For as long as we've looked up at the night sky, Mars is the one planet that has stood out from all the rest. Glowing red in the distant darkness, it has been an obsession of humans for millennia.

自我们仰望夜空以来，火星就是那颗在众多行星中脱颖而出的星球。 它在遥远的黑暗中散发着红色光芒，千百年来一直是人类的痴迷所在。



Babylonians called it Nergal, the great hero. To the Greeks it was Ares, god of war. The Egyptians even named their capital Cairo after it – al Qahirah, or "the conqueror". But in the 21st century, Mars has gone from ancient myth and mystery to a place we are actively exploring – and will soon actually set foot on. Yesterday, Nasa introduced the world to the six women and four men selected from 8,000 applicants who could be the first to travel to the Red Planet.

巴比伦人称它为“内尔伽勒”，伟大的英雄。 对希腊人来说，它是战神阿瑞斯。 埃及人甚至以它命名了自己的首都开罗——al Qahirah，意为“征服者”。 但在21世纪，火星已从古老的传说和神秘之地，变成了我们积极探索的目标——而且我们很快就会真正踏足其上。 昨天，NASA向世界介绍了从8000名申请者中选出的六名女性和四名男性，他们有可能成为首批前往这颗红色星球的旅行者。

Ben Bailey, Lauren Edgar, Adam Fuhrmann, Cameron Jones, Yuri Kubo, Rebecca Lawler, Anna Menon, Imelda Muller, Erin Overcash and Katherine Spies will train for nearly two years. They will then be eligible for science and exploitation missions to low Earth orbit, the Moon, and Mars.

本·贝利、劳伦·埃德加、亚当·富尔曼、卡梅伦·琼斯、尤里·久保、丽贝卡·劳勒、安娜·梅农、伊梅尔达·穆勒、 艾琳·奥弗卡什和凯瑟琳·斯皮斯将接受近两年的训练。 之后，他们将有资格执行前往低地球轨道、月球和火星的科学及探索任务。

Nasa scientists announced last week they had found "the clearest sign of life" on the planet, which at its farthest is about 140 million miles away from us. Samples drilled by the Perseverance rover from Neretva Falls, an ancient river channel, in July 2024, showed surface spots and nodules often associated with microbial life on Earth.

NASA科学家上周宣布， 他们在这颗距离我们最远约1.4亿英里的星球上发现了“最明确的生命迹象”。 2024年7月，“毅力号”火星车在一条古老河道——内雷特瓦瀑布钻取的样本显示， 火星表面存在斑点与结核，这些特征在地球上常与微生物生命相关联。

Associate administrator of Nasa's science mission direc-torate, Dr Nicky Fox, said: "We're kind of one step closer to answering one of humanity's most profound questions – are we truly alone in the universe?" Astrobiologist Paul Davies is even more emphatic. Speaking on Sky History's Ancient Aliens, he says: "Do I believe that there is or was life on Mars? Yes, I'm absolutely certain of it."

NASA科学任务理事会副主管尼基·福克斯博士表示： “我们离回答人类最深刻的问题之一——宇宙中我们是否真的孤独存在——又近了一步。” 天体生物学家保罗·戴维斯的表述更为肯定。 他在天空历史频道的《远古外星人》节目中说：“我相信火星上曾经或现在存在生命吗？ 是的，我绝对确信。”

For some, though, the groundbreaking discovery gives weight to an even more audacious belief – that perhaps humans are drawn back to Mars because that was where life on Earth originally began.

然而，对一些人来说， 这一开创性的发现支持了一个更大胆的信念——或许人类被火星吸引，是因为那里才是地球上生命起源的地方。

That the first stirrings of life started on the Red Planet before jumping to Earth seems like a fantastical theory, but it's one expounded by geochemist Steven Benner, former chemistry professor at Harvard University. When he studied Mars meteorites, he found the key chemical ingredients for life – boron and molybdenum – were far more abundant on early Mars than they ever were on Earth.

生命最初在红色星球上萌动，然后才迁移到地球，这听起来像是一个奇幻的理论， 但哈佛大学前化学教授、地球化学家史蒂文·本纳却对此进行了阐述。 当他研究火星陨石时， 发现生命的关键化学成分——硼和钼——在早期火星上的含量远高于地球。

In 2013, he shocked many contemporaries by suggesting the meteorites may be responsible for seeding life here, perhaps on a stray meteorite. Mr Davies agrees: "I've always felt that Mars was actually a better place than Earth for life to get going.

2013年，他提出一个震惊许多同行的观点：这些陨石可能是地球生命的种子，或许是通过一块偶然坠落的陨石带来的。 戴维斯先生对此表示赞同：“我一直觉得，火星实际上是比地球更适合生命起源的地方。”

"Certain elements that are actually essential for organic chemistry to work properly are more abundant on Mars than they are on Earth. We can imagine that life on Earth started on Mars so in a sense we're all Martians or descended from Martians."

“某些对有机化学正常运作至关重要的元素在火星上的含量高于地球。 我们可以想象，地球上的生命起源于火星，所以从某种意义上说，我们都是火星人或火星人的后裔。”

Others have suggested that our depiction of Martians, with elongated bodies and big almond-shaped eyes, isn't science fiction, but ancient memory. Mythologists point out that extraterrestrial creatures have been depicted in ancient texts – often described as "fallen angels". In the Biblical book of Enoch, they are called the Watchers, and similar stories appear in ancient Jewish texts, the Book of Jubilees and the Damascus Document.

