Orbital ecosystem

軌道的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)

A new business in small satellites orbiting the Earth

這是一項(xiàng)圍繞地球運(yùn)行的小型衛(wèi)星的新業(yè)務(wù)

詞匯

Orbit/繞…軌道而行

Looking at the Earth from above

俯瞰地球

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IN MAY 1999 a group of researchers from the Technical University of Berlin launched an unusual satellite. At a time when most of the machinery in orbit weighed thousands of kilograms, TUBSAT was a petite 45kg. A box that measured 32cm on each side, it carried three video cameras, the idea being to test whether such a titchy spacecraft could capture useful imagery of Earth. The researchers cited low mass, and the resultant low costs, as the benefits of such comparatively tiny satellites. They promised to open up “new market areas” for Earth observation.

1999年5月，柏林技術(shù)大學(xué)的一組研究人員發(fā)射了一顆不同尋常的衛(wèi)星。當(dāng)軌道上的大多數(shù)機(jī)械重達(dá)數(shù)千公斤時，頗顯“嬌小”的TUBSAT只有45公斤。它的每一面都有一個32厘米的盒子，盒子里裝有三個攝像機(jī)，這個想法是為了測試這樣一個小宇宙飛船能否捕捉到有用的地球圖像。研究人員稱，這種相對較小的衛(wèi)星的優(yōu)點(diǎn)是質(zhì)量小，成本低。他們承諾為地球觀測開辟“新市場”。

詞匯

Petite/嬌小的，小個子的

Titchy/很小的

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It took around 15 years for them to be proved right. A few such “smallsats”, sometimes called nanosats or CubeSats, were launched every year in the decade up until 2014, when numbers spiked. Planet Labs, a Californian company founded by ex-Nasa engineers, launched 33 smallsats that year, each weighing just a few kilos. Planet’s satellites are spiritual successors of TUBSAT, designed to gather imagery of the Earth’s surface. The firm sells its customers images from around 150 active satellites it has in orbit.

他們花了大約15年的時間想法才得到認(rèn)可。在2014年之前的10年里，每年都會發(fā)射一些這樣的“小型衛(wèi)星”，有時也被稱為納米衛(wèi)星或立方體衛(wèi)星。由美國宇航局前工程師創(chuàng)立的加州行星實(shí)驗(yàn)室公司在那一年發(fā)射了33顆小型衛(wèi)星，每顆衛(wèi)星只有幾公斤重。Planet的衛(wèi)星是TUBSAT的精神繼承者，旨在收集地球表面的圖像。該公司向客戶出售其軌道上約150顆現(xiàn)役衛(wèi)星的圖像。

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Planet Labs is an industry leader. The cost of making and launching satellites has tumbled, enabling an array of new space-based businesses to emerge. In the past year smallsats have been launched that can use radar to peer through clouds or darkness. Others watch for illegal shipping activities and yet more are built to service or move around other satellites in orbit. Perhaps the most outlandish venture is a rescue satellite, designed to pull other satellites down to safety if something goes wrong, to avoid catastrophic collisions with neighbours.

Planet Labs是行業(yè)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者。制造和發(fā)射衛(wèi)星的成本大幅下降，使一系列新的太空業(yè)務(wù)得以涌現(xiàn)。在過去的一年里，已經(jīng)發(fā)射了小型衛(wèi)星，可以使用雷達(dá)透視云層或黑暗區(qū)域。還有一些人在監(jiān)視非法運(yùn)輸活動，還有更多的人是為了服務(wù)或繞軌道上的其他衛(wèi)星運(yùn)行而建造的。也許最古怪的冒險(xiǎn)是一顆救援衛(wèi)星，它的設(shè)計(jì)目的是，如果出了問題，將其他衛(wèi)星拉到安全地帶，以避免與鄰國發(fā)生災(zāi)難性的碰撞。

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Much of the recent attention has focused on the internet-connection constellations in low Earth orbit proposed by SpaceX and OneWeb. These have long been planned, and the billions of dollars required to install them are feeding the entire market.

最近的注意力主要集中在SpaceX和OneWeb提出的近地軌道上基于大量小型衛(wèi)星建立的“互聯(lián)網(wǎng)星群”項(xiàng)目。這些都是長期計(jì)劃好的，安裝它們所需的數(shù)十億美元正在供應(yīng)整個市場。

詞匯

Constellation/星座；星群

Many of the capabilities of the new smallsats already existed, but mostly as government projects or as secretive intelligence operations. America has long sought to inhibit the commercial development of radar satellites, so powerful are their surveillance properties. Military radar satellites, which bounce radio waves off the surface of the Earth in order to build up a detailed picture of it, were said to be capable of detecting enemy submarines by measuring the tiny disturbances that their wakes left in the curvature of the surface of the ocean.

