经济学人精读 The Economist [44]
选自 January 06 2018 Science and Technology 板块
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马航370于2014年3月8日从吉隆坡出发，机上共载239人，并在印度洋坠毁。马航370的消失成为了当代民航最大的谜团之一，接下来的搜寻也成为了航空史上最大规模的一次。在过去的三年中，Fugro组织排查了12万平方公里的海底，但是一无所获。新的搜寻计划由Ocean Infinity执行，Ocean Infinity与马来西亚政府计划约定“没找到，不收费”。虽然合同尚未签署，但是Ocean Infinity为了利用1月2月印度洋的好天气，已经开始搜索任务，将以比Fugro更快的速度搜寻，并且搜寻范围向北延伸。
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#以上，个人总结和理解，欢迎批评指正，欢迎留言讨论
#有输出才有进步
The search for MH370[寻找马航370]
Many scanners, very deep[众多勘查机，深入搜寻]
A swarm of autonomous submarines launched from a fantastical mother ship is out to find a missing airliner[一艘巨大的母舰发射了一大群自主潜艇去寻找一艘失踪的飞机]
On January 2nd, at 8pm local time, a strange vessel castoff[起航]andsailed out of the Port of Durban, in South Africa, heading east[1月2号当地时间晚8点，一艘奇怪的船舰起航，出发驶向南非的德班港]. Her hull was orange[她的船身是橙色的]. Her superstructure bristled with[充满]antennae[天线]— some long and pointy[尖的], some sleek[平滑的], white and domed[半球形的][她庞大的结构充满了天线——一些又长又尖，一些是白色光滑的半球形]. Her stern[船尾]sported a crane[起重机]and also a strange gantry[（起重机的）龙门架], known to her crew as the“stinger”[她的船尾有一架起重机，和一个奇怪的起重机龙门架，她的船员们称之为“刺儿”].
Her bow[船首] looked so huge and ungainly[笨拙]as to be on the point of[正要…时]tippingher, nose first, into the depths[海底，深渊][她的船首看起来又大又笨拙，就像是要倾翻到海底，鼻子先入海]. And below deck, invisible to those on shore, she carried eight autonomous submarines called HUGINs, each six metres long, weighing 1,800kg, and containing a titanium[钛]sphere to protect the sensitive electronics therein from the pressure of the ocean’s depths[在甲板下，岸上的人看不到的，是t她携带的8艘叫做HUGIN的自主潜艇，每艘6米长，1800公斤重，均包含了一个钛球壳以保护里面的敏感电子设备免受深海压力的影响].
The strange ship’s name is SeabedConstructor[这艘奇怪的船叫做Seabed Constructor]. She is a Norwegian research vessel, built in 2014 and owned by Swire Seabed, a dredging[打捞]and surveying[勘探]firm in Bergen[她是一艘挪威的考察船，2014年建造，归Swire Seabed公司所有，该公司是Bergen的一家打捞勘探公司]. At the moment, though, she is leased to Ocean Infinity, a company based in Houston, Texas[但是，现在，她已经租给了Ocean Infinity，一家位于德克萨斯休斯顿的公司]. And the task Ocean Infinity has hired her for is a hard one: to find whatever is left of flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER that left Kuala Lumpur on March 8th 2014 with 239 people on board and vanished over the IndianOcean[Ocean Infinity雇佣她来完成一项艰巨的任务：搜寻任何的马航370遗留物，这架波音777-200ER型客机于2014年3月8日从吉隆坡出发，机上共载239人，并在印度洋坠毁].
