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When you imagine humans on their way to Mars,
当你想象人类前往火星时，
you probably imagine them in a spacecraft with big, explosive, chemical engines.
你可能想象他们在一个拥有着大型的，爆炸性的化学发动机的航天器上。
And that's totally reasonable.
这是完全合理的。
Humans need to travel with a lot of stuff,
人类需要带着大量物品去旅行，
and engines that rely on chemical combustion are currently the only ones powerful enough
依靠化学燃烧的发动机是目前唯一一种强大到足以
to move us through space at a reasonable speed.
以合理的速度在太空中移动我们的发动机。
Except, chemical engines also have a pretty big downside.
除此之外，化学发动机也有很大的缺点。
They need to carry a bunch of fuel,
他们需要携带一堆燃料，
which makes their spacecraft super heavy.
这让他们的宇宙飞船超级沉重。
And that leads to more expensive missions that are harder to launch.
这会导致更难推出更加昂贵的任务。
Honestly, it would be nicer if we could move humans with a lighter,more fuel-efficient propulsion system.
老实说，如果我们能用更轻、更省油的推进系统来移动人类，那就更好了。
And the good news?
好消息呢？
We might have already found our best option.
我们或许已经找到了我们的最佳选择。
It's a form of electric propulsion called a Hall-effect thruster,or a Hall thruster for short.
这是一种称为电力推进的形式霍尔效应推进器，或简称霍尔推进器。
They're thrusters that look a bit like a bullseye and glow with an eerie, colorful light.
它们的推进器看起来有点像靶心，并发出令人毛骨悚然的彩色光芒。
And they could be the future of human space exploration.
它们是人类空间探索的未来。
Unlike some of the ideas we talk about on this channel,Hall thrusters aren't theoretical or even new.
与我们之前讨论的一些想法不同，霍尔推进器不是理论上的，甚至不是新的。
They were invented in the 1960s, and engineers have spent decades advancing the technology.
它们是在20世纪60年代发明的，工程师花费了数十年的时间来推动这项技术的发展。
On a basic level,these thrusters work by accelerating charged particles called ions.
在基本层面上，这些推进器通过加速名为离子的带电粒子来工作。
First, you start with a circular channel —or a few channels, depending on how big your thruster is.
首先，你从一个圆形通道开始 - 或者几个通道，这取决于推进器的大小。
Between each channel, you put some magnetic coils that generate a magnetic field.
在每个通道之间，放置一些产生磁场的磁线圈。
Then, at the bottom of your channels, you add an electrically-charged plate called an anode,which creates an electric field.
然后，在通道的底部，添加一个名为的带电板阳极，产生电场。
And finally, you add a cathode, which is located somewhere outside the channel and can spit out a bunch of electrons.
然后，在通道的底部，添加一个名为带电板阳极，产生电场。
Now, you're ready to go.
现在，你开始准备。
When you power up the thruster, the cathode starts releasing those electrons.
当你给推进器加电时，阴极开始释放那些电子。
The particles are attracted to the anode,so they go flying into the channel.
颗粒被吸引到阳极，然后它们会飞入通道。
There, they're caught up in the magnetic field and start zooming in circles around and around the thruster.
在那里，他们被卷入磁场并开始在推进器周围放大。
And that's where the magic happens.
这就是魔力发生的地方。
Once the electrons are zooming around，Hall thrusters pump a bit of propellant into the channel, usually a neutral gas like xenon.
一旦电子放大，霍尔推进器将一些推进剂泵入通道，通常是像氙气一样的中性气体。
The xenon gets hit with all of those incoming electrons, and that knocks off some of its electrons and turns the xenon atoms into ions.
氙气被所有进入的电子击中，并击倒一些电子，将氙原子转化为离子。
The electric field inside the thruster then pushes those xenon ions out of the channel at incredible speeds sometimes more than a dozen kilometers per second.
然后，推进器内部的电场以令人难以置信的速度将这些氙离子推出通道，有时速度超过每秒十几公里。
And that's what generates the thrust to move your thruster and your spacecraft forward.
这就是推动推进器和航天器前进的重要因素。
Now, this basic idea of accelerating ions isn't unique to Hall thrusters.
现在，这种加速离子的基本想法并不是霍尔推进器所独有的。
Every form of ion-based electric propulsion does something like this.
每种基于离子式电力推进都是这样的。
What makes Hall thrusters special is that they satisfy three major conditions.
霍尔推进器的特殊之处在于它们满足三个主要条件。
For one, they have among the highest thrust of all forms of electric propulsion.
首先，它们是所有电力推进的最大推力之一。
There are a few reasons for this, but one is because the propellant ions are created and accelerated in the same area.
这有几个原因，但其中一个是因为推进剂离子是在同一地区创造和加速的。
Other thrusters keep these processes separate, and there's a limit on how many charged particles they can cram into one spot before the electric field gets messed up.
其他推进器将这些过程分开，并且在电场混乱之前，他们可以将多少个带电粒子塞进一个点，这是有限的。
Hall thrusters also use their fuel really efficiently.
霍尔推进器也非常有效地使用燃料。
Since they accelerate their ions to such high speeds, they generate more thrust for every molecule of propellant they use.
由于它们将离子加速到如此高的速度，因此它们为每个使用的推进剂分子产生更大的推力。
And finally, they can fire for a long time.
