中國將建新型太空望遠鏡 視野範圍是哈勃300倍

China has announced an ambitious space telescope program that would give the nation astronomy research capabilities to rival those of U.S. programs like the Hubble Space Telescope, according to Popular Science. The space telescope would have a lens 2 meters in diameter, giving it a field of view 300 times larger than that of the Hubble.

據Popular Science報道，中國已經宣佈了一項雄心勃勃的太空望遠鏡項目。這個項目將會大大增強中國的天文學研究能力，並與美國的哈勃太空望遠鏡等項目相媲美。這臺太空望遠鏡將配置直徑兩米的鏡頭，讓它能夠擁有哈勃望遠鏡300倍大的視野。

With such a large area of coverage, the space telescope would only take 10 years to survey 40 percent of the observable universe. The space telescope's imaging capabilities would make it capable of satisfying a number of significant astronomy research needs, such as identifying exoplanets and searching for dark matter and dark energy.

擁有如此大的覆蓋範圍，該太空望遠鏡只需要十年時間就能觀測可見宇宙中40%的空間。並且，這臺機器卓越的成像能力，也讓它能夠滿足許多重大天文研究的需求，比如說辨認外星球和尋找暗物質和暗能量。

The ambition of China's program, announced in a parliamentary meeting earlier this year, doesn't end there. The new telescope would be put into orbit next to the Tiangong 3 space station, planned for launch in 2022, and would be capable of docking with it. Keeping the space telescope close to the Tiangong 3 would allow Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, to service it much more readily. (It took NASA three-and-a-half years and four servicing missions to fix a problem with the Hubble's mirror after it launched.) China's space telescope program could pave the way for assembling spacecraft in orbit, too.

中國的這份雄心揭露於今年年初舉行的某次國務院會議，但它並不僅僅停止於此。這臺新的太空望遠鏡將被放置在天宮三號空間站旁邊的軌道上。而天宮三號計劃於2022年發射，並能夠和這臺太空望遠鏡對接。讓太空望遠鏡和天宮三號保持較近距離。從而能夠讓中國的宇航員們更容易地對其進行檢修。（NASA花費了三年半的時間，啓動了四個檢修項目來解決哈勃望遠鏡在發射後鏡子出現的問題。）同時，中國的太空望遠鏡項目能夠爲在軌道上設置更多飛行器奠定基礎。

As Universe Today notes, other countries and space agencies will release a timeline and technical details about the spacecraft's instruments when they announce a program like this. China has been more secretive with their research plans and capabilities, so it is hard to gauge the likelihood of all these plans coming together by 2030 or so (China has yet to launch the Tiangong 2, a space station planned for this year).

正如Universe Today表明，其他國家和太空機構會在公開項目時透露時間表和太空飛行器的技術細節。而中國對其研究計劃和能力則守口如瓶，所以很難估計這些計劃到2030年實現的可能性有多大。（中國還沒有發射原本計劃於今年發射的天宮二號）

Still, China's apparent intent to push more aggressively into space telescope technology is encouraging. With NASA's James Webb Telescope scheduled for launch in 2018, and more powerful radio telescopes being built on Earth, we will soon peer back in space and time further than ever before. Let the international competition to map the cosmos begin.

即便如此，中國大力推進發展太空望遠鏡技術仍然令人鼓舞。NASA所研發的韋伯望遠鏡計劃於2018年發射，而地球上將設置更多功能強大的電波望遠鏡。不久，我們就能在時間和空間上同時取得更大的進步。就讓這場劃分太空版圖的國際競爭開始吧。