2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：卫星产业

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Satellite industry

　　卫星产业

　　Stars in their eyes

　　冉冉升起的新星

　　As the Rosetta mission shows, Britain is getting it right in space

　　随着罗塞塔号任务的不断推进，英国在航空领域走上正轨

　　IN A clean room at the Airbus Defence & Space (ADS) factory north of London, scientistsare working on LISAPathfinder (pictured), a hexagon-shaped satellite due to be launched nextyear. The aim of the ambitious space mission is to try, for the first time, to find and measuregravitational waves—ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity.If that's possible, earthlings would have further evidence that the theory is true, and theyshould also, eventually, be able to locate black holes more accurately.

　　空中客车防务及航天公司(ADS)位于伦敦北部的工厂里，科学家们正在一尘不染的工作室中致力于丽萨探路者号的研发。丽萨探路者号是一枚预计明年发射的呈六边形状的人造卫星。该项雄心勃勃的航天使命的目标就是首次尝试寻找并测量引力波，也就是爱因斯坦的广义相对论中所预言的时空中存在的涟波。如果引力波真的存在，那么世人就能够进一步的证明其理论的真实性，并且最终他们也应该能够更加准确地定位黑洞的方位。

　　To do all that, however, LISA first has to get to a “Lagrange point”, a place where spacecraftcan float stably while getting no farther from the earth. This is essential for detecting thegravitational waves. The only force that could then ruffle LISA would be solar wind, explainsJustin Byrne, a deputy director of ADS. Solar wind is so light, however, that developingthrusters soft and accurate enough to counteract it has been “the trickiest bit of all”. It wouldtake 1,000 of the thrusters developed for LISA to lift a single piece of paper; LISA has justfour.

　　然而，要想完成所有的任务，丽萨首先就必须到达“拉格朗日点”，只有到达了拉格朗日点，宇宙飞船才可以在不远离地球的情况下平稳漂浮。这是探测引力波的必要条件。据ADS的副主任贾斯汀·伯恩(Justin Byrne)解释称，唯一会干扰丽萨的力量就是太阳风。不过太阳风的质量很轻因此只要将推进器设计得足够轻巧和精准就可以与太阳风的力量相抗衡，但这恰恰是“最棘手的问题”。丽萨需要配备1000台这样的推动器才能吹起一张纸;而现在丽萨仅有四台。

　　This is the kind of technological achievement that has made Britain a leader in satellite designand construction. This week ADS was celebrating the European Space Agency's Rosettamission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The probe, Philae, that landed on the comet,was assembled largely in Germany. But Rosetta itself was, for the most part, constructed inthe same clean room where LISA is being built; Mr Byrne himself was one of the designers ofRosetta when the mission was first conceived about 20 years ago. Altogether ten Britishcompanies were involved in the Rosetta mission, making up 20% of the contractors usedamong 14 European countries. Some of the fancy kit on Philae was British, such as theminiature laboratory built at the Rutherford Appleton laboratory near Oxford to a design fromthe Open University.

　　英国在丽萨探路者上取得的科技成果确立了其在人造卫星的设计及建造领域的领导地位。本周ADS就在庆祝欧洲太空总署的罗塞塔号探测器圆满完成追逐丘留莫夫-格拉西缅科彗星的任务。此外，虽然在彗星上着陆的“菲莱”号探测器大部分都是在德国完成组装的。但是罗塞塔号探测器本身大体都是在建造丽萨的同一间纤尘不染的工作室完成的;伯恩自己也是20年前罗塞塔号计划构想初期的设计人员之一。罗塞塔号计划中总共有10家英国公司参与，占据了欧洲14国所有承包商的20%。并且“菲莱”号上一些精细的工具就是英国制造，例如微型实验室就是由英国开放大学设计，并由牛津附近的卢瑟福·阿普尔顿实验室生产。

　　This outsized contribution to the Rosetta mission is now typical of Britain's place in thefirmament of satellite construction. About one-quarter of the world's commercialcommunication satellites are built in Britain and 40% of the world's small satellites. Most ofthose are built by Airbus's Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), the world leader in thefield. It has launched 43 satellites since it was started by an academic at Surrey University, SirMartin Sweeting. The whole space sector directly employs 35,000 people, and the supply-chainaccounts for thousands more jobs. London-based Inmarsat is one of the world's largestsatellite operators, specialising in mobile telephony. The space sector has a turnover of about￡11 billion a year.