新小型衛(wèi)星的許多功能已經(jīng)實(shí)現(xiàn)，但主要是作為政府項(xiàng)目或秘密情報(bào)行動。長期以來，美國一直試圖抑制雷達(dá)衛(wèi)星的商業(yè)發(fā)展，因?yàn)樗鼈兊谋O(jiān)視功能非常強(qiáng)大。軍事雷達(dá)衛(wèi)星能夠?qū)o線電波從地球表面反射回來，以便對其形成詳細(xì)的圖像，據(jù)說能夠通過測量它們的尾跡在海洋表面彎曲處留下的微小擾動來探測敵方潛艇。

詞匯

Curvature/彎曲；曲度

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Payam Banazadeh, the boss of Capella Space, a startup based in San Francisco and founded in 2016, says his firm will use smallsats to work similar magic. Capella’s satellites will use radio waves, rather than light, to create images of the surface of the Earth. Mr Banazadeh says that his smallsats will be able to measure the volume of oil-storage tanks, for example, which are often open-topped to avoid fire risks, simply by pinging a radar beam into them. The first operational satellite is intended to launch this year, one of a planned constellation of 36. A competitor, Finnish company ICEYE, already has satellites in orbit gathering data.

帕亞姆·巴納扎德(Payam Banazadeh)是總部位于舊金山的創(chuàng)業(yè)公司Capella Space的老板，該公司成立于2016年。卡佩拉的衛(wèi)星將使用無線電波而不是光來創(chuàng)建地球表面的圖像。Banazadeh先生說，他的小型衛(wèi)星將能夠測量儲油罐的體積，例如，這些儲油罐通常是敞開式的，以避免火災(zāi)風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，只需將雷達(dá)波束射入儲油罐即可。首顆運(yùn)行中的衛(wèi)星計(jì)劃于今年發(fā)射，是計(jì)劃中的36顆星群之一。競爭對手，芬蘭ICEYE公司已經(jīng)在軌道上安裝了衛(wèi)星來收集數(shù)據(jù)。

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Capella relies on a host of new space businesses as suppliers. Blue Canyon Technologies, founded in 2008, will provide small thrusters that allow the satellites to be pointed at specific spots on Earth. A company called Phase Four, founded in 2015, will provide tiny ion drives that will allow Capella’s satellites to adjust their altitude as needed. This will let the firm capture a wider variety of imagery.

卡佩拉依靠大量新的太空企業(yè)作為供應(yīng)商。成立于2008年的Blue Canyon Technologies公司將提供小型推進(jìn)器，使衛(wèi)星能夠?qū)?zhǔn)地球上的特定地點(diǎn)。成立于2015年的“第四階段”公司將提供微型離子驅(qū)動器，使卡佩拉的衛(wèi)星能夠根據(jù)需要調(diào)整高度。這將使公司獲得更廣泛的圖像。

詞匯

Thruster/推進(jìn)器

Another new firm, Hawkeye360, takes a different approach. Instead of pinging the surface of the Earth with radio waves, it listens for any that are being emitted by activity down below. This kind of orbital signal sniffing also used to be the domain of governments. But smallsats have advanced to the point where Hawkeye can deploy clusters of three radio-frequency sensing satellites to pick up weak signals from the ground. The company says its primary service will be maritime surveillance, looking for anomalous radio signals such as a fishing vessel turning off its automated identification tracker near a marine protected zone. The stated purpose is to stop illegal fishing and keep ports secure, but it is easy to see how the smallsats could be used to curb oceanic migration too. Hawkeye’s first cluster of satellites has been in orbit since December 2018.

另一家新公司Hawkeye360采取了不同的方法。它不是用無線電波“撞擊”地球表面來獲取信息，而是在地球上進(jìn)行的活動所發(fā)出的任何信號。這種軌道信號嗅探技術(shù)也曾是政府的研究領(lǐng)域。但是小型衛(wèi)星已經(jīng)發(fā)展到鷹眼可以部署由三顆射頻傳感衛(wèi)星組成的集群從地面接收微弱信號的程度。該公司表示，其主要服務(wù)將是海上監(jiān)視，尋找異常無線電信號，比如一艘漁船在海洋保護(hù)區(qū)附近關(guān)閉自動識別跟蹤器。聲明的目的是停止非法捕魚并保持港口安全，但是很容易看出小型衛(wèi)星也可以用來抑制海洋移民。自2018年12月以來，鷹眼的第一組衛(wèi)星已經(jīng)進(jìn)入軌道。

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The data deluge

海量的數(shù)據(jù)

詞匯

deluge/洪水，大雨；蜂擁而至的事物

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All of these new forms of imaging generate huge volumes of data—terabytes a day, enough that getting it down to the ground for processing becomes its own problem. Some companies want to reduce the amount of data they send back by processing some of it up in space (see article). Barry Matsumori, a space-industry veteran, is boss of Bridgesat, a company that has developed a tiny, powerful laser, which can be embedded in spacecraft and which can beam data down to ground stations at extremely high bandwidths. ICEYE is one of its first customers. Bridgesat’s first ground station, in California, is already in operation, and more in Italy and Sweden are on their way. The plan is to have ten around the world.

