我國正式啓用全球最大單口徑射電望遠鏡

China officially activated the world's largest single-aperture telescope last Sunday.

上週日，我國正式啓用全球最大單口徑射電望遠鏡。

"It's so huge in size and the technology we use in its driving device and reflecting surface have never been used before," said Zhang Shuxin, deputy general manager of the Five-Hundred Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) project.

500米口徑球面射電望遠鏡(FAST)項目副總經理張蜀新表示：“該項目規模龐大，其驅動裝置和反射面採用了此前未利用過的技術。”

The telescope in Pingtang county, Guizhou, is 500 meters in diameter and equals the size of 30 soccer fields.

位於貴州平塘縣的FAST直徑爲500米，面積相當於30個足球場。

"A paraboloid of 300 meters in diameter will be formed timely on the deflecting surface with the help of the driving device to receive signals," Zhang said.

張蜀新說：“藉助驅動裝置，反射面上將實時形成300米口徑拋物面，以接收信號。”

It will take three to five years to debug the facility and make sure it will work as designed, he added.

他還補充說道，調試該設備將耗時3-5年，以確保其按設計初衷運作。

Anthony Beasley, director of National Radio Astronomy Observatory of the United States, said the FAST will bring Chinese astronomers to the fore.

美國國家射電天文臺主任安東尼·比斯利表示，FAST將使中國的天文學家們脫穎而出。

Construction of the nearly 1.2 billion yuan ($180 million) FAST project started in 2011, 17 years after it was proposed by Chinese astronomers.

花費近12億元（摺合1億8000萬美元）建設的FAST項目，在中國天文學家提出17年之後，於2011年正式啓動的。