VOA慢速英语：保护宇航员和宇宙飞船免撞尘埃

Our Milky Way solar system began as small pieces ofstar-created gas and dust. They came together to formthe Sun, the Earth and other planets, and life as weknow it. But not all the dust was used, and whatremains can be dangerous.

银河系刚开始只是由星球制造的气体和尘埃组成的小块星系。这些气体和尘埃组合到一起组成太阳、地球、其它星球和我们所认知的生命。但是并不是所有的尘埃都会用完，留下的尘埃就很危险。

Scientists are studying this dust with a student-designed instrument on the American space agency’sNew Horizons spacecraft. The agency is busycollecting information from the spacecraft this week in the first-ever flyby of Pluto.

科学家利用美国航天局里的由学生制造的“新视野”宇宙飞船研究这些尘埃。这周宇宙飞船首次靠近冥王星，因此航天局正忙于从宇宙飞船收集信息。

David James is a research assistant at the University of Colorado. Ourreporter found him in one of the university’s laboratories on a recent day. He was inspecting the settings on a room-size machine.

大卫·詹姆斯是科罗拉多大学的一位调查助理。我们的记者最近在大学里的一间实验室里发现了他。他正在有一间屋子大的机器里检测装置。

“That’s one of the cryopumps. You have to continuously pull air out otherwiseit will leak up to the atmosphere again”

这是其中一台低温泵。你必须一直将空气挤压出来，否则它就会再露空气。

Those pumps take air from a tunnel or passageway. The process helpsscientists make dust on Earth move as fast as it would in space.

这些泵通过通道将空气挤压出去。整个过程帮助科学家在地球上将尘埃快速移动，和在太空中一样快。

“We’ve even reached 107 kilometers per second is our fastest particle here.”

我们甚至达到分子最快移动速度为每秒107公里。

The tests may help scientists learn what causes dust to be created in space. It may also help them design spacecraft and equipment that cannot be hurt bydust.

这项实验可能帮助科学家们了解太空中尘埃的由来，也可能会帮助他们设计免受尘埃碰撞的宇宙飞船和装备。

David James says he became interested in space more than 10 years agowhen he was studying physics in graduate school. A friend told him about theStudent Dust Counter project.

大卫·詹姆斯说10年前他在大学学习物理时就对太空感兴趣。他的一位朋友告诉他这个“抗尘埃学生工程”。

he said ‘I’m working on this project that’s really neat. It has a lot of real-world applications and, you know, it’s eventually going to be launched intospace.’”

他说，我现在工作的这项项目真的很酷，它有许多存在于现实世界的装置，这些装置最后是要被发往太空的。

iffany Finley was also a graduate student when she began working on thedust counter project, in 2002.

蒂芙尼·芬利同样是名大学生，她在2002年开始在这个项目上工作。

“This opportunity came up and I said ‘What? You’re going to Pluto? I wouldlove to be part of that.’”

“当这次机会来临时，我说‘什么？’你要去冥王星？我很高兴成为其中一员。”

The dust counter was designed to measure and count the dust that hit andflew by the New Horizons spacecraft as it traveled to Pluto. Tiffany Finley sayssuch a device would usually be created by experts.

设计抗尘埃项目是为了新视野宇宙飞船飞往冥王星时衡量和避免受到尘埃撞击。芬利说这样的装置通常是由专家制造的。

“As a student project, it’s one of the first where students actually got to buildthe hardware on the mission.”

作为一个学生项目，这是学生首次真正为执行任务的飞船建造装置。

She later became the manager of the dust project. Today, Ms. Finley is theScience Operations Manager for the New Horizons mission.

后来芬利成为该项目经理。芬利如今是新视野任务的科研运作经理。

Mihaly Horanyi is a professor of physics at the University of Colorado. He alsoserves as the faculty advisor for the Student Dust Counter project. He saysthe counter did not cost as much money as it would have if a company built itbecause so many students were involved. More than 30 students haveworked on the project.

米哈里是科罗拉多大学的物理学教授，同时也是抗尘埃学生项目的技术顾问。他表示如果一个公司建立该项目花不了多少钱，因为有好多学生参加。现在有30多名学生参与其中。

The Student Dust Counter was launched with the New Horizons spacecraft in 2006. Six devices on the almost 5-billion-kilometer-long journey were designedto stay quiet during the trip. Now they are operating. They are sending colorpictures back to Earth, and studying Pluto’s chemical makeup. But theStudent Dust Counter has been operating throughout the trip.

抗尘埃学生项目和新视野宇宙飞船在2006年建立。在长达五百万公里的飞行中六个装备静止不动，现在它们开始运作了。它们向地球发回彩色图片，研究冥王星的化学组成。但是抗尘埃学生工程在整个旅途中一直运作。

Professor Horanyi says dust counters help researchers better understandspace dust, including the problems it may cause for space travelers. Even thesmallest particles of dust can be harmful.

米哈里教授称这个项目帮助研究者更好地理解宇宙尘埃，包括对宇航员造成的潜在的问题。即使是最小的颗粒也是危险的。

“Hundred-micron-size particles, like that thickness of your hair, if they were tohit the spacecraft at 10, 15 kilometers per sec(ond), that’s an end of missionevent. It’s over. It would puncture a hole. It would destroy the mission.”

像头发丝一样厚度的几百微米的颗粒如果以每秒10或15公里的速度撞击宇宙飞船，那么这项任务也就中止了。它能将飞船撞出一个洞，破坏整个任务。

After a planned five-month-long exploration of Pluto, most scientificinstruments on New Horizon will stop operating. But the spacecraft itself willcontinue flying past the edge of our solar system, and the Student DustCounter will keep on counting.

经过对冥王星近五个多月的探索。新视野上的许多科学仪器停止了工作。但是飞船仍在我们得星系边缘转动，抗尘埃学生工程一直在运作。

I’m Jim Tedder.

Shelley Schlender reported this story from Boulder, Colorado. ChristopherJones-Cruise adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

solar system – n. the sun and everything that moves around it

neat– (informal) adj. pleasant, fun or interesting

real-world application(s) – n. something that can be used in life rather thanonly in theory or in a laboratory

hardware– n. computer equipment

sec(ond) –n. a unit of time that is equal to 1/60th of a minute

puncture– v. to make a hole in (something) with a sharp point