Chinese spacecraft ho to reach the dark side of the moon has entered lunar orbit after a voyage of 240,000 miles lasting 110 hours

一艘希望到达月球背面的航天器在历时110小时、飞行24万英里后进入环球轨道

China's mission to the dark side of the moon has successfully entered a stable orbit around our natural satellite.

登陆月球背面的任务已经成功进入稳定的绕月轨道。

The 240,000 mile long (385,000km) journey took 110 hours to complete and saw Chang'e-4 enter into an elliptical orbit 80 miles above the surface.

这段24万英里(38.5万公里)的旅程历时110个小时才完成，嫦娥四号进入了距月球表面80英里的椭圆轨道。

It is expected to land on the dark side of the moon at some point in early January, but the country's secretive space agency has not announced a set date.

预计它将在1月初登陆月球背面，但该国行事隐秘的航天局尚未宣布设定的具体日期。

Retrorockets on the probe fired on 12 December to stabilise the spacecraft and slow it down.

探测器上的制动火箭于12月12日发射，以稳定航天器并使其减速。

Chang'e-4 will target the South Pole-Aitken basin's Von Karman crater, the largest in the entire solar system at 15,000 miles (24,000km) across and eight miles deep.

嫦娥四号将在南极-艾特肯盆地的冯·卡门陨石坑登陆，这是整个太阳系最大的陨石坑，直径1.5万英里(合2.4万公里)，深达8英里。[南极-艾特肯盆地直径约2500公里]

It took off from the ichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan, south-west China at 6:30 GMT on December 7 atop a Long March-3B rocket.

It is expected to perform a 'soft-landing' and land on the moon after completing its 27 day journey through space.

格林尼治时间12月7日6点30分，“嫦娥四号”从四川西昌卫星发射中心搭载长征三号乙火箭升空。预计在完成27天的太空之旅后，它将实现在月球背面软着陆。

Exploring the huge divot on the surface of the moon may shed new light on its history and geology by collecting rocks that have never been seen before.

通过探索月球表面巨大的陨石坑和收集从未见过的岩石，或能会为了解月球的历史和地质提供新的线索。

Researchers hope the huge depth of the crater will allow them to study the moon's mantle, the layer underneath the surface, of the moon.

研究人员希望通过陨石深坑研究月球表面下的地幔层。

Chang'e-4 has been described as 'hugely ambitious' and heralded as a sign of China's growing intentions to rival the space exploration prowess of the US, Russia and the EU.

“嫦娥四号”被形容为“雄心勃勃”的计划，并被视为越来越有意与美国、俄罗斯和欧盟的太空探索实力相媲美的迹象。

To facilitate communication between controllers on Earth and the Chang'e-4 mission, China launched a relay satellite named Queqiao on 20 May and is now stationed in operational orbit about 40,000 miles beyond the moon.

This will be the primary form of communication between Earth and the spacecraft.

为了方便地球上的控制人员和嫦娥四号之间的通信，5月20日，发射了一颗名为“雀桥”的中继卫星，目前已进入月球外约4万英里的运行轨道。这将是地球和嫦娥四号之间的主要通信形式。

China's latest mission closely follows the touchdown of NASA's InSight spacecraft on Mars on Monday at a site less than 400 miles (640 kilometres) from the American rover Curiosity, the only other working robot on Mars.

就在周一，NASA的“洞察号”探测器在距离美国“好奇号”探测器不到400英里(合640公里)的一个地点着陆。

英国每日邮报读者评论：

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/46713.html   译者：Jessica.Wu

外文：https://www.dailymail.co.uk

Saryne, Hereford, 3 days ago

To see never before seen rocks...NASA provides a photo...

NASA提供了一张照片，展示了从未见过的岩石……

secreto, London, 3 days ago

And would you believe it the probe malfunctions just as they approach the dark side of the moon.

探测器在接近月球背面时将发生故障。

Up South, Melbourne, Australia, 5 days ago

It's the FAR side, not the dark side, they are aiming for. Is it too much to expect for the media to employ people competent to write science stories ?

是月球背面，不是阴暗面。媒体就不能雇用一些有能力撰写科学报道的人。