Psst. Want a space telescope?

　　喂，要太空望遠鏡嗎?

　　America s spies make a generous donation to NASA.

　　美國間諜機構對NASA慷慨捐贈。

　　AMERICA S civilian space programme is built atop its military one. Its rockets trace theirancestry, via ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads into the Soviet Union, tothe German V2s that bombarded London and Antwerp during the second world war.

　　美國的民用空間計劃建立在軍用基礎之上，比如運載火箭，由攜帶核彈頭并瞄準前蘇聯的彈道導彈發展而來，再往前可以追溯到二戰時用于轟炸倫敦和安特衛普的德國V2系列導彈。

　　And the Space Shuttle, which made its final flight last year, was used to launch satellites forthe air force as well as carrying out its better-publicised scientific missions.

　　再比如去年退役的航天飛機，曾用來為空軍發射衛星，當然用作執行科學任務的宣傳工作做得也不差。

　　So when it was reported on June 4th that the National Reconnaissance Office , one ofthe more secretive of America s plethora of spy agencies, had decided to donate twosurplus spy-satellite mirrors to NASA, the country s civilian space agency, the news wasless bizarre than it might at first have seemed.

　　所以當6月4日有報道指出國家偵察局決定向NASA捐贈兩顆多余的偵察衛星時，這種資訊或許第一眼看上去有些奇怪，其實并非如此。

　　After all, NASA has benefited from spy technology before.

　　畢竟一直以來NASA就從偵察技術獲益頗多。

　　The Hubble space telescope is essentially a redesigned spy satellite that points out intospace instead of down at the Earth.

　　比如哈勃太空望遠鏡本質上就是偵察衛星的另一個版本，只不過把原本對著地球的鏡頭轉向外太空而已。

　　The news that America s spies had two spare satellite mirrors lying around has promptedspeculation about their provenance.

　　美國間諜機構有兩顆閑置衛星的資訊一經報道，衛星的來源問題就引發了廣泛的猜測。

　　Both NASA and the NRO are tight-lipped about the specifics.

　　但NASA和NRO對細節一直守口如瓶。

　　but the new mirror assemblies have a shorter focal length than Hubble s, allowing them tostudy patches of sky around 100 times larger.

　　這兩顆衛星的焦距比哈勃望遠鏡更短，所以其拍攝太空的視野也比哈勃大100倍左右。

　　It looks to me as if these are a couple of Keyhole-11 spares, says Brian Weeden, a spaceanalyst at the Secure World Foundation, a Colorado-based think-tank.

　　在我看來這就像是鎖眼-11的備份衛星 安全世界基金會的太空分析師BrianWeeden說。

　　Dr Weeden is referring to a code name for American optical spy satellites.

　　Weeden博士參照了美國光學偵察衛星的編號。

　　He says that the NRO would probably have ordered spare mirrors to replace any that mighthave been destroyed by failed launches.

　　表示NRO很可能本來準備把這兩顆衛星用于替代萬一發射失敗而摧毀的衛星。

　　Although the deal has been in the works for a year, it is not yet clear what NASA plans to dowith its new bits of army-surplus kit.

　　盡管交易已進行一年之久，但還不清楚NASA會如何處置軍方剩下的 邊角料 。

　　Indeed, an official told a press conference that the agency might not have the cash to makeimmediate use of both mirrors.

　　確實，在資訊發布會上，一位官員說NASA并沒有足夠的資金把兩顆衛星立即投入使用。

　　But they could nevertheless be a boon to an organisation whose budgets are beingsqueezed by federal tight-fistedness as well as cost overruns on the James Webb spacetelescope, an $8.8 billion successor to Hubble.

　　但是他們說詹姆斯-韋伯太空望遠鏡的預算能在拮據的聯邦政府下艱難地獲得通過已經是一件好事，因為這位哈勃望遠鏡的繼任者已遠超預算，達到了88億美元。

　　One idea is to use one of the mirrors for the WFIRST mission, an infra-red telescope designedto investigate dark energy-the still-mysterious force thought to be behind theaccelerating expansion of the universe.

　　一個辦法就是把其中一顆衛星用于廣域紅外線巡天望近鏡項目，紅外線望遠鏡可以用來研究暗能量這股神秘的力量被認為是宇宙膨脹的幕后推手。

　　Using a higher-resolution NRO mirror would boost the capabilities of WFIRST, says AlanDressler, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science. It could also cut the project scost and shorten its development time.

　　卡內基科學研究所的研究員Alan Dressler說，運用NRO衛星的高分辨率望遠鏡可以提升WFIRST的能力，也可以降低該項目的花費并縮短研制時間。

　　Advocates hope an NRO-powered WFIRST mission could launch in the early 2023s.

　　該方法的擁護者希望在NRO的助力下，WFIRST能在21世紀20年代發射。

　　By then the mirrors would no longer be state-of-the-art, of course. Indeed, they are probablynot even the last word in space-borne optics today.

　　當然，到時候該衛星已不再是最先進的，甚至在現在也不是最新式的星載平臺光學設備。

　　That the NRO felt able to give them away suggests that its spies have even better toys toplay with, of the sort that astronomers would kill to get their hands on. Could this be the startof a beautiful friendship?

　　NRO覺得把它們送走之后自己的間諜們就有更好的玩意來耍了，要是這樣的話，估計天文學家們打死都不會接受的這會是NRO和NASA一段美好友情的開始嗎?

