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两名宇航员周三进行了第二次全女性太空行走，以完成对国际空间站(International Space Station)电网的升级，但很快就遇到了头盔问题。

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.

这是杰西卡·梅尔(Jessica Meir)和克里斯蒂娜·科赫(Christina Koch)在轨道实验室外的第二次搭档。

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.

两位女宇航员最近一次太空行走还不到半小时，科赫头盔上的摄像机和灯光就开始松动。梅尔试图将摄像机和光装置重新安装到科赫的头盔上，但无法将其安装到适当的凹槽中。

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.

任务控制中心建议女宇航员们把像罩一样的摄像头和光组件取下来，而不是浪费时间试图安装它。考虑到科赫公司缺乏照明，宇航员们询问太空行走是否会继续。

“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.

“问得好，是的，我们会继续努力，我们会尽量让你们两个待在一起，”地面指挥中心回答。听到这个消息，宇航员们松了一口气。“好了，完美。“他们用无线电。

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

“要小心，”任务控制中心敦促科赫。“你失去了额外的保护。”

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无法在空间站外更换旧电池。

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.

美国国家航空航天局(NASA)正在用更强大、更耐用的锂离子电池替换空间站外使用了几十年的镍氢电池。这些电池是空间站太阳能发电网络的一部分，当空间站位于地球的另一端时，所有的东西都能正常运行。

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，科赫还两次与一名男同事外出安装三块新电池。但是一个充电装置后来发生故障，促使科赫和梅尔公司进行了意外的维修。与此同时，其他关键的电池安装也被搁置，工程师们在新电池投入使用后很快就找到了充电器失灵的原因。

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.

工程师们现在认为，在太空的极端温度下，充电器变得太冷了。解决方案:在电池工作期间，尽可能多地将充电器暴露在阳光下。

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.

任务控制中心预计梅尔和科赫将更换另外三节旧电池，在周一进行的第三次全女性太空行走中，行动将结束。这将使五次太空行走的最新系列电池工作。

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.

科赫距离结束历时11个月的太空任务只有3周的时间了，这是女性所完成的最长的太空任务。自去年3月以来，她一直生活在距地球250英里(400公里)的高空。梅厄于9月抵达空间站。