Higginbotham, who grew up in Chicago and became an engineer before joining NASA, that is the National Air and Space Administration, gives about a dozen speeches a year.
希金波坦在芝加哥长大，在加入美国国家航空航天局之前他是一名工程师，每年举办大约12次演讲。
Lengthy delays like this are one of the key challenges for NASA, according to an April 2011 report from the US National Academy of Sciences.
美国国家科学院于2011年4月的报告称，这样的长时间延误是美国航空航天局面临的主要挑战之一。
NASA crashed an empty rock booster into the moon to see if water-ice crystals were at the South Pole.
NASA将一枚空岩助推器撞向月球，以探测在月球南极是否存在水冰晶体。
In 2005, a NASA science mission called Deep Impact crashed an 816-pound copper mass into a comet to learn more about its icy interior.
2005年，美国宇航局的一项叫做深度撞击的科学任务，是用一块816磅重的铜质物体撞击一颗彗星，以了解其内部更冰冷的物质。
With such discoveries building well-justified public interest, NASA will be able to ask for extra funding to add an MSR mission to the queue.
有了这些发现来建立有理由的公众兴趣，NASA可以要求额外的资金来拓展一个海洋科学项目加入这个这个队列。
Researchers Maosheng Zhao and Steven Running of the University of Montana in Missoula discovered the global shift from an analysis of NASA satellite data.
蒙大拿大学密苏拉分校的研究人员赵茂盛和史蒂芬阮宁通过对美国航天局卫星数据的分析，发现了这一全球性变化。
Orion was originally intended to serve as a crew capsule for the Constellation program, an ambitious NASA project to return humans to the moon and eventually create a full-time lunar base.
奥赖恩太空船原本打算作为星座计划(美国航天局的一项雄心勃勃计划，试图使人类重返月球，并最终建立一个专用的月球基地)的乘员太空舱。
In the meantime, check out this other bit of NASA promo hilarity: Space Your Face, where an animated astronaut with whatever picture you want in its helmet boogies on the moon or Mars.
与此同时，请关注NASA的另一项推广活动：“太空飞脸”，在这个活动中，一个飞往月球或火星的动画版宇航员将在他的头盔上画上任何你所想要的图画。
To test future rocket designs, NASA is employing an age-old bar trick: Slowly and deliberately apply pressure to an aluminum can until it crumples. No foreheads will be involved, however.
美国国家航空航天局(NASA)将采用一种古老方法来测试未来火箭的设计方案，把一个没有盖子的大铝罐逐渐慢慢的加压，直至把它压碎。
The NASA team concluded that the miners and their families were setting an example of resilience.
NASA团队总结道，矿工及家人树立一个适应力的榜样。
The region, which was the target of a recent NASA mission that intentionally crashed an unmanned spacecraft to look for frozen water, could be ideal for a future human outpost.
这片区域最近成为了NASA一项无人飞行任务的目的地，这次任务使用无人驾驶飞船撞击这一区域以检测是否存在固态的水。 如果有的话，这里将成为人类设立前哨的理想地点。
NASA has largely dismissed a Russian report that an asteroid larger than two football fields could hit Earth by 2036.
美国国家航空和宇宙航行局在很大程度否定了一份俄国的报告，该报告称一个比两个足球场还大的行星可能于2036年撞击地球。
Boeing Boomless Jet: Boeing's concept places the engines on top of the wings, adding an extra sound barrier. NASA via wired.
波音的静音喷气机：波音公司的概念图，将引擎放置在在机翼上方，并且增加一个额外的音障。
This artist's concept illustrates an unexpected black hole discovered in 2002 by NASA, about 32,600 light-years away.
这是一幅艺术家创作的概念图，描绘了太空总署于2002年意外发现的一个黑洞，它距离我们大约32600光年。
Webb was not an astronomer, but head of NASA in the 1960s—a sharp indication of how the balance of power has shifted between scientists and bureaucrats.
韦博不是一名宇航员，而是20世纪60年代美国国家航天太空总署的领导者-这点强烈说明了权利的平衡是如何在科学家和官僚家之间转移的。
NASA will not return humans to the moon but might visit an asteroid-and much later Mars.
