2017考研英语拓展阅读：西雅图小姐妹曾自制飞行器送入太空

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2017考研英语拓展阅读：西雅图小姐妹曾自制飞行器送入太空

　　The Seattle sisters earned an invitation to the White House after launching a homemade craft to the edge of space are embarking on another mission this weekend.

　　这对小姐妹去年曾将自制的飞行器送上太空边缘，为此还曾受邀访问白宫。如今，她们计划本周末将自制的第二个飞行器送上太空。

　　Rebecca and Kimberly Yeung are planning to send up the Loki Lego Launcher 2.0 balloon on Saturday with the hopes of achieving a new set of goals and collecting interesting scientific data along the way.

　　瑞贝卡和金伯利制作的飞行器名为Loki Lego Launcher 2.0，计划周六升空，她们希望能够实现新的目标，并沿途收集有趣的科学数据。

　　In an interview with GeekWire on Thursday, the elementary school girls said that the R2-D2 Lego Minifigure that flew on the first mission will be replaced this time by a Lego Rey, the popular character from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

　　在周四接受GeekWire采访时，这对小学生姐妹透露，首个飞行器上的乘客乐高R2-D2机器人被《星球大战：原力觉醒》中的主角乐高雷伊(Lego Rey)取代。

　　Rebecca, 11, and Kimberly, 9, said they chose Rey, who was portrayed in the movie by British actress Daisy Ridley, because she is a good hero for girls. A picture of Loki, the girls’ cat, will be making a return voyage.

　　11岁的瑞贝卡和9岁的金伯利解释称，她们所以选择雷伊(英国女星戴茜·雷德利(Daisy Ridley)饰演)，是因为她是女孩们心中的英雄。Loki则是她们的宠物猫，它的照片将再次伴随Loki Lego Launcher 2.0升空。

　　Since the success of the first Loki Lego Launcher last September, Rebecca and Kimberly have been busy being mini celebrity scientists.

　　自从去年9月份成功发射自制飞行器Loki Lego Launcher以来，瑞贝卡和金伯利几乎成了小名人科学家。

　　They visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory，attended the GeekWire Summit for a kids tech panel and met former astronaut Ed Lu, participated in President Obama’s final science fair at the White House, spoke at a conference for girls in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), competed as finalists for the GeekWire Geek of the Year award, visited Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla.

　　她们受邀参观美国宇航局旗下喷气推进实验室，与前宇航员埃德·卢(Ed Lu)共同参加GeekWire峰会，参加奥巴马总统在白宫组织的科学博览会，在STEAM(科学、技术、工程、艺术以及数学)女孩大会上发言，入围GeekWire年度极客大奖，参观肯尼迪航天中心等。

　　“We’ve learned so much, with all of the great opportunities this has opened up for us,” Rebecca said. “Things like meeting the president— it’s been a really amazing experience.” And their original mission also taught them some important lessons, including this gem of advice that resonated with the science community.

　　瑞贝卡说：“我们学到了很多知识，对我们来说，这为我们提供了伟大机遇。能见到总统是非常奇妙的经历。”她们首次自制和放飞飞行器也让她们吸取到重要教训，这也引起科学界的共鸣。

　　“Well, one of the lessons that we learned was to always be optimistic because there are a lot of things that we thought were going wrong, when, in fact, everything was going right,” said Kimberly.

　　金伯利称：“我们得到的教训之一是永远保持乐观，因为很多我们认为可能会出错的地方，实际上却被证明是对的。”

　　The experience, born out of a love for science, continues with the planning and preparation. The goals for this mission are spelled out on the girls’ blog:

　　出于天生对科学的喜爱，瑞贝卡和金伯利继续规划和准备，她们在自己的博客上公布了此次任务目标：

　　Reach a height of 27,500 meters (90,200 feet). Complete the launch and descent in less than four hours. See the curvature of the earth on our video footage. Compare data with our first launch and see if we observe the same.

　　达到27500米高度，在4个小时内完成发射和降落过程，在视频中看到地球曲率，与首次放飞对比数据，看是否观察到同样的场景。

　　“Since we want to complete the launch in less than four hours, we got a bigger balloon,” said Rebecca. “We’re going to put more helium in it ，and that will, according to our calculations, get us up there high enough so that we can see the curvature of the earth.”

　　瑞贝卡说：“由于计划在4个小时内完成放飞和降落，因此需要更大的气球。我们向里面注入更多氦气，根据我们的计算，这些气体足以将飞行器送入高空，让我们看到地球曲率。”

　　“We do know that this time we’re going to make sure to weigh everything that we have,” said Kimberly. “Because last time our calculations weren’t correct. It was slower than expected.”

　　金伯利说：“我们这次一定要确保所有东西都是经过权衡的，为此我们也做了许多改进。由于上次计算失误，飞行器的速度比预期要慢。”

　　As for the science on board, they’re attaching a solar panel and voltage/current sensor, which has gone through rigorous pre-flight testing.

　　他们还在飞行器上安装了太阳能电池板、电压/电流传感器，此前已经经过严格测试。

　　“Our sensor is measuring both voltage, current and power and we’re going to use the solar panel and connect it to it to measure how much solar energy our solar panel absorbs,” Rebecca said. “Our current hypothesis is that as we get farther up, there will be less particles to block the sun’s rays and we’ll get more solar energy. So we’re trying to test our hypothesis.”

　　瑞贝卡说：“我们的传感器可测量电压、电流以及电量，我们将利用太阳能电池板，并衡量太阳能电池板吸收了多少太阳能。我们的假设是：当飞行器越飞越高时，阻挡太阳射线的粒子就越来越少，因此吸收的太阳能会越多。我们正尝试证明这个假设。”

　　The Yeungs have also added a redundant tracking system in the form of an APRS Radio Bug which relies on radio waves to communicate data. The first tracking system, which used GPS and wouldn’t transmit data when it got too high, will remain on board. A single GoPro camera will also be used instead of two, to reduce weight.

　　此外，瑞贝卡和金伯利还在飞行器上安装了追踪系统APRS Radio Bug，它依靠无线电波传播数据。而第一个飞行器上使用GPS系统，当其升入高空时就无法传输数据。但是GPS系统还会保留在上面。新的飞行器只会携带1部GoPro相机而非2部，以便减轻重量。

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