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In recent days both the unmanned Antares rocket and the Virgin Galactic space plane had catastrophic failures.
最近这些天无人驾驶的心宿二火箭和维珍银河航天飞船都发生了灾难性事故。
Because space is a very risky business—and it always has been.
这是因为太空事业是个高危行业，而且一直以来都是如此。
November 5th marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Mariner 3, America's first mission to Mars.
而11月5日是美国首个火星任务“水手3号”发射的50周年纪念日。
But don't expect any NASA celebrations.
但别期待NASA举办任何庆祝活动，
The mission failed completely.
因为那次任务彻底失败了。
When Mariner 3 reached space, it was supposed to unfurl solar panels.
当“水手3号”升入太空时本应该展开太阳能电池板，
But a glitch kept the panels tucked away.
但一个小故障使得电池板最终闭合。
With only battery power, the spacecraft went dead just eight hours and 43 minutes later.
因此这艘飞船仅依靠电池的能量飞行了8小时43分钟后便失去动力。
So Mariner 3 fell silent, although it presumably did fly past the Red Planet months later.
虽然几个月后水手3号可能确实飞过火星，但这次任务以最终失败告终。
Fortunately, NASA had an identical spacecraft ready for Mars.
幸运的是，NASA已经为火星计划安排了另一架相同的飞船。
After hasty modifications to prevent the same problem, Mariner 4 blasted off on November 28th, 1964.
而为了防止同样的事故，新飞船经过仓促修改后“水手4号”于1964年11月28号发射升空。
The following July it became the first ship to fly past our planetary neighbor—that we're sure of.
第二年的7月它成为首个飞过我们目前可确定的邻居行星的飞船。
But this successful mission shocked researchers.
但此次任务的成功使得研究人员大为震惊。
Back in 1964 even some respected scientists thought Mars was home to primitive life,
回首1964年，即使是一些权威科学家也认为火星存在原始生命
if not the intelligent beingsthat colorful astronomers like Percival Lowell imagined.
虽然可能不像帕西瓦尔罗威尔那样富于创想的天文学家们所想象的存在智慧生物。
And the cameras on Mariner 4 sent back pictures of a barren, cratered world, devoid of any obvious Martians.
而“水手4号”发回的照片里带给人们的却是一个贫瘠坑洼的世界，一个没有任何火星人迹象的世界。
