2021年12月16日，《自然》公布了2021年度十大人物榜单（Nature's 10），我国首次火星探测任务工程总设计师张荣桥赫然在列。
《自然》年度人物对张荣桥的描述是“火星探险家”（Mars explorer），他带领团队在国际上首次一次性完成“绕”、“落”、“巡”三大任务，并且使中国成为第二个在火星表面软着陆的国家。
《自然》特写部主编Rich Monastersky表示，“从追踪危险的新冠变异株到证明气候变化在极端天气中的作用，再到将探测器送上火星，本年度《自然》十大人物聚焦身处重要科学事件中心的个人，这些科学事件对全球产生了深远的影响。”
Zhang Rongqiao, chief designer of China's first interplanetary endeavor－the Tianwen 1 Mars mission－was named on Thursday by the top scientific journal Nature as one of the 10 people "who mattered in science" this year. The annual list, published on the journal's website, said that Zhang is an engineer who led "China's first successful Mars mission, which reached the planet this year and landed a rover on its surface".
2021年5月15日，中国的火星探测器“天问一号”成功着陆在火星表面预选着陆区，中国成为世界上第二个成功着陆火星并部署火星车的国家。
在“祝融号”火星车传回遥测信号后，位于北京的飞控中心亮起喜庆的大红屏，工程师激动高呼“火星，你好！”此时的张荣桥默默摘下眼镜，热泪盈眶。
此次成功着陆，标志着这一4.75亿公里的危险之旅结束了，也标志着中国成为继美国之后第二个将火星车送上火星的国家。
火星，是一个如此陌生而又复杂的环境，中国团队面临着许多未知数，张荣桥作为总设计师，协调了数万人组成的庞大研究团队，最终成功登陆火星。张荣桥说道，这次成功登陆让他深刻地理解了一句中国老话——十年磨一剑。
On May 15, Zhang Rongqiao wiped tears from his eyes as China’s Mars rover landed safely on the planet’s sandy, auburn plains. “I was so overwhelmed,” says Zhang, who coordinated the mission. auburn [ˈɔbərn] adj.红褐色的 The touchdown marked the conclusion of a 475-million-kilometre journey full of peril for Zhang and the China National Space Administration, which had never before sent a successful mission to Mars. The landing, says Zhang, gave him a taste of the old Chinese saying — it takes ten years to sharpen a good sword.
出生于1966年的张荣桥是安徽省祁门县人，本科就读于西安电子科技大学，1991年获中国空间技术研究院硕士研究生学历，2004年至今在国防科工委月球探测中心工作，是国家探月工程副总设计师，中国首次火星探测任务工程总设计师。
Born in March 1966 in Qimen county, Anhui province, Zhang studied at local schools until he went to Xidian University in Shaanxi province in 1982. In 1988, he received a bachelor's degree and was admitted as a postgraduate student by the China Academy of Space Technology in Beijing. After graduating in 1991, Zhang started his career at the academy's Beijing Institute of Satellite Information Engineering and gradually moved up through professional ranks to eventually become the institute's head. In 2004, he was named chief engineer of the Lunar Exploration Center under the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and has worked there since then.
“仰望星空，脚踏实地”，是张荣桥非常喜欢的两句话，他说：“这恰恰是社会对我们每个人的需求，是我们在社会上安身立命的途径，需要我们立足当下，放眼未来。”张荣桥说：“我们对宇宙的认知和了解仍然很肤浅。我们应该看到，摇篮之外的世界，无限广阔。创新永无止境。”
编辑：陈月华
实习生：陈励澄
来源：中国日报 Nature 人民网
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