VOA常速英语2016--公司研发无人机帮助减少温室气体排放（在线收听）

公司研发无人机帮助减少温室气体排放

More than a million miles of pipelines carry natural gas from hundreds of thousands of wells to millions of consumers in the U.S. Its main component, methane, is also a greenhouse gas, much more potent than carbon dioxide.

从成百上千井中提取的天然气经由超过100多万英里的管道送至数百万美国消费者家中。主要成分是甲烷的天然气也被称作温室气体，比二氧化碳更为有效。

The U.S. Department of Energy has a program aimed at reducing methane leaks as much as possible, especially at gas storage facilities and wellheads. But Hand-held devices, however, have limited capabilities.

美国能源部已经出台了一项旨在尽可能减少尤其是天然气储存设施及井源的甲烷泄露的计划。但我们现有的设备能力有限。

“The tool that's used in the industry routinely is just used for leak surveying, to locate the leaks.”

“行业内使用的工具通常只用于测量泄漏进行定位。”

Combining infrared laser technology with a drone, Physical Sciences Inc. is developing an affordable device that can monitor a much larger area.

而将红外激光技术与无人机相结合的这家物理科学公司目前正在研发一种可以监控更大区域的廉价装置。

“The drone sits on this platform and serves as a continuous monitor. When it detects a leak from whatever it's monitoring, the drone takes off autonomously, surveys around, measures how much is leaking and locates where the leak is coming from.”

“这架无人机是作为一个连续监视器安置在这个平台上。当检测到气体泄漏时，无人机会自动起飞，检测周边地区的泄漏程度并定位泄漏来源。”

Still in the experimental phase, the drone only covers an area 10 x 10 meters square, but researchers are experimenting with many different configurations to someday extend its reach.

而仍处于实验阶段的这种无人机占地面积为10×10平方米，但研究人员正在尝试许多不同的配置以扩大监测范围。

“For wellheads, we're envisioning a platform, perhaps one at every wellhead, and there could be many thousands of those. For other applications, we may have transportable platforms so that we allow the vehicle to go from one spot to another.”

“对于井源，我们设想了一个平台，可能是每个井源都安置一台，也可能会有成千上万台。而对于其他应用设施，我们可能会有让车辆从一个地方到另一个地方的移动平台。”

The operational price is set at about $3,000 a year, so the company says installation and maintenance costs will stay within those guidelines.

这种无人机的使用价格是一年3000美元，因此这家公司表示安装及维护成本将维持在参考范围内。