本文节选自外刊《自然》(Nature / News / Article / 18 February 2022)Asteroids, Hubble rival and Moon base: China sets out space agenda——小行星、哈勃望远镜的竞争对手和月球基地:中国制定了太空议程。
文章上半部分节选内容如下:
Asteroids, Hubble rival and Moon base: China sets out space agenda
小行星、哈勃望远镜的竞争对手和月球基地:中国制定了太空议程
In the next five years, the nation hopes to launch a robotic craft to an asteroid and two lunar missions.
在接下来的五年里,该国希望向一颗小行星发射一艘机器人飞船,并完成两次登月任务。
China has had a bumper few years in space exploration, and its ambitions are about to get bolder. The China National Space Administration has released an overview of its plans for the next five years, which include launching a robotic craft to an asteroid, building a space telescope to rival the Hubble and laying the foundations for a space-based gravitational-wave detector.
The missions were highlighted in a white paper, ‘China’s Space Program: A 2021 Perspective’, released last month. The plans continue the country’s trend in emphasizing missions with science at their heart, rather than technology development and applications, says Shuang-Nan Zhang, an astronomer at the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing. “This is a very good sign,” he says. “It’s a continuous increase in investment in exploration of the Universe.”
Nature looks at five of the most ambitious projects.
《自然》杂志着眼于五个最雄心勃勃的项目。
重点词汇
asteroids星状的;海盘车;(asteroid的复数)
rival竞争对手;敌手;可与…匹敌的人;可与之相比的人;与… 竞争;努力赶上;与…匹敌;比得上
robotic机器人的;自动机的;机械呆板的;机器人(或自动机)似的
asteroid小行星
lunar与月亮有关的;与月亮相似的;月亮的
bumper保险杠;新马平地赛;大满杯敬酒;烟头;烟屁股;特大的;非常好的;非常成功的
ambitions野心;雄心;理想;夙愿;(ambition的复数)
bolder更大胆的;更勇敢的;更放肆的;更陡峭的;更醒目的;更明显的;(bold的比较级)
space telescope空间望远镜
space program空间程序;空间计划;太空计划
Visit an asteroid
参观小行星
China aims to launch asteroid probes to sample near-Earth asteroids and study icy comets that have asteroid-like orbits.
中国计划发射小行星探测器,对近地小行星进行采样,并研究具有类似小行星轨道的冰冷彗星。
The mission, which will probably be named ZhengHe after a Ming-dynasty Chinese explorer, would be the country’s first to visit an asteroid, and could launch as soon as 2024.
It will follow in the wake of Japan’s successful Hayabusa asteroid missions and NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex, which is due to return space rocks to Earth next year.
ZhengHe will fly for ten years, first landing on an ancient asteroid known as HO3 or Kamo‘oalewa, which loops around Earth as a quasi-satellite (see ‘Earth’s pet rock’).
Not content with returning the first lunar samples to Earth since the 1970s, China approved three more lunar missions in December, all focusing on the Moon’s south pole, where the country is considering building a lunar base.
Chang’e-7, set to launch in 2024, will carry out a detailed survey of the Moon’s south pole, including mapping the distribution of ice in its shadowy craters.
定于2024年发射的嫦娥七号将对月球南极进行详细勘测,包括绘制其阴影陨石坑中冰的分布图。
Chang’e-6 will follow, aiming to bring back polar soil samples.
嫦娥六号将紧随其后,旨在带回极地土壤样本。
The ice is a treasure trove for scientists, who can use it to study the Moon’s history, and for prospectors, who hope to use it as rocket fuel and to supply lunar bases.
Work will also begin on Chang’e-8, which is not scheduled to fly until 2030; this will test “core technologies” for a crewed international lunar research station — the focus of China’s lunar programme beyond 2025.
Russia and China will sign an intergovernmental agreement on building a research base together “as soon as possible this year”, said Wu Yanhua, vice-administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), at the press conference to launch the white paper.
He stressed, however, that the venture was open to all nations.
然而,他强调,该项目对所有国家开放。
Wu added that China wants to broaden and deepen international collaboration, including on lunar exploration; on China’s space station, Tiangong, which is under construction; and on planetary exploration.