創(chuàng)造歷史一輩子確實只有一次。在了解冥王星的過程中，“新視野號”項目是人們邁出的最大一步，今后幾十年里人們都會這么看，而我則是這個項目的一份子，每念及此我都非常滿足。

我寫下這些一天前，“新視野號”和冥王星相會；現在，它發(fā)回的信息讓我們驚嘆不已！新的發(fā)現接踵而至。我們要用好幾年的時間來研究并理解這些嶄新的數據。同時，“新視野號”團隊的任務遠未結束。我們將繼續(xù)協(xié)作，為“新視野號”制定新的任務，那就是飛掠另一個冰雪覆蓋的矮行星，目前姑且命名為PT1或PT3，希望我們能在2018年中期實現這個目標。（財富中文網）

本文作者麥克·薩默斯是喬治梅森大學行星科學和天文學教授。

本文為《財富》和《對話》雜志的合作內容，原文刊登在theconversation.com上。

譯者：Charlie

校對：詹妮

Cracking Pluto’s mysteries

Pluto’s intrigue seemed only to increase, even after we launched New Horizons, when two more moons were discovered in addition to its known large moon Charon. And later two more were discovered! People were drawn to Pluto’s mysteries and each new revelation seemed to captivate more of their interest. And the International Astronomical Union’s demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet status in 2006 seemed to make it even more interesting to the public. The political wrangling over Pluto’s status, the bizarre discoveries and New Horizons’ continuing quest worked via synergy to increase public interest in and support for our mission, which in turn energized the team.

This was truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be involved in such a history-making event. It’s gratifying to know that for decades to come, the New Horizons mission will be known as the endeavor that gave us our biggest leap forward in understanding Pluto, and that I was a part of it.

As I write, this it’s the day after the encounter. We are getting back results that are astonishing! Discoveries left and right. We’ll be working on understanding the brand new data for years. And this is nowhere near the end for the New Horizons team. We’ll stay together to plan an Extended Mission for New Horizons to fly by another dwarf ice planet — either the cryptically named PT1 or PT3 — hopefully in mid-2018.

Mike Summers is a Professor of Planetary Science and Astronomy at George Mason University.

This post is in partnership with The Conversation. The article below was originally published at theconversation.com.