TE||Fire arrows
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导读
中国民营火箭制造公司OneSpace
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听力|精读|翻译|词组
Fire arrows
火箭
英文部分选自经济学人Science and technology版块
A Chinese company plans to launch a rocket into orbit this year
中国公司计划年内发射火箭送入轨道
THE first rockets were Chinese. In the 1230s the armies of the Song dynasty, who were fighting Mongol invaders, started launching “fire arrows” propelled by gunpowder some 300 metres into enemy lines. When the Song’s artillerymen realised that these arrows continued to fly straight even after their fiery exhaust had burned away their feathers, they removed the fletching and the rocket was born.
第一批火箭诞生于中国。早在13世纪30年代，宋朝军队为抵抗蒙古入侵者，开始使用火药向射程在300米左右的敌军发射“火箭”。当时宋朝炮兵发现箭翎被火热的尾气烧掉，而这些弓箭还在继续向前飞行，他们便摘去箭翎，火箭也就由此诞生。
Almost eight hundred years later Shu Chang, the head of a company called OneSpace, is trying to build on that historical tradition—though not for military purposes. The charred and twisted remnants of OS-X, the firm’s first launch, are strewn across the floor of its laboratory in Daxing, a suburb of Beijing. The launch took place in May, from an undisclosed location in the north-west. OS-X, nine metres tall, climbed to an altitude of 40km and travelled 287km downrange. It remained airborne for five minutes before crashing into desert sands.
差不多800年后，零壹空间（OneSpace）科技有限公司老板舒畅要把这一历史传统发扬光大——不过不是用于军事目的。该公司首次发射的OS-X型火箭残骸还散落在北京郊区的大兴实验室地板上，全因烧焦而扭曲变形。。这枚火箭于今年五月在未披露位置的西北某地进行了首次发射。OS-X，箭体高9米，爬升至40公里的高度，顺着发射方向飞行了287公里。它在空中停留了5分钟，然后坠入沙漠。
注：如何评价中国首家民营航天科技公司零壹空间（onespace）？
https://www.zhihu.com/question/38852723
This lift-off was a first not only for OneSpace but also for China, for it was the first in that country of any rocket built by a private space company rather than a government agency. It was also the world’s first flight of a rocket intended to pave the way for a commercial, solid-fuelled orbital launcher.
此次发射升空不仅是零壹空间的第一次，而且也是中国的第一次——第一次由民营企业而非政府机构制造并发射火箭。同时，这在全球范围内也属首次，意为商业用途发射固体燃料运载火箭铺平道路。
Solid fuel is easier and cheaper to handle than the liquid variety, which requires tanks and pumps, and its higher density means that rockets which use it can be made smaller than their liquid-fuelled brethren of equivalent lifting capability. Fine-tuning the flight of a solid-fuelled rocket is harder, though, because the supply of fuel to the motor cannot easily be regulated. For that reason American space companies have followed the liquid-fuelled path trodden by government space agencies around the world. The relative disadvantages of solid fuel do, however, diminish as rockets get smaller. And since OneSpace is not planning to hoist into orbit the multi-tonne loads carried by, say, the Falcon Heavy lifter of SpaceX, America’s leading private space company, the firm hopes that the simplicity of solid fuel will offset its disadvantages.
比起需要储存容器和水泵的各种液体燃料，固体燃料更便宜，更易于操作；并它的密度更高，意味着在相同的提升能力下，使用固体燃料的火箭可以比液体燃料火箭更小。然而，对固体燃料火箭的飞行进行细微调整的难度则更大，因为发动机的燃料供应不易调节。因此，美国的航天公司选择遵循世界各地政府太空机构惯例使用液体燃料。然而，固体燃料的相关不利因素会随着火箭变小而减少。零壹空间并不打算将美国的顶级私人太空公司Space X的猎鹰重型提升机搭载的数公吨负荷送入轨道，而是希望对固体燃料进行简化，消除其不利因素。
OS-X was assembled in the laboratory where its remnants now reside. But OS-M, the next generation, will be built in a factory now nearing completion in Chongqing. These solid-fuelled rockets will be 20 metres tall and are destined for orbit. They will be able to launch payloads of up to 205kg—a load the firm hopes eventually to increase to 750kg by adding four booster rockets to the main one.
