In 2031 a cannonball shot from Mars should fall to Earth somewhere in the deserts of the western U.S., allowing scientists to get their hands on what some would consider the most precious materials in human history: pristine geologic samples taken from the surface of another planet.
2031年，从火星发射的炮弹应该会落到美国西部沙漠的某个地方，让科学家们能够得到一些人认为是人类历史上最珍贵的材料：从另一个星球表面获取的原始地质样本。
Decades in the making, this moment would represent the zenith of the robotic Mars Sample Return (MSR) mission, an international endeavor involving NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and a consortium of industry partners.
经过几十年的努力，这一时刻将代表机器人火星样品返回(MSR)任务的顶峰，这是一项涉及NASA、欧洲航天局(ESA)和一个行业合作伙伴财团的国际努力。
But its realization is far from a foregone conclusion.
但它的实现远非定论。
Aside from one component—NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, set to launch as early as July—the multistage mission remains mostly conceptual, despite its estimated $7-billion price tag.
除了一个组件-NASA的火星2020漫游者，最早将于7月发射-这个多阶段任务仍然主要是概念性的，尽管它估计要花费70亿美元。
And more than just a myriad of technical obstacles and never before seen acts of spacefaring derring-do stand in the way of success.
而且不仅仅是无数的技术障碍和以前从未见过的太空飞行障碍-确实阻碍了成功之路。
There is no guarantee that two space agencies—each funded by, and emblematic of, very different political systems—can work perfectly in tandem to meet the milestones in the mission’s breathtakingly tight 11-year time line.
不能保证两个空间机构-每一个都由非常不同的政治制度资助，并且是非常不同的政治制度的象征-能够完美地协同工作，以满足任务令人惊叹的紧张的11年时间线中的里程碑。
The difficulties even extend beyond what would seem to be the greatest challenge: actually returning the hard-won samples to Earth.
困难甚至超出了似乎是最大的挑战：实际上把来之不易的样品送回地球。
Mission planners are still debating how, exactly, to safeguard the rocks from Mars against Earthly contamination, as well as any possible outbreak, no matter how unlikely, of an alien organism.
任务规划者仍在争论如何确切地保护来自火星的岩石免受地球污染，以及任何可能爆发的外星人有机体，无论多么不可能。
Whether considered in terms of complexity or audacity, MSR will serve as a touchstone for all future major interplanetary robotic missions.
无论是从复杂性还是大胆方面考虑，MSR都将成为未来所有主要星际机器人任务的试金石。
There is every chance it could fail, becoming little more than a multi-billion-dollar monument to interagency malfunction.
它有可能失败，成为一个价值数十亿美元的机构间故障的纪念碑。