所有這些新的成像形式每天都會產(chǎn)生大量兆兆字節(jié)的數(shù)據(jù)，這足以讓處理這些數(shù)據(jù)成為它自己的問題。一些公司希望通過在太空中處理數(shù)據(jù)來減少他們發(fā)回的數(shù)據(jù)量。Barry Matsumori，一位航天工業(yè)的資深人士，是Bridgesat公司的老板。Bridgesat公司已經(jīng)開發(fā)出一種微小的、強(qiáng)大的激光，這種激光可以嵌入宇宙飛船，并且可以將數(shù)據(jù)以極高的帶寬傳輸?shù)降孛嬲?。ICEYE是其首批客戶之一。Bridgesat在加州的第一個地面站已經(jīng)投入使用，意大利和瑞典的更多地面站也在建設(shè)中。計(jì)劃是在世界各地建立十個。

詞匯

Terabytes/ ?兆兆字節(jié)（信息量單位）

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The firm has competition from Amazon, which just announced its own backbone service for data out of orbit and into its data centres, called AWS Ground Station. Capella is an early customer of the service, which uses radio waves rather than lasers to get data down from orbit. As with Amazon’s cloud-computing business, the idea with Ground Station is to invest in plenty of expensive infrastructure and then charge startups only for what they use, making it easier and more affordable to run a business up in space.

該公司面臨著來自亞馬遜的競爭，亞馬遜剛剛宣布了自己的主干網(wǎng)服務(wù)，即AWS地面站，服務(wù)于軌道外和數(shù)據(jù)中心的數(shù)據(jù)?？ㄅ謇沁@項(xiàng)服務(wù)的早期客戶，該服務(wù)使用無線電波而不是激光從軌道上獲取數(shù)據(jù)。就像亞馬遜的云計(jì)算業(yè)務(wù)一樣，地面站的理念是投資大量昂貴的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，然后根據(jù)初創(chuàng)企業(yè)的使用情況向它們收費(fèi)，讓它們更容易、更負(fù)擔(dān)得起在太空開展業(yè)務(wù)。

詞匯

Backbone/脊骨；骨干

Infrastructure/基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施；公共建設(shè)

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Managing all those extra satellites gets tricky when the companies launching them have to get their orbits perfect the first time. Currently, companies get only one shot. D-Orbit, an Italian company, has built a “carrier” satellite that is designed to boost already-launched smallsats to their correct configuration.

當(dāng)發(fā)射這些額外衛(wèi)星的公司必須在第一時間將它們的軌道變得完美時，管理這些額外的衛(wèi)星就變得棘手起來。目前，企業(yè)只有一次機(jī)會。一家意大利公司D-Orbit已經(jīng)建造了一顆“載波”衛(wèi)星，旨在將已經(jīng)發(fā)射的小型衛(wèi)星提升到正確的布局。

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configuration/布局；結(jié)構(gòu)；構(gòu)造；格局

Perhaps the most futuristic new problem for the space business is the risk of debris. The concern is that, with so many new satellites in orbit operated by so many different companies, the chance of losing control of one goes up. A collision could be disastrous, producing a wave of debris with a high chance of wiping out other satellites, potentially crippling the whole commercial low-Earth orbit ecosystem at a stroke. Astroscale, a Japanese company, is tackling this problem by building a prototype craft capable of being launched at short notice in order to grab any malfunctioning satellite and pull it down into the atmosphere where it will burn up before it can collide with anything. The “rescue” craft will use computer vision to lock onto the out-of-control satellite and match velocity with it, then latch onto it magnetically. The company, which has raised $132m in the past few years, is planning a demonstration of its technology next year.

也許對航天事業(yè)來說，最具未來主義色彩的新問題是碎片的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。令人擔(dān)憂的是，隨著如此多的新衛(wèi)星在軌道上由如此多不同的公司運(yùn)營，失去對其中一顆衛(wèi)星的控制的幾率上升。碰撞可能是災(zāi)難性的，產(chǎn)生一波碎片，極有可能摧毀其他衛(wèi)星，有可能一舉摧毀整個商業(yè)近地軌道生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。一家日本公司Astroscale（有太空清潔工的含義）正在解決這個問題，他們正在建造一艘能夠在短時間內(nèi)發(fā)射的原型飛船，以便抓住任何一顆發(fā)生故障的衛(wèi)星，并將其拖到大氣層中，在它與任何物體相撞之前將其燒毀?！熬仍憋w船將利用計(jì)算機(jī)視覺鎖定失控的衛(wèi)星，并與之匹配速度，然后用磁力鎖定衛(wèi)星。該公司在過去幾年籌集了1.32億美元，計(jì)劃明年展示其技術(shù)。

詞匯

Futuristic/極其現(xiàn)代的；未來派的

Debris/?碎片，殘骸

Astroscale/太空清潔工

Earth’s orbits suddenly look busier than ever before. Companies are going into space because it offers a different vantage point, allowing them to gather valuable new, previously-unaffordable information. TUBSAT’s “new market areas” are at last open for business.

地球軌道突然變得比以往任何時候都要繁忙。企業(yè)之所以進(jìn)入太空，是因?yàn)樗峁┝艘粋€不同的有利局面，讓它們能夠收集到以前無法負(fù)擔(dān)的有價(jià)值的新信息。TUBSAT的“新市場區(qū)域”終于開始營業(yè)了。

詞匯

Vantage/優(yōu)勢；有利情況

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