美国国家公共电台 NPR Some Assembly Required: New Space Telescope Will Take Shape After Launch

Some Assembly Required: New Space Telescope Will Take Shape After Launch

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Now, the massive James Webb Space Telescope is heading into its final round of ground tests. The nearly $9 billion observatory² will replace the aging Hubble Space Telescope, and astronomers³ are giddy about the wealth of new information they expect to gain if they get the telescope to work. NPR's Joe Palca reports.

JOE PALCA, BYLINE⁴: A virtual army of scientists and engineers has been laboring⁵ to get the new telescope ready for launch. Astrophysicist and systems engineer Begona Vila is a relative newcomer on the project.

BEGONA VILA: Oh, only 10 years.

PALCA: Vila works at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. It's here that the telescope's mirrors and instruments are frozen, shaken and rattled⁶ to make sure they'll survive their trip to a spot a million miles from Earth. Unlike Hubble, the James Webb telescope is primarily designed to look at the universe at what's called infrared⁷ wavelengths⁸. This allows it to peer through dust clouds and to see how the earliest stars and galaxies⁹ formed. But to work properly, infrared telescopes have to be kept cold - very cold. Vila says the Webb telescope uses a multi-layered sunshield to protect it from the sun's heat.

VILA: That's like a big umbrella - beach umbrella - so we keep that facing the sun and the Earth so all the heat on it dissipates - all the heat through the layers. So that allows all the instruments to cool to the temperatures that we need.

PALCA: Now, the sunshield is big - about the size of a tennis court. And for launch, it has to fit into a much smaller space - about the size of a school bus. So the sunshield has to fold up, as does the large main mirror and a variety of other essential instruments. The unfolding takes place in a carefully choreographed¹⁰ sequence of steps over two weeks.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: Solar panels extend.

ARI SHAPIRO, BYLINE: Antenna¹¹ deployment¹³.

DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: Forward sunshield panel deployment.

PALCA: Each step is critical. No solar panels, no power. No antenna, no communications. No forward sunshield, no cooling.

SHAPIRO: Aft sunshield panel deployment.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #2: Aft membrane¹⁴ cover release

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: First sunshield mid-boom deployment.

PALCA: And finally, the two wings that hold the key parts of the telescope's main mirror have to unfold. If everything deploys¹⁵ as it should, the telescope is ready for business. But it's a lot of things that have to deploy¹² just right. So I asked Begona Vila, doesn't that scare you?

VILA: Yes, I think it scares all of us.

PALCA: She says there's really no way around it.

VILA: We do as much testing as we can, as thorough a test as we can. And we also have multiple review teams that check results and make sure that we are not missing anything and that, you know, we are doing the best we can to confirm everything is going to work.

PALCA: Already way over its initial budget and behind schedule, the Webb telescope is supposed to launch in October 2018. We should know later that year whether all those tests and reviews missed anything crucial. Joe Palca, NPR News.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 observatory   

n.天文台，气象台，瞭望台，观测台

参考例句：

• Guy's house was close to the observatory.盖伊的房子离天文台很近。
• Officials from Greenwich Observatory have the clock checked twice a day.格林威治天文台的职员们每天对大钟检查两次。

3 astronomers   

n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Astronomers can accurately foretell the date,time,and length of future eclipses. 天文学家能精确地预告未来日食月食的日期、时刻和时长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings. 天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 laboring   

n.劳动，操劳v.努力争取(for)( labor的现在分词 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转

参考例句：

• The young man who said laboring was beneath his dignity finally put his pride in his pocket and got a job as a kitchen porter. 那个说过干活儿有失其身份的年轻人最终只能忍辱，做了厨房搬运工的工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• But this knowledge did not keep them from laboring to save him. 然而，这并不妨碍她们尽力挽救他。 来自飘（部分）

6 rattled   

慌乱的，恼火的

参考例句：

• The truck jolted and rattled over the rough ground. 卡车嘎吱嘎吱地在凹凸不平的地面上颠簸而行。
• Every time a bus went past, the windows rattled. 每逢公共汽车经过这里，窗户都格格作响。

7 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。

8 wavelengths   

n.波长( wavelength的名词复数 )；具有相同的/不同的思路；合拍；不合拍

参考例句：

• I find him difficult to talk to—we're on completely different wavelengths. 我没法和他谈话，因为我们俩完全不对路。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Sunlight consists of different wavelengths of radiation. 阳光由几种不同波长的射线组成。 来自辞典例句

9 galaxies   

星系( galaxy的名词复数 )； 银河系； 一群（杰出或著名的人物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。
• We still don't know how many galaxies there are in the universe. 我们还不知道宇宙中有多少个星系。

10 choreographed   

v.设计舞蹈动作( choreograph的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• There was some carefully choreographed flag-waving as the President drove by. 总统的车经过时，人们按精心编排的动作挥舞着旗帜。
• Achim had choreographed the dance in Act II himself. 阿希姆自己设计了第2幕的舞蹈动作。 来自辞典例句

11 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

12 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。

13 deployment   

n. 部署,展开

参考例句：

• He has inquired out the deployment of the enemy troops. 他已查出敌军的兵力部署情况。
• Quality function deployment (QFD) is a widely used customer-driven quality, design and manufacturing management tool. 质量功能展开(quality function deployment,QFD)是一个广泛应用的顾客需求驱动的设计、制造和质量管理工具。

14 membrane   

n.薄膜，膜皮，羊皮纸

参考例句：

• A vibrating membrane in the ear helps to convey sounds to the brain.耳膜的振动帮助声音传送到大脑。
• A plastic membrane serves as selective diffusion barrier.一层塑料薄膜起着选择性渗透屏障的作用。

15 deploys   

（尤指军事行动）使展开( deploy的第三人称单数 )； 施展； 部署； 有效地利用

参考例句：

• It then deploys "decoy" programs designed to attract the virus. 然后，它释放“诱饵”去吸引病毒。
• But when that doesn't work, he deploys his secret defense mechanism. 但没有效果，它要施展绝密自卫武器了。