Unit 5B - Doorway into Space
Doorway into Space
Isaac Asimov
The space shuttle is our doorway into space. It is the first true spaceship.
Human beings have gone into space before. They have been doing it for years in throwaway vessels. People would go into space, and then the ship, with the people aboard, would drop back to Earth by parachute. The people would be picked up, but the ship would be scrapped.
The Shuttle, however, goes up like a spaceship and comes down like an airplane. There it is, ready to be used again.
The Shuttle won't be going to any other worlds. It will just go into orbit around the Earth and then return. That is why it is called a Shuttle. It goes and returns. But when it goes, it carries a great many things in its roomy storage space. It can carry satellites of all kinds. When it gets into orbit it releases the satellites. When the Shuttle returns, the satellites stay in orbit. You don't have to supply each satellite with a separate throwaway rocket engine.
More importantly, the Shuttle can carry parts of large structures and park them in orbit. Eventually, there will be a great many structures, all near each other, all circling the Earth.
Astronauts can go up and, in their spacesuits, leave the Shuttle and put all the structures together. Finally, they will have one big, complicated structure, something that would be far too big to have launched all in one piece.
In this way we can build a power station in space, something that will expose a large area of solar cells to sunlight. These will absorb sunlight and turn it into electricity. Electricity can then be turned into microwaves which can be beamed down to Earth. On Earth the microwaves can be turned into electricity again.
In the same way, we can build computerized factories in space. These factories can make use of the properties of space — high and low temperatures, lots of good vacuum and no gravity. We can build laboratories and observatories, too.
Most of all we can build large spaceships. Here on Earth, spaceships have to consist mostly of huge fuel tanks. That's because it takes so much fuel to lift the spaceship off the surface of the Earth and through the atmosphere. Out in space, high above the Earth, there is no atmosphere, and Earth's gravitational pull is much weaker. Less fuel will be needed, so a large part of the ship can be used for the crew. These large ships can go to the Moon far more easily and cheaply than the old—fashioned rockets that left from the Earth.
A mining station can be set up on the Moon. The Moon's crust contains all the minerals we will need to build structures. It can be used to manufacture metal, concrete, soil, and glass — all in space. We won't have to use Earth's resources, which will always be badly needed on Earth itself.
Once we have all the structural materials that the Moon will supply, we can build large space stations in which people can live. We can build doughnuts of steel and glass and aluminum or spheres, or cylinders. We can coat them with soil on the inside and set them turning. This will produce a centrifugal force which will act like an imitation gravity. The inside will be lit by sunlight and powered by solar energy. Shuttles can produce day and night and the soil can be made into an earth home. Thousands of people can live in these space settlements.
If human beings wish to invest the time, money, and effort, all of this can be done in about fifty years, and many people your age will be part of it. Yours will be the first generation of space. People your age now will grow up to be engineers and construction workers in space. They will work in the observatories and laboratories. They will be part of the lunar mining stations, and they will smelt minerals in space. They will maintain the power stations and factories, and they will live in the space settlements for months at a time — maybe all their lives.
You may be on the first team to mine the moon, and your son or daughter may be on the first crew to land on an asteroid or on one of the outer moons of Jupiter.
What an exciting future is ahead, if we have the courage to pass through the doorway into space that the Shuttle has opened for us.