OS-X是在实验室里组装的，而那里现在还存放着它的残骸。但是新一代OS-M机型将会在重庆的公司制造已接近完工。这些固体燃料火箭将有20米高，会被送往轨道。它们能发射重达205kg的有效负载，公司还想通过增加4个助推器，使负荷最终达到750kg。
OneSpace’s target is the rapidly growing market for small, short-lived satellites that will observe Earth’s surface for various purposes. At the moment these devices, which weigh only a kilogram or two, are launched mainly as makeweights on missions whose principle purpose is to put a large satellite into space. Demand for small-satellite launches is now so great, though, that businesses can be built on it. Rocket Lab, an American firm, has recently begun offering dedicated small-satellite launches, using a liquid-fuelled rocket. OneSpace hopes the first OS-M should be launched before the end of the year.
零壹空间瞄准的是快速增长的小型、短期的卫星市场，这些卫星主要是以不同的目的观测地球表面。这些设备仅重1公斤或2公斤，目前主要是作为发射任务的添加物，这些发射任务主要是将大型卫星送往太空。不过现在小型卫星的需求很大，此领域业务的发展前景极佳。一家美国公司Rocket Lab，近期开始供应使用液体燃料的小型专用卫星。零壹空间希望首架OS-M能在今年年底前发射。
The firm, which was founded in August 2015, owes its birth to government policies, promulgated a year earlier, that permitted private capital to enter the space industry—previously a state monopoly. It is backed by several Chinese venture-capital firms, including Legend Star, Zhengxuan Capital and the Hongtai Fund. It says it has already signed a number of contracts to launch small satellites for Chinese customers. It may not, though, keep its lead for long. Several other firms, including LandSpace and LinkSpace in Beijing, and ExPace, in Wuhan, have similar plans and are pressing it hard.
零壹空间成立于2015年8月，其诞生得益于政府前一年颁布的政策——允许私人资本进入以前属于国家垄断的太空行业。它由几家中国风险投资公司支持，包括联想之星，郑玄资本和宏泰基金等。零壹表示，现已签署了一些合同，为中国客户提供小型卫星发射服务。 但它可能不会保持领先地位太久。包括北京的蓝箭（LandSpace）和翎客航天（LinkSpace）以及武汉的航天科工火箭技术有限公司（ExPace）在内的其他几家航天科技公司也有类似的计划，并且在加紧推进中。
It seems, then, that in the small-satellite-launch market the Chinese are coming in earnest. With luck, at least from the customer’s point of view, OneSpace and its modern fire arrows are about to ignite a private space race.
似乎在小型卫星发射市场上，中国人的态度是极其认真的。幸运的是，至少从客户的角度来看，零壹空间及其现代火箭正引发一场民间太空竞赛。
注释：
习语 in earnest: ① more seriously and with more force or effort than before （更加）严肃地，认真地，坚定地； 栗子：The work on the house will begin in earnest on Monday. 这栋房子的修建工作将在星期一正式开始。②very serious and sincere about what you are saying and about your intentions; in a way that shows that you are serious 郑重其事；当真；栗子：I could tell she spoke in earnest. 我看得出她是郑重其事地说的。（摘自《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》）
翻译组：
Yifei：女，英专硕士，专八，catti二笔
Helga，女，笔译民工，经济学人爱好者
Vambie，女，互联网民工，经济学人粉丝
校核组：
Li Xia, 女， HR, 经济学人发烧友
Muyi，文产小研，经济学人初段读者
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观点|评论|思考
本次观点由Frank独家奉献
Frank，男，小硕，经济学人爱好者
火箭是历史悠久的 投射武器，中国古代的火箭就是现在火箭的 鼻祖。早在宋理宗绍定5年（约公元1232年）宋军保卫汴京时。便已用来对抗元军，后来火箭技术经由阿拉伯人传至欧洲。
18世纪，印度在对抗英国和 法国军队的多次战争中，曾大量使用火箭武器，获得良后的战果。因此带动欧洲火箭技术的发展。
之后，又发展出精密的导引与控制系统，而成为射程运，射速快，火力强，高震撼力与高命中率等特性，奠定其在军事武器发展史上的地位。
看到这篇文章很高兴，原来火箭诞生于中国，起于战争，兴于航空，受控制政府到民首发。看到的不至于技术的发展，更是社会营的进步。火箭加油!
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愿景
小组
现有一经济学人大群,如果您也有兴趣，可联系小编WeChat : foxwulihua。