美国国家公共电台 NPR A Chinese Space Lab Will Soon Fall From The Sky. Where It Lands, No One Knows

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

A prototype space station, put into orbit by China, will soon be falling back to Earth. It is the size of a city bus. No one knows where parts of it will land although regions of the continental¹ U.S. are in the potential crash zone. But as NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports, you have nothing to worry about.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE²: China sent up this orbiting lab in 2011. It's called Tiangong-1. The name means heavenly palace. And it was briefly³ visited twice by Chinese taikonauts, like Wang Yaping who beamed down a science lecture from space on the side.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WANG YAPING: (Through interpreter) Look at these lovely, beautiful, little droplets⁴. Does it remind you of the word translucent⁵?

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She showed how drops of water would float in midair in front of the red flag of China. Joan Johnson-Freese is a professor at the Naval⁶ War College. She says the Tiangong-1 is part of a methodical program that China has been following since 1992...

JOAN JOHNSON-FREESE: ...To demonstrate human spaceflight and culminate⁷ with a large space station.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: That future station would be smaller than the International Space Station but still huge and a more permanent home in space. For that, China needs experience with things like spaceship docking and long-term life-support. So Tiangong-1 and another heavenly palace, Tiangong-2...

JOHNSON-FREESE: ...Have been technology test bed laboratories to do experimentation⁸ on all those different areas and more.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Now though Tiangong-1 is headed back down. And even though space junk this size falls to Earth a few times a year, it's usually something like a spent rocket stage not a home away from home for astronauts. Bill Ailor is an expert on orbital debris⁹ at the Aerospace¹⁰ Corporation.

BILL AILOR: These kinds of events are noteworthy. And people in this business kind of watch to see what they can learn about how these things come apart as they come down.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says most of the 19,000 pound lab should burn up - though not all of it.

AILOR: Somewhere between, say, 2,000 and 8,000 pounds might come down...

GREENFIELDBOYCE: ...In a zone that covers about two-thirds of the globe, including a lot of the continental United States. Exactly where and when is hard to know because the vehicle will interact with the atmosphere, which is constantly changing. The fiery¹¹ re-entry is currently predicted to happen sometime in a window that covers the last few days of March and the first few days of April. Ailor says don't worry about getting hit.

AILOR: You know, it's just not a very likely event that any particular person would have a problem with it.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says in 60 years of space exploration, only one person, an American woman named Lottie Williams, has been struck by falling space junk.

AILOR: And it was just like a piece of fabric¹² material that kind of brushed her on the shoulder.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says hopefully someone will get to see the bright streaks¹³ created by Tiangong-1 breaking up and burning.

AILOR: It would be a beautiful thing to watch.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: But since most of our planet is covered by oceans, he says the most likely scenario¹⁴ is that it will come down over the water and never be seen or heard from again. Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF FRITZ VON RUNTE'S "SPACE ODDITY")

1 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

2 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。

3 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

4 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

5 translucent   

adj.半透明的；透明的

参考例句：

• The building is roofed entirely with translucent corrugated plastic.这座建筑完全用半透明瓦楞塑料封顶。
• A small difference between them will render the composite translucent.微小的差别,也会使复合材料变成半透明。

6 naval   

adj.海军的，军舰的，船的

参考例句：

• He took part in a great naval battle.他参加了一次大海战。
• The harbour is an important naval base.该港是一个重要的海军基地。

7 culminate   

v.到绝顶，达于极点，达到高潮

参考例句：

• The celebration of the centenary will culminate with a dinner.百年庆典活动将以宴会作为高潮。
• Everyone feared that the boundary dispute between these two countries would culminate in a war.人人都担心,这两国间的边境争端将以一场战争到达顶点。

8 experimentation   

n.实验，试验，实验法

参考例句：

• Many people object to experimentation on animals.许多人反对用动物做实验。
• Study and analysis are likely to be far cheaper than experimentation.研究和分析的费用可能要比实验少得多。

9 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

10 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

11 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

12 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

13 streaks   

n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• streaks of grey in her hair 她头上的绺绺白发
• Bacon has streaks of fat and streaks of lean. 咸肉中有几层肥的和几层瘦的。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

14 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。