印度成为第四个实施火星探测的国家

India placed a satellite in orbit around Mars on Wednesday, confirming its place as a cost-effective explorer of outer space and becoming only the fourth nation to succeed in a scientific mission to the red planet.

印度周三将一枚卫星送入火星轨道，证实了该国已经是高效率的外太空探测者，并成为全球第四个成功在火星上实施科学探测的国家。

“India has successfully reached Mars,” a proud Narendra Modi, prime minister, told cheering scientists at the mission control centre of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in Bangalore.

印度总理纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)在位于班加罗尔的印度空间研究组织(ISRO)任务控制中心宣布：“印度已成功抵达火星。”现场的科学家们欢欣鼓舞。

The satellite – called Mangalyaan, or “Mars craft” – was launched from India in November last year and travelled for more than nine months to reach its destination.

这颗卫星，即火星探测器，名为“曼加里安”(Mangalyaan)，去年11月从印度发射，航行逾9个月才抵达目的地。

By global standards, India’s first interplanetary mission is extraordinarily cheap, with a budget of just $72m – as Mr Modi has boasted, that is less than the $100m cost of making the film Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

根据全球标准，印度首次星际间任务的成本极其低廉，预算仅为7200万美元，正如莫迪所夸耀的那样，这都赶不上桑德拉•布洛克(Sandra Bullock)和乔治•克鲁尼(George Clooney)主演的电影《地心引力》(Gravity)的制作成本（1亿美元）。

The satellite’s primary purpose is to test Indian technology in deep space communication and navigation with the help of Nasa of the US, but it will also examine the Mars atmosphere for methane and study the planet’s surface. The satellite’s five scientific payloads weight only 15kg in total.

这颗卫星在美国国家航空航天局(Nasa)的帮助下，其主要任务是，测试印度在深度空间交流及航行的技术，还将考察火星的甲烷大气并研究火星表面。这颗卫星的科学探测载荷总共只有15公斤重。

With radio signals taking 12 minutes to travel the 100m kms between Mars and Earth and the satellite passing behind the planet, Isro scientists had waited nervously on Wednesday morning to discover if their instructions to ignite the main engine – slowing the Indian craft and placing it in orbit around the planet – had been fulfilled.

无线信号穿越火星与地球之间1亿公里的行程需要12分钟，印度空间研究组织的科学家们周三早晨紧张地等待着观看他们发出的点燃主引擎的指令是否完成。这一指令将令火星探测器减速，并将其送入预定火星轨道。

the success of the mission so far has silenced most of the naysayers and stoked national pride. “Mangalyaan starts Mars orbit, India succeeds where China, Japan fail” said one headline on the Firstpost news website.

此次发射任务的成功让多数反对者缄默并激发了印度的国民自豪感。新闻网站Firstpost的一篇文章标题是：“曼加里安成功启动火星轨道，在中国和日本都失败的领域印度成功了”。