After hurtling hundreds of millions of miles through space since last summer, three robotic explorers are ready to hit the brakes at Mars.
自从去年夏天开始跋涉千山万水之后，有三架探测器准备登陆火星。
The stakes — and anxiety — are sky high.
不过风险系数—以及焦虑—很高。
The United Arab Emirates’ orbiter reaches Mars on Tuesday, followed less than 24 hours later by China’s orbiter-rover combo.
阿联酋的飞船周二到达最后到达的，是中国的火星探测器。
NASA’s rover, the cosmic caboose, will arrive on the scene a week later, on Feb. 18, to collect rocks for return to Earth — a key step in determining whether life ever existed at Mars.
美国航空航天局的探测器宇宙守车号，将一周后于2月18号抵达，它将在火星表面收集岩石送回地球，这对于检测火星上是否存在生命是非常关键的一步。
Both the UAE and China are newcomers at Mars, where more than half of Earth’s emissaries have failed.
阿联酋和中国的飞船都是首次抵达，之前有太多的国家的尝试都失败了。
China’s first Mars mission, a joint effort with Russia in 2011, never made it past Earth’s orbit.
中国的首次火星计划是2011年跟俄罗斯合作的，但是没能够成功飞出地球轨道。
“We are quite excited as engineers and scientists, at the same time quite stressed and happy, worried, scared,” said Omran Sharaf, project manager for the UAE.
“我们的工程师和科学家们都感到非常兴奋，同时又非常担心，快乐，焦虑和害怕都融合在了一起。”奥姆兰·沙拉夫说，他是阿联酋的项目主管。
All three spacecraft rocketed away within days of one another last July, during an Earth-to-Mars launch window that occurs only every two years.
所有这三艘飞船都是趁去年七月份的从地球像火星发射飞船的窗口期出发的，中间相隔几天，而这个窗口期要每两年才出现一次。
That’s why their arrivals are also close together.
这也是为什么他们抵达日期如此接近。
The China Academy of Space Technology's Ye Peijian noted that Tianwen-1 has three objectives: orbiting the planet, landing and releasing the rover.
中国航天局的叶培建说，天问1号有三个目标：绕行一周，着陆并且送达探测器。
If successful, he said in a statement “it will become the world's first Mars expedition accomplishing all three goals with one probe.”
他在一则声明中说，“如果顺利达成目标的话，这将是全球首个首次就完成三项目标的探测器。”
The coronavirus pandemic has complicated each step of each spacecraft’s 300 million-mile (480 million-kilometer) journey to Mars.
这些飞船的三亿英里（四亿八千万公里。）的旅程，也伴随着新冠疫情在地球上的发展。
It even kept the European and Russian space agencies' joint Mars mission grounded until the next launch window in 2022.
这次疫情甚至影响了欧洲和俄罗斯的下一次联合火星计划，将其推迟到了2022年的窗口期。
The flight control rooms will contain fewer people on the big day, with staff spread over a wider area and working from home.
旅程控制室的少数人们会在重要的日期里待在一起，而其他的员工则分布在更广阔的区域，他们在家里远程办公。
Desks have dividers and partitions.
办公室里的桌子都有隔间，并且分区排布。
Masks and social distancing are mandatory.
如今，戴口罩和保持社交隔离，成为了强制措施。
Perseverance's deputy project manager Matt Wallace, who’s working his fifth Mars rover mission, said the pandemic won’t dampen the mood come landing day.
毅力号的项目主管马特·瓦利斯如今已经是负责他的第五个火星项目了他说，疫情并不会影响人们在飞船成功着陆时的心情。
“I don’t think COVID’s going to be able to stop us from jumping up and down, and fist-bumping,” he said. “You’re going to see a lot of happy people no matter what, once we get this thing on the surface safely.”
“就算有疫情，我们也照样会欢呼跳跃，相互击掌的，”他说。“无论如何，你会看到的人们沉浸在欢呼当中，因为我们成功地让飞船着陆，到了火星上。”
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