外刊精读(十三)：Software Error Doomed Japanese Hitomi Spacecraft.doc

考研VIP 只为更出众Software Error Doomed Japanese Hitomi Spacecraft软件错误注定日本Hitomi航天器的失败By Alexandra WitzeJapans flagship astronomical satellite Hitomi, which launched successfully on February 17 but tumbled out of control five weeks later, may have been doomed by a basic engineering error. Confused about how it was oriented in space and trying to stop itself from spinning, Hitomis control system apparently commanded a thruster jet to fire in the wrong direction- accelerating, rather than slowing, the crafts rotation.【生词】astronomical 天文学的 satellite 卫星 thruster 助推器【分析】句子的主干是Japans flagship astronomical satellite Hitomi may have been doomed by a basic engineering error. which launched successfully on February 17 but tumbled out of control five weeks later是定语从句修饰Hitomi。【翻译】日本旗舰天文卫星Hitomi在2月17日发射成功，但五周后失去控制，可能是一个基本的工程错误注定了这次的失败。困于如何在空间中导向，试图阻止自身旋转，Hitomi的控制系统显然控制推进器喷射在错误的方向加速，而不是减缓，飞船的旋转。 On 28 April, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) declared the satellite, on which it had spent 31 billion (US$286 million), lost. At least ten pieces-including both solar-array paddles that had provided electrical power-broke off the satellites main body.【生词】Agency 机构 satellite卫星【分析】句子的主干是At least ten pieces broke off the satellites main body. including both solar-array paddles that had provided electrical power 是插入成分，其中that had provided electrical power 是定语从句修饰paddles 。【翻译】4月28日，日本宇宙航空研究开发机构（JAXA）宣布卫星花费了310亿人民币（2亿8600万美元）的卫星消失了踪迹。至少十件东西包括为卫星提供电能的太阳能电池阵列从主体上分离。 Hitomi had been seen as the future of X-ray astronomy. “Its a scientific tragedy,” says Richard Mushotzky, an astronomer at the University of Maryland in College Park.【生词】astronomy 天文学 scientific 科学的 tragedy悲剧【翻译】Hitomi曾被认为是X射线天文学的未来。“这是一个科学的悲剧，”理查德说，他是美国马里兰大学学院公园天文学家。 The satellite managed to make one crucial astronomical observation before the accident, capturing gas motions in a galaxy cluster in the constellation Perseus. The instrument that made the observation, a high-resolution spectrometer, had been in the works for three decades. Two earlier versions of it were lost in previous spacecraft failures.【生词】crucial 重要的 observation观测 constellation星座【翻译】在事故前卫星成功完成了一个重要的天文观测，捕捉在英仙座星系团气体的运动。进行这次观测的设备是一个高分辨率光谱仪，已在工作了三十年。它早期的两个版本在之前的飞船失败事件中丢失了。 Hitomis troubles began in the weeks after launch, with its star tracker system, which is one of several systems on board that are designed to keep the satellite oriented in space. The star tracker experienced glitches whenever it passed over the eastern coast of South America, through a region known as the South Atlantic Anomaly. Here, the belts of radiation that envelop Earth dip relatively low in the atmosphere, exposing satellites to extra doses of energetic particles.【生词】 radiation 辐射【分析】句子的主干是Hitomis troubles began in the weeks after launch。with its star tracker system是状语，which is one of several systems on board that are designed to keep the satellite oriented in space.是定语从句修饰system。【翻译】Hitomi的麻烦开始于发射后的几周里，“星跟踪系统，是为使卫星在太空中绕轨道运行而设计的几个系统之一。星敏感器在通过南美国的东海岸即俗称的南大西洋异常地区是出现了故障。在这里，在大气层中，包裹着地球倾角较低的辐射带，将卫星暴露出额外的高能粒子中。 By itself that should not have been a fatal problem. But the star tracker issue kicked off a series of cascading failures.【生词】kick off 开始 cascading 连锁的【翻译】这本身不应该是一个致命的问题。但星跟踪问题揭开了一系列连锁故障。 SPIN CYCLE旋转周期 At 3:01 a.m. Japan time on March 26, the spacecraft began a preprogrammed manoeuvre to swivel from looking at the Crab Nebula to the galaxy Markarian 205. Somewhere along the way, the problems with the star tracker caused Hitomi to rely instead on another method, a set of gyroscopes, to calculate its orientation in space. But those gyroscopes were reporting, erroneously, that the spacecraft was rotating at a rate of about 20 degrees each hour. Tiny motors known as reaction wheels began to turn to counteract the supposed rotation.