中國(guó)成功發(fā)射全球首顆量子通訊衛(wèi)星(雙語(yǔ))

月光雨

　　It was carried on a rocket which blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in China’s north west early on Tuesday,。
　　本周二早些時(shí)候,，在甘肅酒泉衛(wèi)星發(fā)射中心,，“墨子號(hào)”由一架火箭搭載成功發(fā)射升空。

　　The satellite is named after the ancient Chinese scientist and philosopher Micius,。
　　這枚量子衛(wèi)星以中國(guó)古代先賢科學(xué)家,、哲學(xué)家墨子為名。

　　The project tests a technology that could one day offer digital communication that is “hack-proof”,。
　　這個(gè)項(xiàng)目測(cè)試了一項(xiàng)技術(shù),，而這項(xiàng)技術(shù)在未來(lái)將會(huì)提供一種可以“防黑客”的數(shù)字通信系統(tǒng)。

　　But even if it succeeds,， it is a long way off that goal,， and there is some mind-bending physics to get past first。
　　但是即使這次衛(wèi)星發(fā)射成功了,，要達(dá)到那個(gè)目標(biāo)也要有很長(zhǎng)的路要走,，而且還必須要先解決一些燒腦殼的物理問(wèn)題,。

　　How does it work,？
　　它是如何運(yùn)作的？

　　The satellite will create pairs of so-called entangled photons - tiny sub-atomic particles of light whose properties are dependent on each other - beaming one half of each pair down to base stations in China and Austria。
　　這顆衛(wèi)星將會(huì)產(chǎn)生許多對(duì)所謂的“量子糾纏”,，量子糾纏即一對(duì)光的亞原子粒子,，它們的特性屬性取決于對(duì)方。每一對(duì)量子糾纏的一半都會(huì)被傳輸?shù)街袊?guó)和奧地利的基站中,。

　　This special kind of laser has several curious properties,， one of which is known as “the observer effect” - its quantum state cannot be observed without changing it。
　　這種特殊的激光有幾個(gè)奇怪的性質(zhì),，其中一個(gè)性質(zhì)被稱為“觀察者效應(yīng)”--量子態(tài)無(wú)法在不被改變的情況下被觀察到,。

　　So， if the satellite were to encode an encryption key in that quantum state,， any interception would be obvious,。 It would also change the key， making it useless,。
　　因此,，如果這顆衛(wèi)星要在量子態(tài)中加密秘鑰的話，任何攔截都是顯而易見無(wú)意義的,。密碼將會(huì)被改變,，使得其毫無(wú)用處。

　　If it works,， it will solve the central problem of encrypted communications - how to distribute keys without interception - promising hack-proof communications,。 The encrypted message itself can be transmitted normally after the key exchange。
　　如果確實(shí)可行的話,，將解決加密通信的核心問(wèn)題--如何在不被攔截的情況下分發(fā)秘鑰--從而實(shí)現(xiàn)不受黑客...的通信,。在交換秘鑰之后，加密信息本身可以正常地傳輸,。

月光雨

　　Has it been done before,？
　　以前有過(guò)先例嗎？

　　Not from space,， making this launch experimental,。 But fibre-optic quantum key distribution networks already exist in Europe， the US and China,。
　　以前從未有國(guó)家往太空中發(fā)射過(guò)量子衛(wèi)星,，因此此次中國(guó)的發(fā)射具有實(shí)驗(yàn)性質(zhì)。但是歐洲,、美國(guó)和中國(guó)已經(jīng)存在有光纖量子秘鑰分發(fā)網(wǎng)絡(luò)了,。

　　The signals weaken over distance though， which this project is hoping to minimise by sending the signals mostly through space,， keeping attenuation to a minimum despite the distances involved,。
　　盡管隨著距離的變長(zhǎng)，信號(hào)的強(qiáng)度會(huì)減弱，但是這個(gè)項(xiàng)目希望藉由主要通過(guò)太空傳輸信號(hào)的辦法來(lái)將信號(hào)減弱剪至最小,，從而在長(zhǎng)距離傳輸?shù)那闆r下把信號(hào)衰減控制在最小,。

　　But aside from the tricky physics， there is also the difficult matter of firing tiny sub-atomic particles at precise targets on the ground,， across vast distances,， while travelling incredibly fast through space。 There are good reasons this is the first attempt,。
　　但是除開棘手的物理問(wèn)題之外,，這里還有一個(gè)問(wèn)題--如何向地表精確目標(biāo)發(fā)射微小的亞原子粒子，因?yàn)椴粌H發(fā)射器和接收器的距離非常遠(yuǎn),，而且衛(wèi)星還以難以置信的高速在太空中移動(dòng)著,。因此完全有理由說(shuō)此次發(fā)射是全球第一次類似的嘗試。

　　Why China,？
　　為什么是中國(guó),？

　　It has the money。 China has allocated vast amounts of money for basic scientific research in its latest five-year development plan,。 It’s also willing to take big risks on some as-yet unproven technologies,。
　　因?yàn)橹袊?guó)有錢。在最新的五年發(fā)展計(jì)劃期間,，中國(guó)下?lián)芰舜蠊P資金用于基礎(chǔ)科學(xué)研究,。同時(shí)，中國(guó)也甘冒極大風(fēng)險(xiǎn)來(lái)從事那些尚未被證明的技術(shù)的研究,。

　　But while China is leading the project,， officially titled Quantum Experiments at Space Scale （QUESS）， Austria is also involved,。
　　但是盡管是中國(guó)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)了該項(xiàng)目（項(xiàng)目官方名稱是“空間尺度量子實(shí)驗(yàn)”（QUESS））,，但是奧地利也參與到了其中。

　　The scientist who first proposed the idea to the European Space Agency （ESA）,， without success,， in 2001， is University of Vienna physicist Anton Zeilinger,。 He is now working on the latest project under the man whose PhD he once supervised,， Pan Jianwei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences。
　　奧地利維也納大學(xué)物理學(xué)界安東·蔡林格是第一位提出這個(gè)想法的科學(xué)家,，他在2001年的時(shí)候向歐洲空間局（ESA）提出了這個(gè)想法,，但是卻沒(méi)有成功。蔡林格目前正在這個(gè)項(xiàng)目里工作,，而這個(gè)項(xiàng)目的帶頭人正是他曾經(jīng)的博士學(xué)生--中科院院士潘建偉,。（愛語(yǔ)吧）