VOA慢速英語：兼職科學家為將探測車送上月球進行競爭

Sixteen teams from around the world have set their sights on the moon. The teams are also hoping to win the $30 million Lunar XPRIZE.

來自世界各地的十六個團隊將他們的注意力放在月球上。這些團隊也希望贏得三千萬的月球艾克斯大獎。

Google, the U.S. technology company, launched the international space competition in 2007. The goal is to use private financing to build a planetary rover and send it to the moon. This vehicle also has to travel 500 meters on the moon's surface, and send high quality video and images back to earth. All the work is to be completed at less than what a public lunar project would cost.

美國科技公司，谷歌，在2007年發(fā)起國際空間競爭。目標在于利用私人資金來制造行星探測車。并將其發(fā)送到月球。這款車要在月球表面行駛500米，并且將高質量視頻及圖像發(fā)送回地球。完成所有工作需要的成本少于公共月球項目的成本。

'Part-Time Scientists' Try to Put a Rover on Moon

One team from Germany is close to getting funding for its rover. They call themselves the Part-Time Scientists.

來自德國的一個團隊，將接近得到資助來制造探測車。他們稱自己為兼職科學家。

Robert Boehme founded the "Part-Time Scientists." He says his team has been working on its lunar rover since 2008. The vehicle has an adjustable solar panel, which creates electricity from the sun's light. It also has three cameras and four strong tires.

羅伯特·伯麥，成立了“兼職科學家”團隊。他說，自從2008年以來，他的團隊一直致力于研究月球探測車。該探測車擁有可調(diào)節(jié)太陽能電池板。通過太陽光發(fā)電。它還帶有三個攝像頭及四個堅固的輪胎。

Mr. Boehme says his team is using parts that were designed for smaller electronics and satellites.

伯麥表示，他們使用了原被用于地球使用和用于衛(wèi)星的電子組件。

"Using technology -- which is kind of not intended to send something to the moon -- is always very risky, so we have to really slim down everything so that it fits into a less than four ton payload vehicle."

“使用本來不是用于登月的技術總是非常冒險的，所以我們必須對一切進行精簡，這樣最終組裝成的車輛總負荷不到4噸。”

Cost is also a concern. Mr. Boehme says his team is making its rover as high-tech as possible.

成本也是一個顧慮，這也是這個團隊盡量使用高科技的原因。

"So what we wanted to try to do was to make as much as hi-tech -- as you would call -- available for space applications, so that you have more processing power for less energy. Energy is the No. 1 constraint in space. And that really cuts down to our mission costs." Visit the website www.chinavoa.com to get more information!

“所以我們想要嘗試的是使用盡量多的高科技-只要你能說上來的-適用于太空，這樣就可以用更少的能量處理更多任務。能源是太空中最大的約束。所以我們的任務成本必須降低。”

Mr. Boehme expects the project to cost less than $30 million. He hopes to have signed an agreement for a launch vehicle by the end of the year. His team hopes to send the rover on its way to the moon by the end of 2017.

Boehme預計他們的任務費用將少于三千萬美元。他希望能在今年年底之前獲得運載工具合同，在2017年底之前將月球車送上月球。

The 15 other teams in the competition are from the United States and nine other countries. They are Brazil, Canada, Chile, Hungary, Japan, India, Israel, Italy and Malaysia.

參加競賽的其他15個團隊分別來自巴西，加拿大，智利，匈牙利，日本，以色列，意大利，馬來西亞，印度和美國。

I'm Jonathan Evans.

我是喬納森•埃文斯。

VOA's Faith Lapidus reported on this story from Washington. Jonathan Evans adapted it for Learning English. George Grow was the editor.

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Words in This Story

lunar– adj. of or relating to the moon

rover – n. a vehicle used for exploring the surface of a moon or planet (a rover is sometimes called a planetary rover)

adjustable– adj. changing something in a minor way to make it work better

solar - adj. related to the sun

slim– adj. thin or small in size

payload– n. the goods or material carried by a vehicle

mission – n. a job or project