There was another piece that was like a big metal spear, almost.[qh]
还有一块,差不多像一支大大的金属矛一样
Like, that one really scared me, just thinking about that falling into the ground.[qh]
那个真的吓到我了,想想它掉到地上的场景
It was about eight or nine feet tall. It weighed 80 pounds.[qh]
它大约有八九英尺高
And it's just, like, a spear made of aluminum. Like, that's terrifying, terrifying, right?[qh]
像一支用铝制成的长矛
There were five pieces, about 250 pounds in total, that were found by the original farmer and his neighbors, and they had brought it all to farmer, uh, Barry Sawchuk's equipment shed just to, like, have a nice display for journalists to take a look at, right?[qh]
总共有五块,大约250磅,最初是农民和他的邻居发现的,他们把所有东西都带到了农民家,巴里·索楚克的设备棚里,为了给记者们好好展示,对吧?[qh]
'Cause this is terrifying. Yeah. Well, and did these pieces cause any damage, or were folks fortunate enough that they landed in empty fields?[qh]
因为它们太可怕了
Yeah. So where the pieces fell, it is very sparsely populated, right? This is grain-farming country.[qh]
是的
There's fields that are used for growing thousands of acres of wheat and canola and a few cattle fields.[qh]
那里是种植数千英亩小麦和油菜的田地,还有几块养牛的田地
There's only a house every few kilometers, right? It's very sparsely populated.[qh]
每隔几公里才有一座房子,对吧?人口非常稀少
So in some ways, it's a great spot for this to happen, right?[qh]
所以碎片落在这种地方,还算是件好事,对吧?[qh]
It also sort of highlights, like, if it's this sparsely populated and people still found pieces, like, that's a lot of stuff coming down, right?[qh]
这还说明了,即便这里人口稀少,人们仍然能发现碎片,这说明从太空中落下的碎片有很多,对吧?[qh]
There was no damage, and nobody's house got hit or anything, but there will be pieces found for years.[qh]
碎片没有造成破坏,没有房子之类的东西被击中,但很多年后,仍然会有一些碎片被发现
I have no doubt that there are smaller pieces or maybe even pieces this big that are still out there to be found.[qh]
我很确信,还有一些更小的碎片,甚至或许有跟这一样大的碎片还没被找到
One neighbor apparently just seeded over it, right?[qh]
显然,有位邻居在碎片上播种了,对吧?[qh]
He drove his big tractor over a piece, and he didn't even think about it until he saw the news, like: "Oh, there's space debris in my field that's now growing canola or whatever," right?[qh]
他开着大拖拉机经过一块地,直到他看到新闻才想起这件事:“哦,我地里有太空碎片,它上面正长着油菜之类的,”对吧?[qh]
So people will continue finding pieces.[qh]
所以人们还会继续去寻找碎片
It could cause damage to these giant million-dollar tractors and combines in the future, but, it's really, really quite terrifying to think about.[qh]
未来,它们可能会给这些价值数百万美元的巨型拖拉机和联合收割机造成损坏,想想就很吓人
Like, that fell, like, right near my house. That, that could have hit me. Like, wow.[qh]
比如,它正好落在我家附近
I just saw in the news that SpaceX has actually changed how they are letting these particular objects reenter, and they're going to try to get them to land in the ocean, which is great in terms of not killing people, but it's still like—they're dropping giant pieces of garbage.[qh]
我刚在新闻上看到,SpaceX其实已经改变了他们让这些特定物体重新进入大气层的方式,他们试图让碎片降落在海洋中,这可以避免有人被击中,但这种感觉仍然像是——他们在扔巨大的垃圾
Like, why is this okay? The disposability really bothers me.[qh]
为什么这么做是可以接受的呢?这种用完即弃的做法真的让我很困扰
Yeah, well, and that is a great segue to my next question.[qh]
是的,嗯,这么说正好就引出了我的下一个问题
In the piece you wrote for Scientific American, you kind of brought people along for the journey as you tried to get this debris dealt with.[qh]
在你为《科学美国人》撰写的文章中,在试图处理这些碎片时,你就像是带着人们一起踏上了这段旅程
So what surprised you the most about that process?[qh]
那么,这个过程中,最让你惊讶的是什么?[qh]
The thing that surprised me the most, that still continues to surprise me, is that nobody in the Canadian government really seems to care.[qh]
最让我惊讶的,而且至今仍然让我惊讶的是,加拿大政府中好像没人真正关心这些
Like, like wait, so SpaceX, a private company, just dropped garbage on Canadian citizens and then came and picked it up and left, and, like, nobody cares?[qh]
就像是,SpaceX,一家私营公司,刚刚把垃圾扔到了加拿大公民身上,然后他们来把垃圾捡走就离开了,真的就没人在乎吗?[qh]
Really? This is fine? This is how this is supposed to go?[qh]
真的吗?这无关紧要吗?它应该是这样的吗?[qh]
So I'm still just kind of shocked that, yep, this is fine.[qh]
人们认为这种现象可以接受,我真的很震惊
It's okay for private companies to drop garbage on you from orbit as long as they, like, come pick it up afterwards.[qh]
只要私营公司事后会来清理,那他们从轨道上往你身上倾倒垃圾就可以接受
Like, it's just so bizarre. Yeah. Well, and, and what did that process entail? Yeah.[qh]
这真是太荒诞了
What is supposed to happen: anything that goes into orbit and comes back down is covered by the Outer Space Treaty and the Space Liability Convention, which are these big treaties written back in the late 1960s, early 1970s, in the Apollo space race era.[qh]
理想情况是:任何进入轨道并返回的东西都受到《外层空间条约》和《空间责任公约》的约束,这是在20世纪60年代末、70年代初阿波罗太空竞赛时代制定的这些大型条约
They're written for a time when governments are the only entities launching stuff into orbit, so they don't recognize private companies.[qh]
在那个时代,它们的诞生只承认政府是唯一可以把东西送入轨道的实体,所以它们不认可私营公司
It doesn't recognize individuals, so—now a private company has dropped stuff on private citizens.[qh]
它不认可个人,而现在,一家私营公司将太空碎片投放到了普通公民身上
How does that work?[qh]
这该怎么办呢?[qh]
What was supposed to happen is that Global Affairs Canada should have talked to the U.S. (Department of State), who should have talked to SpaceX, right?[qh]
理想情况是,加拿大全球事务部应该与美国(国务院)进行交谈,而美国应该与SpaceX进行交谈,对吧?[qh]
It should have gone through government-level dialogue.[qh]
应该存在政府层面的对话
But I think what actually ended up happening is that someone at SpaceX saw the news and got in contact with the farmer.[qh]
但我认为实际情况是,SpaceX的某个人看到了这个新闻,并与这位农民取得了联系
Stuff that falls out of orbit on another country, you're obligated to give it back to whatever country launched it, right?[qh]
从另一个国家的轨道上掉落的东西,你有义务将其归还给发射它的国家,对吧?[qh]
If you are a Canadian, and you find space junk in your field, you have to give that back to the U.S. if—as a private company in the U.S. launched it.[qh]
如果你是加拿大人,你在自己的地里发现了太空垃圾,那么如果——是美国的私人公司发射了它,你必须将其归还给美国