最后，他们可以发射很长时间。
Other ion thrusters have components that quickly wear out, and while Hall thrusters do have their own lifetime problems, engineers have found ways to solve or mitigate many of them.
其他离子推进器的部件很快就会磨损，而霍尔推进器确实有自己的寿命问题，工程师们已经找到了解决或减轻其中许多问题的方法。
So in the end, these thrusters can fire for much longer, which means they're a lot more practical for spaceflight.
所以最后，这些推进器可以发射更长时间，这意味着它们对太空飞行更加实用。
Since the ‘60s, Hall thrusters have flown on dozens of missions.
自60年代以来，霍尔推进器已经执行了数十个任务。
Mostly, they've been used to adjust satellites'orbits, but in the 2020s, they'll be used on even bigger projects, like the Psyche mission to investigate an asteroid.
大多数情况下，它们已被用于调整卫星轨道，但在20世纪20年代，它们将被用于更大的项目，如调查小行星的Psyche任务。
But earlier, I said Hall thrusters could be the future of human space exploration.
但早些时候，我说过霍尔推进器可能是人类太空探索的未来。
And the thrusters we have today… well, they're nowhere near strong enough to push around people at a helpful speed.
我们今天拥有的推进器......好吧，它们远远不够强大，无法以有用的速度推动移动人们。
Because here's the thing about Hall thrusters and about electric thrusters in general:
因为有关霍尔推进器和电动推进器的一些信息：
Their main benefit is that they can fire for a long time.
主要好处是他们可以长时间发射。
That means though you might start off slow,you can gradually build up speed until you're zooming along faster than any spacecraft that uses chemical propulsion.
这意味着虽然你可能开始慢，但你可以逐渐加快速度，直到你比任何使用化学推进的航天器更快地进行。
The problem right now is that getting to those speeds takes a long time.
现在的问题是，达到这种速度需要很长的时间。
With our current tech, it would take years to get people to Mars.
凭借目前的技术，将人们带到火星需要数年时间。
But someday, that could change.
但总有一天，这可能会改变。
Because there's a Hall thruster currently in development that could become strong enough to move humans.
因为目前正在开发的霍尔推进器可能变得足够强大能移动人类。
It's called X3.
它被称为X3。
It's been in development since 2009,and it gets its name because it has three channels instead of the more common two.
它自2009年以来一直在开发中，它之所以得名，是因为它有三个渠道，而不是更常见的两个。
This allows it to accelerate more ions at once.
这允许它一次加速更多离子。
It's still nowhere near strong enough to fly humans, even if we put several of them on the back of a spacecraft.
即使我们将其中的几个放在宇宙飞船的背面，它仍然远远不足以移动人类。
But, it has generated more thrust in a test than any other Hall thruster.
但是，它在测试中产生了比任何其他霍尔推进器更多的推力。
Now, engineers are working to make X3 more reliable and increase its thrust.
现在，工程师正在努力使X3更可靠并增加其推力。
And if they can manage that,NASA may eventually select the thruster to help send people to Mars.
如果他们能够做到这一点，美国宇航局最终可能会选择推进器来帮助人们前往火星。
Even if this doesn't happen, though…there's a good chance this project will inspire other teams to continue the work.
即使这不会发生，但......这个项目很有可能激励其他团队继续工作。
There are a lot of electric propulsion methods out there,and many of them are already changing spaceflight.
那里有许多电力推进方法，其中许多已经在改变太空飞行。
But when it comes to flying humans around, Hall thrusters might be our best bet.
但是当谈到人类飞行时，霍尔推进器可能是我们最好的选择。
At the end of the day, a lot of people just want to see humans walk on the surface of Mars.
在一天结束时，很多人只是想看到人类在火星表面走路。
But while that will be amazing, it's worth remembering the engineering behind this goal, too.
虽然这将是惊人的，但值得记住这一目标背后的工程。
It's taking a lot of clever, creative work to make something like this feasible.
这需要很多聪明的创造性的才智才能使这样的事情变得可行。
And the research being done on Hall thrusters is a great example of that.
对霍尔推进器研究就是一个很好的例子。
If you want to learn more about space exploration, you can consider checking out a documentary on CuriosityStream!
如果您想了解有关太空探索的更多信息，可以考虑在CuriosityStream上观看纪录片！
CuriosityStream is a subscription streaming service that offers more than 2,400 documentaries and nonfiction titles, including exclusive originals.
CuriosityStream是一种订阅流媒体服务，提供超过2,400种纪录片和非小说类书籍，包括独家原创。
They even have a whole series called Space Probes，including an episode about future missions, like one that could someday visit a distant star.
他们甚至有一个叫做Space Probes的整个系列，包括一集关于未来任务的，就像有一天可能会访问一颗遥远的星星一样。
You can check out this content free for 31 days if you sign up atcuriositystream.com/space and use the promo code “space.”
如果您注册atcuriositystream.com/space并使用代码“space”，您可以免费查看此内容31天。
And after that, you can get unlimited access for just $2.99 a month.
之后，您可以以每月2.99美元的价格获得无限制访问权。
If you decide to check them out, thanks!
如果你决定查阅，谢谢！
You're supporting SciShow along the way.
你一直在支持SciShow。
