2015考研英语阅读太空时代的结束_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读太空时代的结束

　　No bucks, no Buck Rogers

　　没有激情，也没有太空英雄

　　With luck, robotic exploration of the solar system will continue. But even there, the risk is ofdiminishing returns. Every planet has now been visited, and every planet with a solid surfacebar Mercury has been landed on. Asteroids, moons and comets have all been added to thestamp album. Unless life turns up on Mars, or somewhere even more unexpected, publicinterest in the whole thing is likely to wane. And it is the public that pays for it all.

　　好在针对太阳系的机器探测仍将持续。但即便如此，风险犹存，因为回报越来越少。现在太阳系中的每颗行星都已经被侦察过，每一颗表面是固体的行星，使者Mercury都已经登陆过。小行星，卫星和彗星已经增加到集邮册里。除非火星上出现生命，或者出现未曾预料之地，公众对探索宇宙的兴趣可能越来越弱。而为它买单的依然是广大的民众。

　　The future, then, looks bounded by that new outer limit of planet Earth, the geostationaryorbit. Within it, the buzz of activity will continue to grow and fill the vacuum. This part of spacewill be tamed by humanity, as the species has tamed so many wildernesses in the past.Outside it, though, the vacuum will remain empty. There may be occasional forays, just as mensometimes leave their huddled research bases in Antarctica to scuttle briefly across the ice capbefore returning, for warmth, food and company, to base. But humanitys dreams of a futurebeyond that final frontier have, largely, faded.