氣質姐與可愛可

The Japanese spaceship▼ Kounotori 6 was on a mission to collect space junk.
日本太空船「鸛」6號機出任務去收拾太空垃圾。

　　　 For the past 60 years, humans have been going into space to learn about the stars, physics, and our solar system. In the process, we have left behind a lot of trash, including old satellites▼, parts of rockets, tools, and other odds and ends. Scientists now guess that there are about 100 million pieces of junk floating around the Earth, and they fear it could cause danger for space travel in the future.
　　　 To fix this problem, Japan recently sent a ship to the International Space Station to help clean up the mess. The ship, Kounotori 6, had a large, 700-meter-long tether▼ with a metal net attached to it. When the tether was extended, it was supposed to generate▼ a magnetic field▼ to catch pieces of space junk and pull them out of orbit▼ with the net. Then, the trash would burn up as it fell back to Earth.
　　　 Unfortunately, something went wrong with the tether. After trying for a week to fix the problem, repairs failed, and Kounotori 6 burned up in the atmosphere as it fell back to Earth. Though the test was a failure, other space agencies around the world will be testing similar technology in the near future to fix our space trash problem.

▼ spaceship n. 太空船
▼ satellite n. 人造衛星
▼ tether n. 繫繩
▼ generate vt. 產生
▼ magnetic field n. 磁場
▼ orbit n.（行星等的）運行軌道

過去六十年來，人類一直在造訪太空來探索行星、物理和我們的太陽系。在這過程中，我們遺留下了許多垃圾，包括老舊的衛星、火箭殘骸、工具和其他零星物品。科學家現在猜測大約有一億件垃圾正飄浮在地球四周，他們還擔心這也許會對未來太空旅行造成危險。
　　　 為了解決這個問題，日本最近派出一艘太空船至國際太空站協助清理髒亂。這艘名為「鸛」6號機的太空船備有一條長達七百公尺的巨大繫繩與一張金屬網相連。繫繩理應在張開後產生磁場吸附一塊塊的太空垃圾，並由金屬網將之拖離運行軌道。最後，太空垃圾會在掉落回地球時燃燒殆盡。
　　　 不幸的是，繫繩出了問題。在經過一週嘗試解決問題後，修復宣告失敗，「鸛」6號機墜入地球時在大氣層中燒毀。雖然這項實驗失敗了，但是世界各地其它的太空機構將會在不久的將來測試類似的科技來解決太空垃圾的問題。

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