The disappearance of MH370 is one of the great mysteries of modern civil aviation[马航370的消失是当代民航最大的谜团之一]. The aircraft was bound for[前往]Beijing, but changed course suddenly over the South China Sea and broke off[突然中断]radio contact[这架飞机是前往北京的，但是在中国南海上空突然改变航线，并中断了无线电通信]. It was last detected by radar near the northern tip of Sumatra, heading west-northwest into the open ocean[飞机最后一次被雷打监测到是在苏门答腊岛的北端，朝西和西北方向的公海飞去]. Subsequent transmissions to a communications satellite suggested that it crashed somewhere along an arc between 1,500km and 2,700km west of Australia[接下来给通信卫星的传送显示，飞机在澳大利亚西部1500公里至2700公里之间的弧形区域坠毁].
The search that followed was the largest in aviation history[接下来的搜寻是航空史上最大规模的一次]. It was mounted[组织]by Fugro, a Dutch firm, and paid for by the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments[搜寻由Fugro一家荷兰公司组织，由马来西亚，中国和澳大利亚政府出钱]. Over the course of three years Fugro managed to scan 120,000square kilometres of seabed[在过去的三年中，Fugro组织排查了12万平方公里的海底]. But it found nothing[但是，什么都没有找到]. The plan is for Ocean Infinity’s search to be paid for, on a “no find, no fee” basis, by Malaysia alone[Ocean Infinity搜索的计划是，以“没找到，不要钱”为基准，由马来西亚支付费用]. Contracts have yet to be signed, but Oliver Plunkett, Ocean Infinity’s boss, has decided to go ahead anyway, to take advantage of the window[时机]of good weather that opens in the southern Indian Ocean in January and February[尽管合同尚未签署，但是，OP，Ocean Infinity的老板，决定不管怎样都开始搜寻，利用1月2月南印度洋正是好天气的时机].
Ocean Infinity aims to cover the ground much faster than Fugro did[Ocean Infinity目标比Fugro更快的速度搜寻更过的范围]. In prior cruises in the Atlantic, the firm has, according toJosh Broussard, its technical director, managed to scan 890 square kilometres a day using six autonomous submarines[在之前大西洋的一次巡航中，这个公司，根据JB技术总监的说法，做到了在一天内用6艘自主潜艇勘查了890平方公里]. With eight, Mr Broussard thinks that the new mission will be able to manage 1,200 a day—enough to have covered the original search area in just100 days[用8艘潜艇，B先生认为，这个新任务可以实现每天1200平方公里，足以在100天内覆盖原始搜索范围].
The new search area, 25,000 square kilometres of sea floor chosen by investigators from the Australian Transport SafetyBureau (ATSB), is just north of the old one[新的搜寻范围，由ATSB的调查员选择的2万5千平方公里的海底，在原来的搜寻范围的往北一点].
Fugro could infer MH370’s crash site only from its final, rather shaky, satellite signals[Fugro只能够通过能够最终的卫星信号推测马航370坠毁的位置，而无法通过不稳定的信号推测]. Ocean Infinity’s effort has been guided as well by wreckage[残骸]washed ashore on the coasts of Africa and several islands in the Indian Ocean—hence the more northerly starting point[Ocean Infinity的工作同时也由残骸冲刷到的非洲海岸线和一些印度洋的岛屿引导，因此，在最开始搜寻位置更偏北]. Seabed Constructor will reach that starting-point, whichis about 35°S, and 2,200km off the coast of Western Australia, on or about January17th, her crew having conducted a few final tests and calibrations[校准]of the HUGIN system enroute,using remote-controlled robots to place dummy debris[残骸]on the sea floor in order tosee if the subs can find it[Seabed Constrctor也将在1月17日左右到达距离澳大利亚西海岸线35°S2200公里的初始位置，在那里她的船员将利用远程遥控机器人将仿制的残骸放在海底，看潜艇能够找到来做HUGIN在航系统最后的检测和校准]. If searching the patch of ocean designated by the ATSB revealsnothing, then the ship will head farther north, towards the 30th parallel[纬线], which some independentexperts believe is a better bet[如果ATSB指定的搜寻海底区域没有任何发现，勘探船将会朝着30度纬线前往更北的区域搜索，一些独立专家认为这是一个更好的尝试].
Jan 08 654 words
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