　　在罗塞塔任务中的突出贡献是英国如今已成为卫星建造领域领头羊的典型表现。世界上大约有四分之一的商用通讯卫星是英国制造，小型卫星的比重则为40%。并且大多数卫星都是由隶属于空客集团的萨里卫星技术有限公司(SSTL)负责生产。SSTL掌握了世界领先的卫星尖端技术，自从萨里大学的教授马丁·斯维廷爵士开启卫星发射活动以来，SSTL已经成功发射了43枚人造卫星。其下属的空间部直接领导的员工就有35000人，而且其相关的供应链产业也创造了几千个工作岗位。以伦敦为中心的国际海事卫星组织(Inmarsat)是世界上最大的卫星基地之一，专攻移动电话制造。空间部每年大约能创造110亿英镑的营业额。

　　Things have not always been so rosy. The ADS plant in Stevenage has itself been a graveyardfor Britain's ambitions in air and space. Originally owned by De Havilland, an aircraft company, itwas here during the 1950s that parts for the Comet, the world's first passenger jet, weremade. The Blue Streak missile was also built here. Several fatal crashes, however, endedproduction of the Comet and, with it, Britain's lead in commercial airliners. Blue Streak wascancelled due to spiralling costs, effectively ending the country's interest in launching rockets.

　　事情不总是一帆风顺的。地处斯蒂夫尼奇的ADS工厂本身也是英国在航空及航天领域开疆扩土过程中失败品的墓地。该工厂原属于德·哈维兰飞机公司，并且于上世纪50年代负责世上第一架客机彗星客机的生产。蓝光火箭同样也是由这里制造的。然而几起致命的空难最终终结了彗星客机的生产，也结束了英国领导民用航空业的历史。蓝光火箭的计划也由于盘旋上涨的成本而被迫叫停，实际上国家也无法从火箭发射领域中盈利。

　　Silver lining

　　曙光初现

　　These were disasters at the time, but in retrospect also rather fortuitous. Britain's spaceindustry was consequently forced to look at small-scale projects and to survive on tightbudgets, unlike America's. It also made the British more commercially minded in financing theindustry.

　　回溯历史，塞翁失马，焉知非福。英国的航空业最终转向了小规模项目的研发，并且得以在紧张的预算中存活，走上了与美国相反的道路。英国在航空领域融资方面也因而更具有商业头脑。

　　The satellite maker SSTL, for example, argues one of its directors, Andrew Bradford, is largelyabout “changing the economics of space”. It has virtually invented the niche market for lessexpensive, smaller satellites, selling a lot to developing countries. And it works on sciencemissions like Rosetta. Mr Byrne also argues that ADS has been successful partly because it hasa good commercial business, making big satellites for customers like BSkyB, a broadcaster.The innovative technology developed for the government-funded science projects like Rosettais transferable to business, maximising the return on the intellectual investment. For now, itlooks like a stellar formula.

　　例如，安德鲁·布鲁德福(Andrew Bradford)主任认为，卫星制造商SSTL就致力于“改变航空业的经济状况”。事实上SSTL也的确开拓出了针对价格相对低廉的小型卫星的缝隙市场，并成功向发展中国家大量出售。此举在如罗塞塔号之类的科研任务中也有成效。伯恩认为ADS获得成功主要归因于其优质的商业业务，如为英国天空广播公司(BSkyB)这类的客户生产大型人造卫星。这类由政府资助的科研项目如罗塞塔号产生的创新技术可以商业化，并将智力投资的回报最大化。到目前为止，这看上去是一个不错的营运公式。译者：朱大素 校对：王颖

　文章来源：经济学人

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