合众社: "神六"彰显中国长远务实的空间计划
文章来源: 文章作者: 发布时间:2006-09-04 09:55 字体: [ ]  进入论坛
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China's successful launch of two taikonuats in its second manned space mission Wednesday tells the world a lot about how serious, formidable and well-prepared the Chinese space program is.

    "You will again show that the Chinese people have the will, confidence and capability1 to mount scientific peaks ceaselessly, Chinese Premier2 Wen Jiabao told veteran fighter pilots Col. Fen3 Junlong and Col. Nie Haisheng after they blasted off from the Jinquan Satellite Launch Center in Ganju province in China's desert northwest.

    First, the Chinese are not going to sit on their laurels4. They are entirely5 serious about developing their own space station and permanent base on the Moon and, indeed, look likely to have far more industrial and financial resources to do this in the foreseeable future than either the United States or Russia.

    For while the Chinese waited for a full two years to follow up their first manned launch of taikonaut Col. Yang Liwei on Oct. 2, 2003, they were not content simply to repeat the exercise: They sent up a two man capsule rather than just another single-man one.

    Second, two years is quite a long time, so the Chinese made clear that while their goals in space are ambitious, they are not going to needlessly risk taikonauts' lives or international embarrassment6 by pushing ahead too fast with their program.

    Without access to any base closer to the equator like Cape7 Canaveral, Florida is for the United States, or France's launch base for its Ariane satellites in French Guyana, the Chinese limit their manned space launches from Gansu to either spring or fall, when the climate is temperate8, and conditions are neither too hot nor too cold. They therefore allowed three previous windows of opportunities for a manned space mission go by before going ahead with this one.

    Third, the Chinese are not in a rush because they do not have to be. They have no serious rivals for their expanding manned space program over the next decade or so.

    The Chinese, of course, are watching closely what the United States and Russia are doing in space. While the Russian space program is on schedule, and looking good, even with Russia's booming oil revenues, there is no plan at the moment to spectacularly expand it. The Russians have only made clear that they are prepared to operate the International Space Station by themselves if the United States cannot or will not pull its own weight on it. Russia appears to have no plans to send its cosmonauts to the Moon by itself.

    The U.S. manned space program is in far worse shape. NASA still plans to fly the remaining shuttle fleet on 19 missions over the next four years before retiring the three craft in 2010. But in reality one knows when, or even if, the three remaining space shuttles will fly again following the concern about possible possible being caused to the Discovery on its most recent mission at the end of July, the first since the February 2003 immolation9 of the Challenger shuttle on reentry.

    And NASA's recently announced plan to send U.S. astronauts back to the Moon will have to wait for the successful development of man-rated missiles and space capsules to replace the shuttles. That is certainly not expected to happen before 2010 at the earliest and even if all goes well, the next U.S. manned mission to the Moon may have to wait until 2018, 46 years after U.S. astronauts last set foot on it.

    Fourth, the Chinese are confident. Unlike most of the Soviet10 launches through the Cold War, but like all U.S. manned space flights, they broadcast the launch of their Shenzhou-6 space craft Wednesday live on national state television. That augurs11 a great deal of confidence in the reliability12 of their technology. (There was at least a touch of U.S. cultural influence: The Long March rocket booster blasted off to the accompanying theme music from "Battlestar Galactica")

    Fifth, the two year leap for a single manned space craft orbiting the earth for one day to a two-man mission that will stay up for five days is also revealing. It compares well with the similarly rapid evolution to two-manned space flight in the U.S. and Soviet space programs in the early 1960s.

    The United States, indeed, went from orbiting its first astronaut around the earth, Col. John Glenn, the second American in space after Alan B. Shepard, Jr. in 1962, to orbiting the moon only six-and-half years later at the end of 1968. If the Chinese can develop their booster rockets reliably over the next six or seven years, there is no reason why they could not become the second nation in history to send men around the Moon by 2011 or 2012. Their current big Shenzhou spacecraft certainly has the size to carry the necessary air and provisions. And orbiting the Moon is a far less complex and risky13 undertaking14 than having a spacecraft land upon it and then take off again. 