【生词】spacecraft 宇宙飞船【翻译】在日本时间3月26日凌晨3点零1分，飞船开始预先操纵从蟹状星云旋转看马卡良205星系。在这一过程中，与星敏感器引起Hitomi在计算其在空间的方向时不是依靠另一个方法一套陀螺的问题。但这些陀螺仪报告错误，那飞船的旋转速度是每小时约20度。小马达被称为反应轮开始转向抵消设想的旋转。 Once the reaction wheels reached their maximum spin, a magnetic rod would normally deploy to keep them from accelerating out of control. But the magnetic rod must be oriented properly in three dimensions to work, and so it failed to slow the reaction wheels. Hitomi spun faster and faster.【生词】magnetic 磁性的 deploy部署【翻译】一旦反应轮达到最大的旋转速度，一个磁性棒通常会部署以保持它们加速失控。但磁力杆必须在三个维度中正确定向，所以磁力杆未能使反应轮减速。Hitomi转得越来越快。 The spacecraft then automatically switched into a safe mode and, at about 4:10 a.m., fired thrusters to try to stop the rotation. But because the wrong command had been uploaded, the firing caused the spacecraft to accelerate further. (The improper command had been uploaded to the satellite weeks earlier without proper testing; JAXA says that it is investigating what happened.)【生词】automatically 自动地 command命令【翻译】飞船然后自动切换到安全模式，在大约在4点10分，发射推进器试图停止旋转。但因为错误的命令已被上传，火力使飞船进一步加速。（不当的命令几周前已经上传到卫星没有经过适当的测试；JAXA表示，它正在调查发生了什么事。） All this took place when Hitomi was on the other side of the Earth from Japan and unable to communicate with its controllers in real time.【翻译】所有的这些发生在Hitomi位于日本在地球的另一边，无法实时与控制者进行交流。In the United States, team scientists went to bed on Friday, 25 March, having celebrated what looked like a successful start to the mission. Saturday morning, they woke up to a terse email from the project manager, Tadayuki Takahashi, saying that the spacecraft had been in an emergency.【生词】mission 任务 emergency紧急状态【翻译】3月25日，星期五，在美国，在庆祝是任务成功开始后，科学家团队都在床上睡觉，。星期六早上，他们被项目经理Tadayuki Takahashi,一封简短的邮件唤醒，邮件中说飞船一直处于紧急状态。 Ground-based telescopes have since taken pictures of Hitomi spinning roughly once every 5.2 seconds.基于地面的望远镜以大约每5.2秒记录 Hitomi 旋转时的画面LOST OPPORTUNITIES失去的机会 Dan McCammon, an astronomer at the University of WisconsinMadison, helped to design and build Hitomis premiere scientific instrument, an X-ray calorimeter that measures the energy of X-ray photons with exquisite precision. He has been working on the technology for more than three decades, flying versions of it on the ASTRO-E mission, which failed on launch in 2000, and the Suzaku spacecraft, in which a helium leak rendered the instrument useless weeks after its 2005 launch.【生词】astronomer天文学家 exquisite 精致的 precision准确【分析】句子的主干是Dan McCammon helped to design and build Hitomis premiere scientific instrument。an astronomer at the University of WisconsinMadison是Dan McCammon的同位语。an X-ray calorimeter that measures the energy of X-ray photons with exquisite precision.是scientific instrument的同位语，其中 that measures the energy of X-ray photons with exquisite precision是定语从句修饰calorimeter。【翻译】Dan McCammon是威斯康星大学麦迪逊天文学家，帮助设计建立Hitomi的首映式科学仪器、X射线热量计精确测量X射线光子的能量。他一直从事技术工作已达30余年，ASTRO-E的任务中是之前的版本，在2000年未能成功发射，Suzaku 航天器中氦泄漏使仪器报废要到2005年发射几星期后。McCammon says that it would take about US$50 million from NASA, and another 35 years, to build a replacement calorimeter. A version of it is slated to fly on the European Space Agencys Athena mission, but that is not due to launch until 2028.【生词】due 预期的【翻译】McCammon 说这将花费美国宇航局的5000万美元和另外3至5年建立一个替代热量计。它的一个版本将在欧洲宇航局的雅典娜任务上飞行，但这并没预期在2028发射。The calorimeter is the biggest loss, says Makoto Tashiro, an astrophysicist at Saitama University in Japan. It was to have gathered extraordinary detail on exploded stars, galaxy clusters, the gas between the galaxies and more. “We lose the new science,” he says.【生词】astrophysicist 天体物理学家【翻译】热量计是最大的损失，日本埼玉大学的天体物理学家Makoto Tashiro说。它是在爆炸的恒星，星系团，星系间的气体和其他聚集了非凡的细节。“我们失去了新的科学，”他说。 But Hitomi could still contribute to science. Because of the early failure with Suzaku, Hitomi scientists planned one important early observation. About eight days after launch, Hitomi turned its X-ray gaze on the Perseus cluster, about 250 million light years from Earth.