还有人认为，我们对火星人的描绘——拥有细长身体和大杏仁形眼睛——并非科幻，而是古老的记忆。 神话学家指出，外星生物在古代文献中早有描绘——它们常被描述为“堕落天使”。 在《以诺书》这部圣经经卷中，它们被称为“守望者”， 类似的传说也出现在古代犹太文献《禧年书》和《大马士革文书》中。

The idea that there was once an advanced civilisation on Mars has caused many to speculate on objects shown on photos of the planet's surface, taken by the Nasa rovers.

火星上曾经存在过先进文明的想法， 让许多人对NASA火星车拍摄的火星表面照片中的物体产生了猜测。

Some believe they have seen half-buried statues or other artificial structures, including what some people say looks like a Buddha figure and the ruins of an Inca-like city.

有人相信，他们看到了半埋的雕像或其他人工建筑， 包括一些人所说的看起来像佛像的东西和一座类似印加城市的废墟。

Author Mike Bara is among those who hold the belief – dismissed as fantastical by most cosmologists – that Martians, escaping a catastrophe on their planet, brought life to Earth. He tells Ancient Aliens: "There are a lot of different objects on Mars that people think they see and it's really hard to dismiss them, because they do look like sculptures human beings make. Even after a massive cataclysm, like what apparently took place on Mars, you're going to find remnants from a lost civilisation that's leaving behind those last hints that 'we were here'."

作家迈克·巴拉就是那些认为火星人在其星球遭遇灾难后将生命带到地球的人之一—— 这一观点被大多数宇宙学家视为奇幻。 他在《远古外星人》节目中说：“火星上有很多人们认为看到的不同物体，很难忽视它们， 因为它们看起来确实像人类制造的雕塑。 即使在火星上发生了一场巨大的灾难之后， 你仍然会发现一个失落文明的遗迹，它们留下最后的痕迹，表明‘我们曾在这里’。”

So how close are we to sending humans to Mars? The new space race is well under way, with both national space agencies such as Nasa and private companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX competing to be the first.

那么，我们离将人类送上火星还有多远呢？ 新的太空竞赛已经拉开帷幕， NASA等国家航天机构与埃隆·马斯克的SpaceX等私营企业正竞相成为第一个实现这一目标的力量。

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which reached the Red Planet in 2006, has circled the planet more than 40,000 times and, in 2015, discovered evidence of water, which is vital to sustaining human life.

2006年抵达火星的“火星勘测轨道飞行器”已经环绕火星飞行了4万多次， 并在2015年发现了水的证据，这对维持人类生命至关重要。

The first astronauts to travel there, however, will face a long and perilous journey. While it took three days to reach the moon, going to Mars will take at least 240 days, given current technology, and will be fraught with deep space hazards.

然而，首批前往火星的宇航员将面临漫长而危险的旅程。 虽然到达月球只需三天，但以目前的技术，前往火星至少需要240天， 而且将充满深空危险。

But many believe Mars is our best chance of establishing a human colony outside Earth. Temperature fluctuations are less extreme than the moon, for example, and its gravity is also more like Earth's. And Mars already has an atmosphere, so modifying the temperature and surface, to create an environment suitable for human life, is hypothetically possible.

但许多人认为，火星是我们建立地球以外人类殖民地的最佳机会。 例如，与月球相比，火星的温度波动不那么极端，而且它的重力也更接近地球。 火星已经有大气层，所以理论上有可能通过改变温度和地表来创造一个适合人类生存的环境。

Technology forecaster Stephen Petranek says: "If we heat up the poles on Mars and we start having flowing water, water itself will go into the atmosphere, which is another greenhouse gas. And we will warm up Mars, and we will be able to plant crops."

技术预测家斯蒂芬·佩特拉内克说：“如果我们加热火星的两极，让水流动起来， 水本身就会进入大气层，成为另一种温室气体。 我们会让火星变暖，然后就能种植作物了。”

While he believes that scenario is probably at least 300 years away, Nasa aims to send humans to Mars in the late 2030s to early 2040s. SpaceX hopes to get there by 2029-2031, which experts consider optmistic.

虽然他认为这种情况可能至少还需要300年才能实现，但NASA的目标是在2030年代末到2040年代初将人类送上火星。 SpaceX则希望在2029年至2031年实现这一目标，专家们认为这过于乐观。

When that day comes, it will be considered the greatest feat in the history of humanity – much more momentous than when Neil Armstrong jumped off the ladder on to the Moon, followed later by Buzz Aldrin.

当那一天到来时， 它将被视为人类历史上最伟大的壮举——比尼尔·阿姆斯特朗跳下梯子踏上月球， 以及后来巴兹·奥尔德林紧随其后，要重要得多。

Mr Petranek believes colonising Mars is key to our survival. "There are lots of threats to life on Earth," he says. "We just need to get a single hit from an asteroid that's as big as the one that took out the dinosaurs. Going to Mars, it's something we have to do, or we die."

佩特拉内克先生认为，在火星上建立殖民地是我们生存的关键。 “地球上的生命面临着许多威胁，”他说， “我们只需要被一颗像灭绝恐龙那样大的小行星击中一次。 去火星，这是我们必须做的事情，否则我们就会灭亡。”

素材来源：iYuba