北爱尔兰年轻工科学生设计的机器人能否登上月球？来自贝尔法斯特女王大学（QUB）的一个团队将于本月晚些时候前往佛罗里达，参加美国国家航空航天局（NASA）的“月球机器人”竞赛。
Could a robot designed by young engineering students from Northern Ireland end up on the Moon? A team, from Queen's University Belfast (QUB), are heading to Florida later this month to take part in a Nasa 'lunabotics' competition.
“月球机器人”是一项大学级别的竞赛，要求各团队运用NASA的系统工程流程，设计、建造并操作一台月球机器人。
Lunabotics is a university-level competition for teams to use the Nasa systems engineering process to design, build, and operate a lunar robot.
学生们制造了一台实验室制造的机器人，将带到比赛现场，测试其在未来月球任务中的表现。
The students created a lab-built robot that they will bring to the competition to find out how it would deal with future moon missions.
机器人将被要求挖掘月球物质、跨越障碍物，并利用这些物质建造一堵墙。
The robots will be expected to dig up lunar material, drive over obstacles and use the material to form a wall.
正在攻读机械工程博士学位的杰克·菲茨帕特里克表示，受邀参赛“感觉很棒”，他们期待这次参赛机会。
Jack Fitzpatrick, who's studying for a PhD in mechanical engineering, said "it's a great feeling" to have been invited and they're looking forward to the opportunity to take part.
这支由10名QUB学生组成的团队凭借今年早些时候在比赛中的获胜成绩，获得了参赛资格。
The team of 10 QUB students made it to the competition following their win at the competition earlier this year.
他们将在中佛罗里达大学与来自澳大利亚、印度和美国的大学团队同台竞技。杰米·史密斯是一名三年级电子电气工程专业的学生。他解释说，团队分为软件、电子和机械三个小组。
They'll be competing at the University of Central Florida against university teams from Australia, India and the US. Jamie Smith is a third-year electrical and electronic engineering student. He explained that the team was divided into three groups for software, electronics and mechanical.
杰米是该项目的软件组组长。他表示，他们的主要任务是控制探测车，并为其提供自主导航能力。
Jamie was the software team lead for this project. He said their main task was to control the rover then provide the autonomous capabilities towards it.
此外，他们还必须构建探测车仿真模型，在拿到实体之前测试软件。而杰克则属于机械组。
And, they had to build rover simulations to test their software before they actually got one. Jack, however, is part of the mechanical side.
他解释道：“我们分析结构是否足够坚固、制造是否足够精良以在该环境下生存，以及是否具备在该环境下行驶所需的牵引力。”
"We analyse that something is physically strong enough, it's well built enough to survive this environment, it's going to have the traction to drive in this environment," he explained.
杰米解释说，他们设计了这台重52公斤的铝合金框架探测车，并带去米尔顿凯恩斯参加了一场比赛。“我们表现很好，最终赢得了比赛，玩得很开心，”他说。
Jamie explained they designed the 52 kg aluminium frame robot rover and took it compete at a competition in Milton Keynes. "We got on very well. We ended up winning the competition and had great fun," he said.
几周后，他们受邀参加美国宇航局（NASA）举办的国际月球机器人挑战赛。
Then a few weeks later, they were invited to compete at Nasa's international Lunabotics competition.
杰克表示，受邀参赛是一种“很棒的感觉”，也是“一个真正展示所学知识的机会”。
Jack said that being asked to go was a "great feeling" and "a real opportunity to demonstrate everything that you've learned".
杰克解释道：“这真是一个绝佳的机会，让我们代表北爱尔兰、英国乃至整个欧洲出征海外，因为我们将是现场唯一的欧洲队伍。”
"It's just a great opportunity to represent Northern Ireland, the UK and really Europe abroad as we are the only European team that will be there," Jack explained.
两位学生都表示，他们的成功不仅是个人的荣耀，也反映了大学以及机械与航空航天工程学院的实力。
Both of the students said their success was a reflection of both themselves and also the university and the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
杰米解释说，探测车的主要目标是能够在模拟月球环境的房间内自主行驶。
Jamie explained that the main objective of the rover is that should be able to drive itself around a lunar-simulated room.
“这意味着它要从一个起点出发，确定自己在房间内的位置，前往挖掘点，在那里采集一些旨在模拟月球土壤的沙子。
"That means it should start at a point, figure out where it is within this room, travel to an excavation point, so in that point, it will pick up then some sand which is meant to be lunar-simulant.
“它会采集沙子，然后将其倾倒在另一个地点，而且这一切都要完全自主完成。”杰克解释说，这样做的目的是模拟真实探测器在月球上执行此类任务的过程。
"It'll pick up the sand and then deposit it at another location, and it's meant to do this all by itself." Jack explained that the purpose of this is to simulate how real rovers carry out these kind of tasks on the moon.
他解释道：“关键在于能在月球上自主运作，为人类日后建立栖息环境奠基。这才是这项比赛存在的真正驱动力。”
"It's being able to autonomously operate on the moon and build environments for humans to later habitat. And that's the real drive behind why this competition exists," he explained.
杰克表示，此前不同国家举办过多场预选赛，而这项总决赛汇集了各预选赛的顶尖队伍，“旨在真正展示国际间的人才实力”。
Jack explained that there have been several precursor competitions in different countries and this competition takes the top tier of those competitions and brings them together "to really showcase the talent" that there is internationally.
“我们是英国预选赛的冠军队伍，将代表英国，进而代表欧洲参赛。”他说：“我们今年未必能夺冠，但我们正在打下基础，以便逐年改进，或许几年后能带着获胜的设计强势回归。”
"We are the winning team from the United Kingdom competition and we will be representing the UK and, by extension, Europe at this competition." "We may not win the competition this year but we're building a base upon which we can improve year on year and maybe come back in a few years and really come through with a winning design," he said.
QPL机器人负责人卡奥兰·博伊尔表示，团队“感到无比自豪和兴奋”。
Caolán Boyle, Head of Robotics at QPL, said the team is "exceptionally proud and excited".
他表示，“为让探测器任务做好迎接此次事件的准备，已投入了数百个小时”。
He said "hundreds of hours have gone into making the rover mission ready for the event".