美国航空航天局放弃其人类重返月球的计划，取而代之的是探访一颗小行星和经过较长的一段时间后再探访火星的计划。
Lindley Johnson, head of the near-Earth object program at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., says an asteroid the size of a football field could wipe out a major city.
在华盛顿的美国宇航局总部的近地天体计划负责人林德利-约翰逊说，如果一颗足球场大小的小行星撞上了地球，其威力可以毁灭一座大型城市。
This NASA illustration is a still from an animation depicting how thunderstorms on Earth can create beams of antimatter particles and hurl them into space.
NASA的这个解释仍然出之于动画，它描述了地球上的雷暴雨能够产生反物质的粒子束，并把它们掷进太空。
Through an enormous stroke of luck, NASA aimed the Hubble Telescope at precisely the right place at precisely the right time to capture these images on film.
多亏撞上了极大的好运气，美国宇航局恰好在适当的时间将哈勃太空望远镜恰好对准了适当的位置，在胶片上捕捉到了这些图像。
However, tracking data showed the debris would not come close enough to warrant an evacuation of the station, NASA said in a statement issued after the crew was given the all-clear signal.
然而，在空间站人员收到警报解除的信号之后，NASA发布了一份声明，称跟踪数据表明卫星碎片的距离不会接近到需要确保能进行空间站撤离的地步。
The debris will continue to spread, however, and potentially could force the station to make an avoidance maneuver at some point, said NASA spokesman John Yembrick.
美国宇航局发言人约翰•耶姆布雷克表示，但是，碎片会继续扩散，有可能迫使空间站在某种情况下采取避撞操作。
Proving that you can teach an old rover new tricks, NASA recently unveiled this image--the first taken autonomously by the Mars rover Opportunity.
美国宇航局近期公布了这张由火星漫游者罗孚自主拍摄的照片。这是教会老罗孚玩新把戏最好的证明。
In 2004, NASA scientists announced that there was a chance that Apophis, an asteroid larger than two football fields, could smash into Earth in 2029.
在2004年的时候，美国航空航天局的科学家们宣布阿波菲斯这个比两个足球场还大的小行星，可能会在2029年撞击地球。
In pursuit of flight, I'm also keeping my eye on the Puffin, a "personal air vehicle" that became an Internet sensation when NASA unveiled it in 2010.
在追寻飞行之梦的路途中，我也在密切关注“海雀”，那是NASA在2010年公布的“个人空中飞行器”，在公布伊始就在网络上引发了热潮。
NASA commissioned Goodyear to build prototypes of an inflatable space station, which looked like a big rubber inner tube.
NASA后来又委托了固特异公司建造了一艘可充气空间站的雏形，它看起来就像是一块巨大的橡皮内胎。
“That’s a real concern and question, ” said James Russell, an atmospheric scientist at Hampton University and the principal investigator of an ongoing NASA satellite mission to study the clouds.
“那是真正要关切和质疑的，”詹姆斯·拉塞尔说。 他是汉普顿大学的大气科学家，也是美国航天局正在进行中的卫星飞行任务中研究云团的首席研究员。
Another thing worrying Mr Schweickart is that NASA has no plans to test an asteroid-deflection scheme.
另一件让施威卡特感到头疼的事则是美国宇航局还未计划对偏转小行星方案进行检验。
TV comedian Stephen Colbert campaigned and won an online vote to have the chamber named after him, but NASA much preferred the historic moniker.
这是电视喜剧演员斯蒂芬·科尔伯特的名字，网上投票赞成用他的名字来命名，但美国航天局更喜欢用具有历史意义的称呼。
"In most cases, it's all kind of guesses because we don't have samples," says Scott Sandford, an astrophysicist at the NASA Ames Research Center.
来自美国宇航局艾姆斯研究中心的天文物理学家斯科特·桑福德说：“在大多数情况下，因为没有标本样品，具体联系都是靠猜测得出的。”
"In most cases, it's all kind of guesses because we don't have samples," says Scott Sandford, an astrophysicist at the NASA Ames Research Center.
来自美国宇航局艾姆斯研究中心的天文物理学家斯科特·桑福德说：“在大多数情况下，因为没有标本样品，具体联系都是靠猜测得出的。”
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