As China Stalks Satellites, U.S. and JapanPrepare to Defend Them
中国对卫星下手，美日准备开展保卫工作

In May 2013 the Chinese governmentconducted what it called a science space mission from the Xichang SatelliteLaunch Center in southwest China. Half a world away, Brian Weeden, a formerU.S. Air Force officer, wasn’t buying it. The liftoff took place at night andemployed a powerful rocket as well as a truck-based launch vehicle—all quiteunusual for a science project, he says.
在2013年5月，中国政府在西南部的西昌卫星发射中心开展了一项科学空间任务。但在半个地球以外的前美国空军官员布莱恩维顿并不买账。发射时间选在晚上，使用的是强大推力的火箭，而且发射装置是卡车式的——在他看来，对于一个科学项目来说，这显得异乎寻常。
In a subsequent report for the Secure World Foundation, the space policy thinktank where he works, Weeden concluded that the Chinese launch was more likely atest of a mobile rocket booster for an antisatellite (ASAT) weapon that couldreach targets in geostationary orbit about 22,236 miles above the equator.That's the stomping grounds of expensive U.S. spacecraft that monitorbattlefield movements, detect heat from the early stages of missile launches,and help orchestrate drone fleets. "This is the stuff the U.S. really cares about",Weeden says.
接下来，他给安全世界基金会（一个空间政策智库，也是他的工作所在地）写了一份报告，他总结道中国的这次发射更像是对用于发射反卫星武器的移动火箭助推器的测试。反卫星武器可摧毁赤道上空22236英里高的地球静止轨道上的目标。而正是在这个轨道上美国部署着昂贵的航天器，这些航天器监视着战场的活动，探测导弹发射初期所释放出的热量，以及用以协调无人机行动。“所以这正是美国真正关切的东西，”他说。
The Pentagon never commented in detail on last year’s launch—and the Chinesehave stuck to their story. U.S. and Japanese analysts say China has the mostaggressive satellite attack program in the world. It has staged at least sixASAT missile tests over the past nine years, including the destruction of adefunct Chinese weather satellite in 2007. "It's part of a Chinese bid forhegemony, which is not just about controlling the oceans but airspace and, asan extension of that, outer space," says Minoru Terada, deputysecretary-general of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
对于中国去年的这次发射，五角大楼从没有发表过多的看法——中国坚持自己的看法。美国和日本的分析家说中国拥有世界上最具侵略性的卫星袭击项目。过去九年以来，中国至少进行了6次反卫星武器测试，包括在2007年摧毁了一个没用的中国气象卫星。“这是中国试图成为霸权国家的一部分内容，不仅试图控制海洋，还包括天空，以及外太空，”日本自民党的副秘书长寺田农说。
Besides testing missiles that can intercept and destroy satellites, the Chinesehave developed jamming techniques to disrupt satellite communications. Inaddition, says Lance Gatling, president of Nexial Research, an aerospaceconsultant in Tokyo, the Chinese have studied ground-based lasers that couldtake down a satellite’s solar panels, and satellites equipped with grapplingarms that could co-orbit and then disable expensive U.S. hardware.
除了测试可截获和摧毁卫星的导弹外，中国人还研发干扰技术来阻碍卫星通信。此外，东京航天咨询机构Nexial Research的主席Lance Gatling称中国人已经在研究陆基激光武器用以击落卫星的太阳能板，而且还在研发一种装备有抓钩手臂的卫星，该种卫星可绕轨道运行，利用手臂瘫痪美国昂贵的卫星设备。
To defend themselves against China, the U.S. and Japan are in the early stagesof integrating their space programs as part of negotiations to update theirdefense policy guidelines. In May, Washington and Tokyo discussed ways tocoordinate their GPS systems to better track what’s going on in space and onthe oceans. A recent Japanese cabinet decision eased long-standing limits onthe military forces’ ability to come to the aid of allies under attack.
为了免遭中国毒手，美国和日本目前已经开始整合空间计划，以作为提升防卫政策准则的一部分协商内容。在5月份，美日两国讨论如何协调他们的GPS系统以更好的监视空间和海洋。日本内阁最近放宽了日本军队的限制，使得在盟友遭受袭击的情况下日本可提供军事协助。
The U.S. is most vulnerable to a Chinese attack because 43 percent of allsatellites in orbit belong to the U.S. military or U.S. companies, according toa Council on Foreign Relations report in May by Micah Zenko. Japan has four spysatellites in service, and a consortium of Japanese companies led by SkyPerfect Jsat Holdings (9412:JP) and NEC (6701:JP) is building two additional communicationsatellites that will transmit encrypted data. The U.S. has about 30 spysatellites in orbit.
美国最容易受到中国的攻击，因为轨道上43%的卫星不是属于美国军队就是属于美国公司，外交关系委员会5月份的一份报告称。日本目前有四个间谍卫星在服役中，由日本卫星电视公司和日本电气公司领导的一个财团正在建造两个额外的通信卫星，将用于传输加密数据。美国在轨道上大约有30个间谍卫星。
Both countries have sunk billions of dollars into a sophisticated missiledefense system that relies in part on data from U.S. spy satellites. That's whystrategists working for China’s People's Liberation Army have publishednumerous articles in defense journals about the strategic value of chippingaway at U.S. domination in space. "How many missile defense tests haveAmericans carried out?"says Yue Gang, a retired PLA colonel who worked on ASATtechnologies. "China has only conducted a couple of tests, and that’s enough tomake them unable to sit still."
两个国家都投入了巨额资金建立自己的导弹防卫系统，而导弹防卫系统部分依赖于美国间谍卫星所传输的数据。所以解放军的战略学者才在防卫杂志上不断强调削弱美国空间主导权的重要性。“美国已经进行了多少次的导弹防御测试？”一名退役的解放军上校岳刚说道，他之前从事的就是反卫星武器方面的工作。“中国只进行了几次测试，而这就足以让他们坐不住了。”
Weeden says the U.S. is exploring otherways to mitigate the perceived threat from China, including dispatching a fleetof smaller, mobile satellites that would be harder for adversaries to find anddestroy. Enabling satellite transmitters to quickly hop between frequenciescould address the Chinese jamming threat, Gatling says.
维顿说，美国正在寻找其他方式来应对中国可能的威胁，包括发射更小型的移动卫星，令对手更难以察觉和摧毁。Lance Gatling认为，让卫星发射机在频率之间快速跳跃，这也能解决中国对卫星的干扰威胁。
In June the U.S. Air Force awarded LockheedMartin (LMT) a $914 million contract to build a ground-based radar system thatwill track objects as small as a baseball, which could help identify asatellite attack as it's happening. “Destroying someone’s satellite is an actof war,"says Dave Baiocchi, an engineering professorat the Pardee RAND Graduate School. "You need to know what’s going on upthere."
6月份，美国空军赋予洛克希德马丁公司9亿1千4百万美元的合约建造一个地基雷达系统，用以追踪棒球大小的物体。如此，在发生卫星袭击事件时就能进行确认。“摧毁别人的卫星就是战争行为，”帕地兰德研究生院的工程教授Dave Baiocchi如是说。“所以需要知道太空上发生了什么事情。”