本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist 2016年第35期，Technology Quarterly版块。

Brain scan

Zac Manchester is making smallsats smaller still

Aug 27th 2016

LIKE Elon Musk[1], Zac Manchester wants to get people into space. Unlike Mr Musk, he does not have a billion-dollar spaceship business to do it with. But he has imagination, the skills of a smart young engineer, the cubesat[2] standard and crowdsourced[众包] funding. That is enough.

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Had it not been for a regulatory snafu[3], the Falcon 9[4] that took off from Cape Canaveral[卡那维拉尔角] this July would have carried a 3U cubesat called Kicksat[5]. On board would have been 100 circuit boards[电路板;线路板] measuring 3.5cm on a side and weighing four grams, each holding sensors, a processor, solar cells, a radio and a pair of coiled[盘绕的;卷成圈的] 10cm whiskers[(猫、鼠等的)须;络腮胡子]. Once in orbit each of those circuit boards—he calls them “sprites[精灵]”—would have headed off on its own, kicked out of the tiny mother ship by the uncoiling of its antennae[æn'teniː][天线], and the project’s backers on Kickstarter would have had their own personal Sputniks[人造卫星], transmitting at a frequency they could monitor.

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A 3mm smartphone camera would be an easy addition[加法;增加物], says Dr Manchester, as would other sensors commonplace in phones and elsewhere. A modest investment would allow the whole package to be produced on a single silicon chip[硅(芯)片]. At the margin they could be priced in pennies.

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A swarm of[一大群/堆] such mites[微粒;微小的东西] could be used to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere[高层大气;上层大气] or its magnetic field[磁场]. With a bit more development they could be a remarkable supplement to asteroid-prospecting[6] missions, thousands of them imaging their target from every angle and putting a network of simple sensors all over its surface. If they were attached to lightweight mirrors, lasers could fling[7] them to targets across the solar system—perhaps, one day, beyond it.

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Mr Manchester would like eventually to travel to space himself the old-fashioned way. If out-of-the-box engineers are needed in orbit, he may well get his chance. But Kicksat will get up there a lot sooner. And its nanoscale[纳米级的] possibilities may take some imaginations—and sponsors—a great deal farther.

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[1]Elon Musk 埃隆·马斯克，或伊隆·马斯克，1971年6月28日出生于南非，18岁时移民加拿大，工程师、慈善家、PayPal贝宝（最大的网上支付公司）、Spacex太空探索技术公司、环保跑车公司特斯拉（Tesla）以及SolarCity四家公司的CEO。

[2]A CubeSat (U-class spacecraft) is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of 10×10×11.35 cm cubic units. 立方体卫星;立方卫星;正方体卫星

[3]snafu [snæ'fuː; 'snæfuː]

a situation in which nothing has happened as planned 混乱局面，乱子

The company isn't wholly to blame for the snafu.

出现这样的混乱局面，不该完全怪这家公司。

A single snafu (= serious mistake) by an airline can leave a lasting impression on travelers.

航空公司只要出一次乱子，就会给旅客留下持久的印象。

[4]猎鹰9号（Falcon 9）火箭是美国SpaceX公司研制的可回收式中型运载火箭，运载能力与长征7号相近。于2010年6月4日完成首次发射，于2015年12月21日完成首次回收。2016年7月18日，猎鹰9号完成新一次的发射并成功回收。

[5]KickSat is a small satellite project inaugurated[开始;开幕] in early October, 2011, to launch a large number of very small satellites from a CubeSat. The satellites have been characterized as being the size of a large postage stamp[邮票].

[6]asteroid ['æstərɒɪd]

one of many large rocks that circle the sun 小行星

prospect：to search for gold, oil, or other valuable substances on or under the surface of the earth 勘探

to prospect for oil/gold

勘探石油／黄金

Asteroid-prospecting

Asteroid mining is the exploitation of raw materials from asteroids and other minor planets, including near-Earth objects.

[7]fling：to throw something or someone suddenly and with a lot of force 猛扔，猛投，猛掷

He crumpled up the letter and flung it into the fire.

他把信揉成一团，猛地扔进火中。

"And you can take your ring back too!" she cried, flinging it down on the table.

“你还可以把你的戒指也拿走！”她喊道，猛地把戒指摔到桌子上。

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以上言论不代表本人立场。

原文摘自The economist，仅外语学习之用。

其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries

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