VOA慢速英语2016 《2016中国的航天》白皮书发表（在线收听）

China wants to develop "strength and size" in its space program, a China National Space Administration official said last week.

In the next five years, the country plans to speed up the development of its space program. China wants to become the first country to carry out a controlled landing of a probe on the far side of the moon in 2018.

China also has plans to launch its first probe to the planet Mars by 2020.

China released an official policy proposal, known as a white paper. The document provides details of China's plans for space exploration for the next five years. It was released by the State Council Information Office last Tuesday.

"To explore the vast cosmos, develop the space industry and build China into a space power is a dream we pursue unremittingly," the white paper said. China says it will use space for peaceful purposes, to guarantee national security and to carry out new scientific research according to the paper.

Russia and the United States have more experience in manned space travel with programs that have been operating for more than 50 years. China's military-supported program, however, has made progress in a short time.

Morris Jones is an independent writer and an expert on the Chinese space program. He is based in Australia. He told VOA that the Chinese have one of the world's best space programs. He said it was about the same as the European program.

"They're moving ahead very rapidly. They have a very impressive human spaceflight capability. They've recently completed their longest space mission to date, which was roughly a month. And they're preparing probes to go to the moon and deeper into space."

China conducted its first manned space mission in 2003. Since then, Chinese astronauts have carried out a spacewalk. China also landed a vehicle on the moon in 2013. That was the first time a spacecraft had made a soft landing on the moon since the 1970s.

Most recently, two Chinese astronauts stayed aboard China's Tiangong 2 experimental space station for one month. It was the country's sixth and longest space mission. A fully operating, permanently crewed space station is to begin operations six years from now. It is expected to operate for at least 10 years.

In the white paper, Chinese officials do not talk about sending humans to the moon, but Jones says that may happen in the future.

"What I also think is interesting to consider is the fact that the white paper gives further hints that even beyond landing robot probes on the moon, China is moving steadily in the direction of eventually sending humans there."

Jones says landing a probe on the far side of the moon is technically difficult. Because of the moon's orbit, the far side of the moon always faces away from Earth. That, Jones says, makes communications with the landing probe more difficult. He says China will have to use advanced technology including a special satellite to communicate with the lander.

China says landing on the far side of the moon may help explain the formation and evolution of our only natural satellite.

He Qisong is a space security expert at Shanghai University of Political Science and Law. He said a soft landing on the far side of the moon would show that China has fully developed the technology needed to land on a specific area of the Moon's surface.

"China never talks big and says something it's unable to achieve," he told the Associated Press.

The white paper says that China is committed to the peaceful use of space and opposes a space arms race.

Jones disagrees. He says China continues to develop its military space program.

"It's not accurate at all because China has one of the world's most advanced military space programs. They use space flight for most aspects of their military—communication, surveillance, weather forecasting. But one of the rising trends in China is the fact that they have a very aggressive development program for anti-satellite weapons. They've been able to hit satellites in low orbits for quite some time."

Jones says China has the ability to attack satellites in geostationary orbit or ones that are in a lower Earth orbit.

That means, "they can probably try to knock out America's GPS satellites in the event of a war," says Jones.

China plans to join Americans and Europeans who plan to go to Mars either with robots or humans. The white paper discusses China's plans to launch its first Mars probe by 2020. One goal is to explore and bring back samples from the red planet.

China also wants to explore Jupiter and to carry out "research into major scientific questions such as the origin and evolution of the solar system, and search for extraterrestrial life."

上周，中国国家航天局官员称，中国欲发展自身航空计划的力量并扩大航空规模。

未来五年，中国计划加快航空项目的进程。中国想在2018年成为首个在月球上着陆受控探测器的国家。

中国计划在2020年向火星发射第一枚探测器。

中国发布了官方政策提案，简称白皮书。该文件详细地阐述了未来五年中国太空探索计划。上周二，国务院新闻办公室发布了这项白皮书。

白皮书介绍称：“探索浩瀚的宇宙、发展航天工业、将中国建设成拥有探索太空力量是我们不懈追求的梦想”。中国将利用太空实现和平、保障国家安全，并以文件为基准开展新的科学研究。

50多年前就已掌握这项技术的俄罗斯和美国在载人太空航天方面经验丰富。然而，中国军用支持的项目在短期内就取得了进步。

莫里斯·琼斯（Morris Jones）是一位独立学者和中国太空计划研究专家。他是澳大利亚人。他告诉美国之声，中国太空计划是全球最佳太空计划之一。该计划与欧洲的太空计划大致相同。

“他们发展迅速。中国的载人航天飞行能力让人印象深刻。最近，中国完成了迄今为止时间最久（约一个月）的太空任务。他们正在研发登陆月球甚至更广袤的宇宙空间的探测器。”

2003年，中国进行了首次载人航天任务。此后，中国宇航员开始登陆太空。2013年，中国研发的航天器成功在月球上着陆。20世纪70年代以来，这是航天器首次在月球上软着陆。

近期，中国两名宇航员在天宫二号试验空间室生活了一个月。这是中国第六次进行太空任务，也是持续时间最久的一次太空任务。目的是为建立一个永久性的空间站，该空间站将于2022年建成。预计该空间站将至少运行10年。

虽然中国官员在白皮书中没有谈到将人类送往月球一事，但琼斯表示，未来这有可能会发生。

“有趣的是，我认为白皮书进一步暗示了，即使离机器人探测器登陆月球还很早，但中国正稳步朝着这一目标迈进。”

琼斯表示，让探测器在月球的远侧着陆是一项高难技术。因为运行轨道的关系，月球的远侧远离地球表面。琼斯说，这加大了探测器与陆地通信的难度。他说，中国将利用能与着陆器通信的特殊卫星等先进技术。

中国表示，在月球远侧的着陆或许能够解释唯一的自然卫星的形成与演变。

何启松是上海政法大学的太空安全专家。他表示，在月球远侧的软着陆将彰显出中国登陆月球表面特定区域所需技术已得到充分发展。

他告诉美联社：“中国从不夸夸其谈，也从不轻言放弃。”

白皮书说，中国致力于和平利用太空，反对太空军备竞赛。

琼斯并不认可这一观点。他表示，中国会继续发展军事太空计划。

“这一说法并不准确，因为中国拥有全球最先进的军事太空计划。他们在军事通信、监视、天气预报等方面使用了航天技术。但近期最惹人关注的是，中国已经具备了一项极具攻击性的反卫星武器发展计划。中国很早就掌握了在低轨道上拦截卫星的技术。”

琼斯认为，中国有能力攻击在地球静止轨道运行的或处于地球低轨道的卫星。

也就是说，“如果发生战争，中国有能力攻击美国的GPS卫星。”

中国打算加入由美国人和欧洲人发起的送机器人或人类登陆火星的计划。白皮书讨论了中国计划到2020年发射首个火星探测器。其中一项任务就是探索火星和采集样品。

中国还想探索木星，开展“研究太阳系的起源和演化等重大科学问题，并试图寻找外星生命”。