[新闻] 火星一地区以挑战者航天飞机51-L机组命名

NASA计划于本周末将机遇号火星车的着陆点Meridiani Planum命名为挑战者号纪念站，以纪念1986年挑战者航天飞机失事时遇难的51-L机组7名成员。
原文：
Glenn Mahone/Donald Savage  (202) 358-1898/1547
NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                    

DC Agle  (818) 393-9011
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

NEWS RELEASE: 2004-042                    January 28, 2004

Space Shuttle Challenger Crew Memorialized on Mars

NASA announced plans to name the landing site of the Mars Opportunity rover in honor of the Space Shuttle Challenger's final crew. The area in the vast flatland called Meridiani Planum, where Opportunity landed this weekend, will be called the Challenger Memorial Station.

The seven-member crew of Space Shuttle Challenger was lost when the orbiter suffered an in-flight breakup during launch Jan. 28, 1986, 18 years ago today.

NASA selected Meridiani Planum as a landing site because of extensive deposits of a mineral called crystalline hematite, which usually forms in the presence of liquid water. Scientists had hoped for a specific landing site where they could examine both the surface layer that's rich in hematite and an underlying geological feature of light-colored layered rock. The small crater in which Opportunity alighted appears to have exposures of both, with soil that could be the hematite unit and an exposed outcropping of the lighter rock layer.

Challenger's 10th flight was to have been a six-day mission dedicated to research and education, as well as the deployment of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B communications satellite.

Challenger's commander was Francis R. Scobee and the mission pilot was Michael J. Smith. Mission specialists included Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka and Ronald E. McNair. The mission also carried two payload specialists, Gregory B. Jarvis and
Sharon Christa McAuliffe, who was the agency's first teacher in space.

Opportunity successfully landed on Mars January 25 (Eastern and Universal Time; January 24 Pacific Time). It will spend the next three months exploring the region surrounding what is now known as Challenger Memorial Station to determine if Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life.

Opportunity's twin, Spirit, is trailblazing a similar path on the other side of the planet, in a Connecticut-sized feature called Gusev Crater.

A composite image depicting the location of the Challenger Memorial Station can be found on the Web at:

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/ ... ptions/image-1.html

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is a division of the California Institute of Technology, also in Pasadena.  JPL manages the Mars Exploration Rover mission for NASA's Office of Space Science in Washington, D.C.

Additional information about the project is available from NASA, JPL and Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., on the Internet at: http://www.nasa.gov/ ,
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov and http://athena.cornell.edu  .


-end-

1986年1月28日上午，美国航天飞机“挑战者”号从佛罗里达州卡纳维拉尔角肯尼迪航天中心的发射架上升空，73秒钟后突然爆炸，价值12亿美元的航天飞机被炸成碎片坠入大西洋，机长斯科比、美籍日本人鬼冢等7名机组人员全部遇难。37岁的中学女教师麦考利夫也
在其中，她是从11416位申请者中选拔出来的美国第一位参加航天飞行的普通公民。

1986年1月28日是寒冷的一天，在美国佛罗里达的卡那维拉尔角，比天气更让人心寒的是挑战者号航天飞机发生的悲剧。

　　这天早晨，成千上万名参观者聚集到肯尼迪航天中心，等待一睹挑战者号腾飞的壮观景象。上午11时38分，耸立在发射架上的挑战者号点火升空，直飞天穹，看台上一片欢腾。但航天飞机飞到73秒时，空中突然传来一声闷响，只见挑战者号顷刻之间爆裂成一团桔红色  
火球，碎片拖着火焰和白烟四散飘飞，坠落到大西洋。挑战者号发生爆炸，全世界为之震惊。

　　7名宇航员在这次事故中罹难，包括两名女宇航员。其中特别引人注目的是第一次以平民身份参加太空飞行的女教师麦考利夫。原计划她将在太空给她的学生进行现场授课，不幸的是麦考利夫壮志未酬，献出了宝贵的生命。根据调查这一事故的总统委员会的报告，爆炸是一个O型封环失效所致。这个封环位于右侧固体火箭推进器的两个低层部件之间。失效的封环使炽热的气体点燃了外部燃料罐中的燃料。O型封环会在低温下失效，尽管在发射前夕有些工程师警告不要在冷天发射，但是由于发射已被推迟了5次，所以警告未能引起重视。

　　挑战者号飞机是肯尼迪航天中心的第二架航天飞机。它以航行于大西洋和太平洋上的英国研究船挑战者号而命名。也许有人还记得阿波罗17号登月舱也叫挑战者号。就像它的前辈一样，航天飞机挑战者号也为人类的航天事业做出了巨大贡献。

　　1982年7月，挑战者号航天飞机成为美国可再度使用的带冀航天器，共成功完成了九次航天飞行任务。1986年1月28日美国的挑战者号航天飞机乘载七名宇航员，进行航天飞机的第10次飞行。在挑战者号十次的飞行任务中，共绕轨道飞行987次，太空停留时间累积69天。

　　挑战者号的失事曾使美国的航天事业受到沉重打击，航天飞机在以后的3年中停止了飞行。但是，在总结了挑战者号的教训之后，人类对太空的探测仍在继续。从航天飞机恢复飞行至今，已执行了76次飞行任务，包括组建国际空间站。挑战者号的宇航员是人类航天事业的先驱。

　　参加这次航天飞机的宇航员一共有七人。他们是：机长弗朗西斯·斯科比，四十六岁；驾驶员迈克尔·史密斯，四十岁；宇航员朱迪恩·雷斯尼克，三十六岁；罗纳德·麦克奈尔，三十五岁；埃利森，鬼冢，三十九岁；格里高利·杰维斯，四十一岁；女教师克里斯塔·麦考利夫，三十七岁。