　　Psst. Want a space telescope?

　　喂，要太空望遠鏡嗎?

　　America s spies make a generous donation to NASA.

　　美國間諜機構對NASA慷慨捐贈。

　　AMERICA S civilian space programme is built atop its military one. Its rockets trace theirancestry, via ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads into the Soviet Union, tothe German V2s that bombarded London and Antwerp during the second world war.

　　美國的民用空間計劃建立在軍用基礎之上，比如運載火箭，由攜帶核彈頭并瞄準前蘇聯的彈道導彈發展而來，再往前可以追溯到二戰時用于轟炸倫敦和安特衛普的德國V2系列導彈。

　　And the Space Shuttle, which made its final flight last year, was used to launch satellites forthe air force as well as carrying out its better-publicised scientific missions.

　　再比如去年退役的航天飛機，曾用來為空軍發射衛星，當然用作執行科學任務的宣傳工作做得也不差。

　　So when it was reported on June 4th that the National Reconnaissance Office , one ofthe more secretive of America s plethora of spy agencies, had decided to donate twosurplus spy-satellite mirrors to NASA, the country s civilian space agency, the news wasless bizarre than it might at first have seemed.

　　所以當6月4日有報道指出國家偵察局決定向NASA捐贈兩顆多余的偵察衛星時，這種資訊或許第一眼看上去有些奇怪，其實并非如此。

　　After all, NASA has benefited from spy technology before.

　　畢竟一直以來NASA就從偵察技術獲益頗多。

　　The Hubble space telescope is essentially a redesigned spy satellite that points out intospace instead of down at the Earth.

　　比如哈勃太空望遠鏡本質上就是偵察衛星的另一個版本，只不過把原本對著地球的鏡頭轉向外太空而已。

　　The news that America s spies had two spare satellite mirrors lying around has promptedspeculation about their provenance.

　　美國間諜機構有兩顆閑置衛星的資訊一經報道，衛星的來源問題就引發了廣泛的猜測。

　　Both NASA and the NRO are tight-lipped about the specifics.

　　但NASA和NRO對細節一直守口如瓶。

　　but the new mirror assemblies have a shorter focal length than Hubble s, allowing them tostudy patches of sky around 100 times larger.

　　這兩顆衛星的焦距比哈勃望遠鏡更短，所以其拍攝太空的視野也比哈勃大100倍左右。

　　It looks to me as if these are a couple of Keyhole-11 spares, says Brian Weeden, a spaceanalyst at the Secure World Foundation, a Colorado-based think-tank.

　　在我看來這就像是鎖眼-11的備份衛星 安全世界基金會的太空分析師BrianWeeden說。

　　Dr Weeden is referring to a code name for American optical spy satellites.

　　Weeden博士參照了美國光學偵察衛星的編號。

　　He says that the NRO would probably have ordered spare mirrors to replace any that mighthave been destroyed by failed launches.

　　表示NRO很可能本來準備把這兩顆衛星用于替代萬一發射失敗而摧毀的衛星。

　　Although the deal has been in the works for a year, it is not yet clear what NASA plans to dowith its new bits of army-surplus kit.

　　盡管交易已進行一年之久，但還不清楚NASA會如何處置軍方剩下的 邊角料 。

　　Indeed, an official told a press conference that the agency might not have the cash to makeimmediate use of both mirrors.

　　確實，在資訊發布會上，一位官員說NASA并沒有足夠的資金把兩顆衛星立即投入使用。

　　But they could nevertheless be a boon to an organisation whose budgets are beingsqueezed by federal tight-fistedness as well as cost overruns on the James Webb spacetelescope, an $8.8 billion successor to Hubble.

　　但是他們說詹姆斯-韋伯太空望遠鏡的預算能在拮據的聯邦政府下艱難地獲得通過已經是一件好事，因為這位哈勃望遠鏡的繼任者已遠超預算，達到了88億美元。

　　One idea is to use one of the mirrors for the WFIRST mission, an infra-red telescope designedto investigate dark energy-the still-mysterious force thought to be behind theaccelerating expansion of the universe.

　　一個辦法就是把其中一顆衛星用于廣域紅外線巡天望近鏡項目，紅外線望遠鏡可以用來研究暗能量這股神秘的力量被認為是宇宙膨脹的幕后推手。

　　Using a higher-resolution NRO mirror would boost the capabilities of WFIRST, says AlanDressler, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science. It could also cut the project scost and shorten its development time.

　　卡內基科學研究所的研究員Alan Dressler說，運用NRO衛星的高分辨率望遠鏡可以提升WFIRST的能力，也可以降低該項目的花費并縮短研制時間。

　　Advocates hope an NRO-powered WFIRST mission could launch in the early 2023s.

　　該方法的擁護者希望在NRO的助力下，WFIRST能在21世紀20年代發射。

　　By then the mirrors would no longer be state-of-the-art, of course. Indeed, they are probablynot even the last word in space-borne optics today.

　　當然，到時候該衛星已不再是最先進的，甚至在現在也不是最新式的星載平臺光學設備。

　　That the NRO felt able to give them away suggests that its spies have even better toys toplay with, of the sort that astronomers would kill to get their hands on. Could this be the startof a beautiful friendship?

　　NRO覺得把它們送走之后自己的間諜們就有更好的玩意來耍了，要是這樣的話，估計天文學家們打死都不會接受的這會是NRO和NASA一段美好友情的開始嗎?