火星史上第二次全女性太空行走

Helmet trouble mars second-ever all-female spacewalk

火星史上第二次全女性太空行走

Two NASA astronauts ventured out Wednesday on a second all-female spacewalk to finish upgrades to the International Space Station’s power grid, but quickly ran into a helmet problem.

NASA兩名宇航員周三進行了第二次全女性太空行走，以完成對國際空間站(International Space Station)電網(wǎng)的升級，但很快就遇到了頭盔問題。

It was the second pairing of Jessica Meir and Christina Koch outside the orbiting lab. Last October, they teamed up for the world’s first spacewalk by two women.

這是杰西卡·梅爾(Jessica Meir)和克里斯蒂娜·科赫(Christina Koch)在軌道實驗室外的第二次搭檔。

The women were barely a half-hour into their latest spacewalk when Koch’s helmet camera and lights came loose. Meir tried to get the camera and light attachment back onto Koch’s helmet, but could not get it into the proper grooves.

兩位女宇航員最近一次太空行走還不到半小時，科赫頭盔上的攝像機和燈光就開始松動。梅爾試圖將攝像機和光裝置重新安裝到科赫的頭盔上，但無法將其安裝到適當(dāng)?shù)陌疾壑小?/p>

Mission Control advised the women to remove the hood-like camera and light assembly, rather than waste any more time trying to attach it. The astronauts asked if the spacewalk would continue, given the lack of lighting for Koch.

任務(wù)控制中心建議女宇航員們把像罩一樣的攝像頭和光組件取下來，而不是浪費時間試圖安裝它?？紤]到科赫公司缺乏照明，宇航員們詢問太空行走是否會繼續(xù)。

“Good question and, yes, we will continue and we’ll try to keep you two together as much as possible,” Mission Control replied. The astronauts were relieved at the news. “Great. Perfect,” they radioed.

“問得好，是的，我們會繼續(xù)努力，我們會盡量讓你們兩個待在一起，”地面指揮中心回答。聽到這個消息，宇航員們松了一口氣。“好了，完美。“他們用無線電。

“Just be careful,” Mission Control urged Koch. “You’re missing that additional protection.”

“要小心，”任務(wù)控制中心敦促科赫。“你失去了額外的保護。”

The helmet trouble put the spacewalkers behind in their work to replace old batteries outside the space station.

安全帽的故障使太空行走的人無法在空間站外更換舊電池。

NASA is in the midst of replacing decades-old nickel-hydrogen batteries outside the sprawling space station with more powerful, longer-lasting lithium-ion batteries. The batteries are part of the station’s solar power network, keeping everything running when the outpost is on the night side of Earth.

美國國家航空航天局(NASA)正在用更強大、更耐用的鋰離子電池替換空間站外使用了幾十年的鎳氫電池。這些電池是空間站太陽能發(fā)電網(wǎng)絡(luò)的一部分，當(dāng)空間站位于地球的另一端時，所有的東西都能正常運行。

Koch also went out with a male colleague twice last October to install three new batteries. But a charging unit then failed, prompting the need for unexpected repairs by Koch and Meir. Meanwhile, the rest of the critical battery installations were put on hold while engineers figured out why the charger failed so soon after new batteries went in.

去年10月，科赫還兩次與一名男同事外出安裝三塊新電池。但是一個充電裝置后來發(fā)生故障，促使科赫和梅爾公司進行了意外的維修。與此同時，其他關(guān)鍵的電池安裝也被擱置，工程師們在新電池投入使用后很快就找到了充電器失靈的原因。

Engineers now believe the charger got too cold in the extreme temperatures of space. The solution: exposing the chargers to the sun as much as possible during the battery work.

工程師們現(xiàn)在認為，在太空的極端溫度下，充電器變得太冷了。解決方案:在電池工作期間，盡可能多地將充電器暴露在陽光下。

Mission Control expects Meir and Koch to replace three more of the old batteries, with the operation wrapping up during a third all-female spacewalk on Monday. That would make a total of five spacewalks for this latest series of battery work.

任務(wù)控制中心預(yù)計梅爾和科赫將更換另外三節(jié)舊電池，在周一進行的第三次全女性太空行走中，行動將結(jié)束。這將使五次太空行走的最新系列電池工作。

Koch is just three weeks away from ending an 11-month space mission, the longest ever by a woman. She’s been living 250 miles (400 kilometers) above Earth since last March. Meir arrived at the space station in September.

科赫距離結(jié)束歷時11個月的太空任務(wù)只有3周的時間了，這是女性所完成的最長的太空任務(wù)。自去年3月以來，她一直生活在距地球250英里(400公里)的高空。梅厄于9月抵達空間站。