    美国合众国际社高级新闻分析家马丁·西夫日前撰文指出,中国近日成功发射第二艘载人飞船将两名宇航员送入太空,向世界充分显示了中国实施空间计划的务实态度、长远目标和扎实的准备。

    据SpaceDaily网站日前援引马丁·西夫的文章说,在2003年10月成功发射“神舟”五号载人飞船之后,中国并没有满足既得荣誉,而是紧盯建立自己的空间站和月球永久基地的长远目标。看起来,中国为达到这一目标做好了比美国或俄罗斯更加充分的技术和财力上的长期准备。在将近两年的时间里,中国科学家没有原地踏步,他们此次发射了载有两名宇航员的飞船。这种进取而又务实的态度,避免了在空间计划上的冒进政策和可能带来的无谓的人员损失及国际尴尬。 

    文章指出,与中国发展空间计划的扎实稳重相比,俄罗斯眼下并没有制定大力扩展航天活动的计划。尽管俄罗斯的空间计划仍在按部就班地进行,并且以丰富的石油资源作为保证,但他们仅仅满足即使在没有美国人参与的情况下维持国际空间站正常运转的目标,他们似乎也没有打算依靠自己力量将本国宇航员送上月球。

    与此同时,美国开展空间计划的情况更显糟糕。美国宇航局仍然希望在2010年以前继续完成现有航天飞机的19次发射任务。该局近日宣布,计划中的第二次宇航员登月行动必须等到新型人控火箭和太空舱顺利取代现有的航天飞机之时,而这一研发工作最快也要等到2010年才能见分晓。因此,即使一切进展顺利,美国宇航员第二次踏上月球土地的梦想也许要等到2018年才能实现。

    文章说,如果中国能够抓紧未来6年至7年时间,很有可能在2011年或2012年成为人类史上第二个将人送上月球轨道的国家。



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1 capability JsGzZ     
n.能力;才能;(pl)可发展的能力或特性等
参考例句:
  • She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
  • Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。
2 premier R19z3     
adj.首要的;n.总理,首相
参考例句:
  • The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
  • He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。
3 fen CtczNj     
n.沼泽,沼池
参考例句:
  • The willows over all the fen rippled and whitened like a field of wheat.沼泽上的柳树,随风一起一伏,泛出白光,就象一片麦田一样。
  • There is a fen around each island.每个岛屿周围有一个沼泽。
4 laurels 0pSzBr     
n.桂冠,荣誉
参考例句:
  • The path was lined with laurels.小路两旁都种有月桂树。
  • He reaped the laurels in the finals.他在决赛中荣膺冠军。
5 entirely entirely     
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地
参考例句:
  • The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
  • His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。
6 embarrassment fj9z8     
n.尴尬;使人为难的人(事物);障碍;窘迫
参考例句:
  • She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
  • Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。
7 cape ITEy6     
n.海角,岬;披肩,短披风
参考例句:
  • I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
  • She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。
8 temperate tIhzd     
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的
参考例句:
  • Asia extends across the frigid,temperate and tropical zones.亚洲地跨寒、温、热三带。
  • Great Britain has a temperate climate.英国气候温和。
9 immolation wazx9     
n.牺牲品
参考例句:
  • We still do;living in a world in which underclared aggression, war,hypocrisy,chicanery,anarchy and impending immolation are part of our daily lives, we all want a code to live by. 我们仍然有这种感觉;生活在一个不宣而战的侵略、战争、虚伪、诈骗、混乱以及迫在眉睫的杀戮充斥着我们日常生活的世界里,我们都想有一种能赖以生存的准则。
  • The Emperor had these clay figures made instead of burying slave-workers alive as immolation. 秦始皇用泥塑造了这批俑,没有活埋奴隶作为殉葬。
10 Soviet Sw9wR     
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
参考例句:
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
11 augurs fe7fb220d86218480f31b16b91ecabd5     
n.(古罗马的)占兆官( augur的名词复数 );占卜师,预言者v.预示,预兆,预言( augur的第三人称单数 );成为预兆;占卜
参考例句:
  • This augurs well for the harvest. 这是丰收的好兆头。 来自辞典例句
  • Higher pay augurs a better future. 工资高了,前程会更美好。 来自辞典例句
12 reliability QVexf     
n.可靠性,确实性
参考例句:
  • We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
  • I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。
13 risky IXVxe     
adj.有风险的,冒险的
参考例句:
  • It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
  • He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。
14 undertaking Mfkz7S     
n.保证,许诺,事业
参考例句:
  • He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
  • He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小,不敢从事任何事业。
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