参考译文——进入太空的门户
进入太空的门户
艾萨克·阿西莫夫
航天飞机是我们进入太空的门户。它是第一艘名副其实的宇宙飞船。
人类先前已进入了太空。多年来，他们一直是乘坐用后随即抛弃的飞行器进入太空的。人们进入太空，然后，载人的宇宙飞船再借助降落伞坠回地球。人是被接了回来，而飞船则被丢弃了。
然而，航天飞机像宇宙飞船一样升空，随后像飞机一样降落。它就停在那里，随时准备再次使用。
航天飞机不会去任何其他星球，只进入地球轨道，然后返回。这就是它为什么被称作“航天飞机”的缘故。它能往返飞行，不过去的时候，它宽敞的货物舱里满载大量货物。它能装载各种各样的卫星。进入轨道后，就将卫星卸下。航天飞机返回时，卫星就留在轨道上。你用不着给每个卫星提供各自的分离式火箭发动机。
更重要的是，航天飞机能携带大型建筑结构的部件，并把它们停放在轨道上。最终会有许许多多的建筑构件，相互挨得很近，全都围绕地球运行。
宇航员可以随机升空，穿着宇航服离开航天飞机，将所有的建筑构件拼装起来。到最后，他们就拥有了一座庞大而复杂的建筑物，那玩意儿实在太大，不可能作为整体一并发射出去。
用这种办法，我们可以在太空建造一座发电站，那就是把一大块太阳能电池板，曝晒在阳光里，这些电池吸收太阳光，并将其转换为电能。电能再进而转换为可以射向地球的微波，这些微波到了地球上又能重新转换为电能。
我们还能用同样的方法，在太空中建造电脑化的工厂。这些工厂可以利用外层空间的各种特性——高温与低温，大量的优质真空，而且一无重力。我们还能建造实验室与观察站。
最重要的是，我们能建造大型的宇宙飞船。在地球上，飞船船体大半是让大型的燃料箱占用了。那是因为它要携带那么多的燃料，才能使飞船从地球上升起，并穿越大气层。而在外层空间，在远离地球的上空，没有大气层，地球的引力也微弱得多，因此需要的燃料也就少了，飞船的很大一部分可以供工作人员使用。让这些大型飞船去月球，比用老式火箭飞离地球要容易、便宜得多。
在月球上，能建造一座采矿站。月球的地壳内，含有我们建造各类建筑所需要的各种矿物质，可以用来制造金属、混凝土、泥土和玻璃而且全是在太空中制造的。我们将无须使用这些地球本身始终亟需的资源。
月球一旦能向我们提供所需要的这些建筑材料，我们就可以建造供人居住的大型太空站。我们能够制造钢质的、玻璃的、铝质的圆圈形建筑，或者是圆球形或圆筒形建筑物。我们可以在其内壁上盖一层泥土，并使之转动。这就产生了一股离心力，其作用就是模拟地球引力。太空站内有阳光照明，由太阳能提供动力。航天飞机能产生白昼与黑夜的效果，用泥土可以盖建地球上的房屋。成千上万的人都可以在这些太空居民点内生活。
假如人类愿意投入时间、钱财与精力，所有这一切大约能在50年内予以实现，你们这样年纪的人，很多会直接参与其事。你们这一代将是第一代太空人。你们的同龄人长大后，会成为太空工程师和太空建筑工人，在观察站和实验室工作。他们会是月球采矿站的一个部分，在太空熔炼矿石。他们将维持发电站和工厂的生产，每次在太空居民点待上几个月——也许待上一辈子。
你也许是第一支月球采矿队的成员，而你的儿女可能是率先登上某个小行星的，或是率先登上木星外围某个月球的第一批工作队员。
如果我们有勇气闯过航天飞机为我们敞开的太空之门，进入太空，那么出现在我们面前的，是一幅多么激动人心的情景！
Key Words:
complicated ['kɔmplikeitid]
adj. 复杂的，难懂的
动词complica
doorway ['dɔ:wei]
n. 门口
supply [sə'plai]
n. 补给，供给，供应，贮备
vt. 补给，供
eventually [i'ventjuəli]
adv. 终于，最后
separate ['sepəreit]
n. 分开，抽印本
adj. 分开的，各自的，
storage ['stɔridʒ]
n. 贮藏，存储，保管，保管费，仓库，[计]存储器
absorb [əb'sɔ:b]
vt. 吸纳，吸引 ... 的注意，吞并
vacuum ['vækjuəm]
n. 真空，空间，真空吸尘器
adj. 真空的
gravitational ['grævə'teiʃənəl]
adj. 重力的，引力作用的
expose [ik'spəuz]
vt. 揭露，使暴露，使曝光，使面临
crew [kru:]
n. 全体船员，全体乘务员，(一组)工作人员
gravity ['græviti]
n. 重力，严重，庄重，严肃
concrete ['kɔnkri:t]
adj. 具体的，实质性的，混凝土的
n. 水
manufacture [.mænju'fæktʃə]
n. （复）产品，制造，制造业
v. 制造，捏
produce [prə'dju:s]
n. 产品，农作物
vt. 生产，提出，引起，
aluminum [ə'lju:minəm]
n. 铝
imitation [.imi'teiʃən]
n. 模仿，效法
adj. 假造的，冒充的
doorway ['dɔ:wei]
n. 门口
crew [kru:]
n. 全体船员，全体乘务员，(一组)工作人员
gravity ['græviti]
n. 重力，严重，庄重，严肃
supply [sə'plai]
n. 补给，供给，供应，贮备
vt. 补给，供
construction [kən'strʌkʃən]
n. 建设，建造，结构，构造，建筑物
参考资料：
2621
被折叠的 条评论
为什么被折叠?
到【灌水乐园】发言
