美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Plan To Zap Incoming Missiles With Lasers Is Back To The Future

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

OK. Imagine space lasers and particle beams being used to zap incoming missiles. Sounds like something out of "Star Wars," right? Well, studying the use of those things for real is part of the Trump¹ administration's new defense² budget.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Our goal is simple - to ensure that we can detect and destroy any missile launched against the United States anywhere, anytime, anyplace.

GREENE: President Trump there, as he laid out his plan for the nation's missile defense system earlier this year. So how realistic is a space-based missile shield? Well, we asked NPR's Geoff Brumfiel.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE³: Trump's not the first president to suggest space lasers. Back in 1983, Ronald Reagan unveiled a similar vision.

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RONALD REAGAN: It is part of a careful, long-term plan to make America strong again.

BRUMFIEL: Reagan called it the Strategic Defense Initiative. The press called it Star Wars. The program imagined an impenetrable shield that would include orbiting lasers and particle beams to zap Soviet⁴ missiles before they could hit their targets.

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REAGAN: I know this is a formidable, technical task - one that may not be accomplished⁵ before the end of this century - yet current technology has attained⁶ a level of sophistication where it's reasonable for us to begin this effort.

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TRUMP: My upcoming budget will invest in a space-based missile defense layer. It's new technology.

BRUMFIEL: That second voice was President Trump speaking in January. Except that new technology? On paper, it looks exactly like the old technology Reagan devoted⁷ billions to study.

JAMES ACTON: It's remarkable⁸ how similar all this stuff is. I'm actually not sure it's surprising.

BRUMFIEL: James Acton is a physicist⁹ at the Carnegie Endowment.

ACTON: You know, at the end of the day, the missile defense is a very, very tough problem. And there are a very limited number of ways of solving that problem.

BRUMFIEL: It's virtually impossible to make a nationwide missile shield without building it in space. It's only by taking the ultimate high ground that one can defend a target as big as the U.S. Despite many billions, Reagan's Star Wars program never produced that shield. But Rebeccah Heinrichs of the Hudson Institute says it's worth reconsidering.

REBECCAH HEINRICHS: It would be negligent¹⁰ on our part not to go back and look at these technologies.

BRUMFIEL: Things have changed since the 1980s. Lasers are much smaller and much more powerful. Satellites that once had to be the size of a school bus can be shrunk to the size of a shoe box.

HEINRICHS: And we can get launch costs down, which has been one of the biggest cost drivers for the whole thing, is just the cost of launch.

BRUMFIEL: Those little satellites, combined with new, cheap commercial rockets, might make a space-based defense program more affordable¹¹. Laura Grego is a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which tracks missile defense. She says, yeah, there's been progress, but much of the technology needed is still so far away. Take particle beams, focused streams of atoms designed to fry a target. Here on Earth, the equipment to generate a powerful beam could be miles long and use as much electricity as a small city. No one's found a way to shrink that technology to satellite size.

LAURA GREGO: I don't know why they think this is practical again.

BRUMFIEL: And there's another problem. A space-based system is constantly moving around the Earth in orbit.

GREGO: A single weapon will almost never be where it's supposed to be for it to work well. So you'd need a constellation¹² of them. And so it becomes really expensive, really quickly.

BRUMFIEL: A 2012 study by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said a space-based defense system would require many hundreds of satellites. It might cost as much as $300 billion. The president's budget is asking for a few hundred-million for R and D. It remains¹³ to be seen whether Democrats¹⁴, who now control the House, will be willing to pay even that. Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News, Washington.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

6 attained   

（通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况）

参考例句：

• She has attained the degree of Master of Arts. 她已获得文学硕士学位。
• Lu Hsun attained a high position in the republic of letters. 鲁迅在文坛上获得崇高的地位。

7 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

10 negligent   

adj.疏忽的；玩忽的；粗心大意的

参考例句：

• The committee heard that he had been negligent in his duty.委员会听说他玩忽职守。
• If the government is proved negligent,compensation will be payable.如果证明是政府的疏忽，就应支付赔偿。

11 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

12 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

13 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

14 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》