原文标题：
Terraforming Mars
Engineered dust could help make Mars habitable
Restoring water on Mars may be easier than you think
改造火星
人造尘埃有助于使火星成为宜居星球
恢复火星上的水源可能比你想象的要容易
[Paragraph 1]
IF YOU WANT to live elsewhere in the solar system, Mars is the least-bad choice.
若你梦想在太阳系的其他星球上居住，火星或许是较为理想的选择。
These days, the planet is a
frigid
, poison-
soaked
desert. But as the dry river valleys that cross its surface suggest, things were
balmy
enough in the past to allow liquid water.
目前，火星是一片寒冷、充满毒气的荒漠。但是，从火星表面纵横交错的干涸河谷来看，它曾经历过气候温和、液态水存在的时期。
[Paragraph 2]
For decades, scientists and science-fiction authors have
toyed
with the idea of restoring Mars to that warmer state by 「terraforming」 it—changing the planet’s climate to make it friendly to
Earthlings
.
几十年来，科学家和科幻小说作家们一直在考虑「改造」火星--改变火星的气候，使其适合地球人居住--使火星恢复到更温暖的状态。
Their proposals tend to involve
heroic
engineering: injecting vast quantities of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, say, or using nuclear explosives to melt underground ice.
他们的设想往往涉及宏大的工程计划：比如向火星大气中注入大量温室气体，或者利用核爆炸融化火星地下的冰层。
[Paragraph 3]
A paper published this week in Science Advances offers an easier method.
本周发表在【科学进展】上的一篇论文提供了一种更简单的方法。
Samaneh
Ansari, a graduate student at Northwestern University, in Illinois, and
her colleagues reckon that pumping engineered dust into the atmosphere
could warm Mars to the point where much of the water ice that lies
beneath its surface would melt, at least in the Martian summer.
伊利诺伊州西北大学的研究生萨曼·安萨里和她的同事们认为，向大气中注入人工尘埃可以使火星变暖，至少在火星的夏天，地表下的大部分水冰都会融化。
[Paragraph 4]
The dust would be made of tiny metallic rods each around nine millionths of a metre long.
人造尘埃将由细小的金属棒组成，每根金属棒的长度约为九百万分之一米。
That
size is carefully chosen to ensure that the particles reflect heat,
which would otherwise escape to space, back down to the planet’s
surface.
精心选择这种尺寸是为了确保粒子将热量反射回火星表面，否则热量会逃逸到太空。
Climate
models suggest that pumping 30 litres of the dust per second into the
atmosphere could boost the average temperature by 30°C or more within
decades.
根据气候模型的估算，如果每秒向火星大气中注入30升人造尘埃，那么在未来几十年内，火星的平均气温可能会上升30摄氏度或更高。
[Paragraph 5]
That is a fair amount of dust. But it represents a big improvement on the state of the art.
这是相当大的尘埃量。但它代表了对现有技术的重大改进。
Another paper, published in 2005, investigated
chlorofluorocarbons
, a class of potent greenhouse gases, and concluded that hundreds of millions of tonnes would be required.
2005年发表的另一篇论文研究了氯氟烃——一种强效的温室气体，并得出需要数亿吨才能有效的结论。
Ms Ansari reckons that, in mass terms, her method is around 5,000 times more efficient.
安萨里估计，就质量而言，她的方法效率要高出约5000倍。
[Paragraph 6]
And
the paper is just a proof of concept, with plenty of room to make
things more efficient still, says Edwin Kite, a planetary scientist at
the University of Chicago and one of its authors.
芝加哥大学行星科学家埃德温·凯特也是该论文的作者之一，他说："这篇论文仅仅是一个概念验证，其中还有很大的提升空间，以便使各项操作更加高效。」
As planets go, Mars is certainly a
fixer-upper.
But the renovations might be a bit easier than you think.
就行星而言，火星无疑是一个有待改造的星球。但改造过程可能比你想象的容易一些。
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇336左右）
原文出自：2024年8月10日【TE】Science & technology版块
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路
本文翻译整理: Irene
本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。
IF YOU WANT to live elsewhere in the solar system, Mars is the least-bad choice.
若你梦想在太阳系的其他星球上居住，火星或许是较为理想的选择。
Climate
models suggest that pumping 30 litres of the dust per second into the
atmosphere could boost the average temperature by 30°C or more within
decades.
根据气候模型的估算，如果每秒向火星大气中注入30升人造尘埃，那么在未来几十年内，火星的平均气温可能会上升30摄氏度或更高。
Ms Ansari reckons that, in mass terms, her method is around 5,000 times more efficient.
安萨里估计，就质量而言，她的方法效率要高出约5000倍。#深度好文计划#
自由英语之路
