Hey Eve, this is a great question because this actually really is a big problem in space exploration:

嘿 Eve 你这个问题问得很好 因为它其实是太空探索领域的一个大问题：

all of the different junk that’s up there.

太空中的各种垃圾

It’s actually the 60th anniversary of the first satellite the United States ever sent up called Explorer 1.

今年其实是美国有史以来发射第一颗人造卫星——探险者1号的60周年

So for more than 60 years the earth has been putting up satellites and robots and space stations

这60多年来 地球往太空轨道送入了很多人造卫星 机器人 空间站

and all kinds of stuff up into orbit, and a lot of junk has accumulated.

还有各种五花八门的东西 太空已经累积了很多垃圾

And sometimes it’s just very small; in the early days of space exploration

有些垃圾特别小 在太空探索早期

sometimes they would even paint satellites and all of those little paint chips—

人们有时候会给卫星涂漆 还有各种涂漆的小芯片——

as things actually degraded in space, it’s very cold, it’s very dry up there—

当它们在太空中降解的时候 太空中特别冷 也特别干燥——

after decades in space the paint all chipped off and now there are these tiny little things flying around in orbit.

在太空中待了几十年后 油漆都脱落了 现在这些小碎片在轨道上漂浮着

But the problem is is that if you’re in low Earth orbit, by definition you’re traveling at about 17,000 miles an hour.

但问题是 如果你在近地轨道 根据定义 你的运行速度大约是17000英里每小时

That’s much, much, much faster than a bullet comes out of a gun.

这比子弹出膛的速度要快得多

So even a tiny little thing going at that speed,

所以即便是很微小的物体以那种速度运动

if it hits you in the wrong direction it can cause huge amounts of damage.

如果它从错误的方向撞上来 也会造成巨大的损害

And in fact one of the things that we do is actually study all the debris up there and all the collisions.

其实 我们在研究太空中的所有碎片和所有碰撞

There’s parts of the Hubble Space Telescope that the astronauts have actually brought back to earth,

宇航员把哈勃太空望远镜的零件带回了地球

and we actually look at the metal and the surfaces and think about all of the little things that have hit

我们研究了这些金属及其表面 想象所有与它相撞的微小物体

we study how much damage there is from all of the debris up there.

探索太空中的碎片能造成多大的损害

Some of the debris is caused by humans—you know, bits of old spacecraft—

有些碎片是人为导致的——老旧航天器的残骸——

and some of it is actually natural: there’s just particles of dust up there.

还有些碎片是天然存在的：太空中原本就有尘埃颗粒

This is what creates meteors or what people know as shooting stars.

正是这些颗粒形成了流星体 也就是我们熟知的流星

The earth accumulates about a hundred tons every day of natural rock and sandy stuff from space falling down on us.

地球上每天大约会聚集一百吨从太空中落下来的天然岩石和沙尘之类的东西

So some of the junk up there isn’t even human caused, it’s actually even natural.

所以太空中的某些垃圾不是人为造成的 而是一种自然现象

So what do you do with this environment up there that’s full of tiny little things?

那你应该如何应对满是微小物质的太空环境呢？

In some cases we actually worry about the astronauts being hit by these.

有时候 我们担心这些东西会撞到宇航员

So if there’s an astronaut out doing his spacewalk,

所以如果有宇航员要进行太空漫步

they’re in a pressurized space suit and just like you can’t really make a tiny little hole in a balloon,

他们会穿着加压的航天服 就像你不能在气球上戳洞一样

if something actually got through the space suit under pressure that would be incredibly dangerous for the astronaut.

如果有东西刺破了太空服 这对宇航员来说极其危险

So there are many things up there that we track.

所以我们追踪太空中的很多物质

We’re actually so aware that space junk is becoming more and more of a problem

我们意识到太空垃圾越来越是个问题

that we’re really encouraging other countries to be careful about what they do up in space.

所以我们建议其他国家在太空中活动时一定要小心

A couple of years ago China, as an experiment, actually collided two of their satellites.

几年前 中国在太空中做实验时 有两颗卫星相撞

It was sort of a military and space experiment, and the amount of space junk went up almost exponentially from that.

那像是一次军事和太空实验 从那以后 太空垃圾几乎呈指数上升

From that one single event—these two satellites colliding—all of this different stuff went off into space.

就因为那一次事件——两颗卫星相撞——各种零件都散落到了太空中

So some people have a job at NASA to actually track the larger bits of space junk.

所以NASA有人专门负责追踪个头较大的太空垃圾

And in some cases we know exactly where they are and we can actually get our satellites out of the way of them.

有时候我们能明确定位垃圾的位置 让后让卫星绕过它们

Even the International Space Station has the ability to change its orbit just a little bit and actually maneuver.

甚至连国际空间站都能稍稍改变轨道 有机动余地

So if there’s a particularly large piece of space junk the space station may choose to make little maneuvers to avoid it.

所以如果有特别大块儿的太空垃圾 空间站就会选择挪动位置 避开它们

A few times astronauts have actually been a little bit worried there’s been a tiny, tiny chance of a collision:

有几次 宇航员担心有极小可能会出现碰撞：

only a couple percent, but that’s enough for us to be concerned for them.

只有百分之几的概率 但这也足以让我们提心吊胆了

And in some cases we’ve asked them to get ready for an evacuation in case anything happened, but luckily nothing ever did.

还有几次 我们已经让宇航员做好了撤退准备 以防发生不测 幸运的是 没有发生任何事

So NASA is very aware of the space junk problem.

所以NASA很重视太空垃圾这个问题

The question is what do you do about it?

问题是我们该如何处理它？

Because think about this, when you’re up in orbit above the earth

想一下 当你在地球上方的轨道上运行时

you’re talking about an area that’s actually larger than the entire surface of the earth.

你说的可是一片比整个地球表面还要大的区域

And you’re not only talking about an area that extends up from the surface of the earth,

这片区域不仅从地表延伸出去

but it extends up for hundreds of miles.

还会延伸数百英里

Space junk is at many different altitudes.

很多不同高度上都有太空垃圾

So there really isn’t any way to take a giant vacuum cleaner and just start going after piece by piece of space junk.

所以几乎不可能用巨型吸尘器去一片一片地清理它们

You would never cover that amount of volume.

那么大的面积根本做不到

It would take you centuries to even try.

即便只是尝试一下 也要花上几百年

So people are talking about ideas, like could you take lasers, could you maybe actually vaporize some of the space dust?

所以人们就想到 能不能用激光 或者是让这些太空尘埃蒸发掉？

How would you clean it up?

那你要怎么把它清扫干净呢？

Could you actually unfurl big sails that would sail around the earth and scoop up some of the space junk?

能不能用大块帆布 让它围绕地球航行 然后把太空垃圾都兜起来呢？

Maybe. But I for now haven’t seen a particularly good solution.

或许可以吧 但目前为止 我还没有见过比较完善的办法

The best solution is to try to put as little of that stuff into orbit as possible and know where the bigger pieces are.

最好的办法就是尽量少往太空中释放垃圾 并且给大型垃圾精准定位

And right now we really have to manage the problem more than solve it.

现在我们真的需要管理这个问题 而不是解决它