VOA慢速英语2019 联合国和欧洲机构计划清理太空垃圾（在线收听）

UN, European Agencies Launch Plan to Clean Up Space

European and United Nations agencies are developing a plan for worldwide action on dealing with waste in outer space, commonly called space junk. The agencies say space junk orbiting the earth must be cleaned up to make room for new satellites launched by private companies and other groups.

欧洲和联合国机构正在制定一项全球行动计划来清理外太空的废物，这些通常被称为太空垃圾。这些机构表示，绕地球轨道上的太空垃圾必须被清理干净，以便为私营公司和其它机构发射新卫星腾出空间。

Representatives from the European Space Agency and the U.N. Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) met in Vienna, Austria earlier this month to discuss the issue.

欧洲航天局和联合国外太空事务办公室的代表们本月早些时候在奥地利维也纳举行了会议讨论这个问题。

Space junk has been a concern since the time of the Space Race between the United States and the former Soviet Union during the 1950s and 60s. Currently, several countries including China and India have developed the ability to shoot down satellites, and the situation has gotten worse.

自上世纪五六十年代美国同前苏联之间的太空竞赛时期以来，太空垃圾一直备受关注。目前，包括中国和印度在内的一些国家已经具备击落卫星的能力，情况也变得更加糟糕。

Space junk can be anything from dead satellites, to lost pieces of equipment, to small pieces of paint. Jan Woerner is head of the European Space Agency, or ESA. He says that the amount of space junk is so large that the ESA “very frequently” has to change its satellites’ course to avoid larger objects.

太空垃圾包括各种东西，从废弃卫星，到丢失的设备，再到小块的油漆。简·韦尔纳是欧洲航天局的局长。他说，太空垃圾数量如此之大，以至于欧洲航空安全局“非常频繁地”需要改变其卫星路线，以免撞到更大的物体。

He added that “... space is something like a road, like a street. It’s infrastructure and we have to make it clean.”

他还说：“太空就像是一条公路，一条街道，它是基础设施，所以我们必须把它清理干净。”

Together, ESA and UNOOSA have launched a campaign to bring attention to the problem of space junk.

欧洲航天局和联合国外太空事务办公室联合发起了一场运动，以引起人们对太空垃圾问题的关注。

Private companies like Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, are seeking to launch thousands of new satellites. The space agencies hope to get countries to agree on action.

太空探索科技（又名SpaceX）等私营企业正在寻求发射数千颗新卫星，这些太空机构希望各国在行动上达成一致。

Simonetta Di Pippo is head of UNOOSA. She said, “You have really more and more countries, more and more private-sector entities entering into the field.”

西蒙丽塔·迪皮蓬是联合国外太空事务办公室主任。她说：“现在有越来越多的国家和越来越多的私营企业进入该领域。”

Woerner said he will meet with representatives from the ESA’s 22 member states in November. He plans to ask them to support an effort in which his agency would pay one company to bring down one of its old satellites safely. Woerner added that he hopes it will lead to more.

韦尔纳表示，他将于11月会见欧洲航天局22个成员国的代表。他计划请求成员国支持该机构花钱雇一家公司安全击落该机构其中一颗旧卫星。

He said the action needed is similar to that on climate change.

他说，我们需要采取的行动跟应对气候变化类似。

“We have to get rid of it. And therefore awareness is number 1, and then immediately when we get people also being aware…then we can act,” he said.

他说：“我们必须处理掉这些太空垃圾，因此意识是最重要的。一旦让人们也意识到这点，我们就能采取行动。”

I’m Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

frequently –adv. happening often

infrastructure –n. the basic equipment and structures such as roads and bridges that are needed for a country, region, or organization to function properly

sector –n. an area of an economy; a part of an economy that includes certain kinds of jobs

entities –n. something that exists by itself : something that is separate from other things

awareness –n. the knowledge and understanding of what is happening in the world or around you