绕地卫星们急需一套交通规则

The traffic in Earth's orbit is getting busier. In space, there are no road rules, and with the number of active satellites on track to increase exponentially in the coming years, experts are increasingly worried about the risk of collisions.

地球轨道上的交通越来越繁忙。在太空中，没有道路规则，随着未来几年轨道上活动卫星的数量呈指数增长，专家们越来越担心发生碰撞的风险。

On Monday, the European Space Agency (ESA) was forced to move its observation satellite aside to make room for a SpaceX satellite in the Starlink constellation.

周一，欧洲航天局(ESA)被迫将其观测卫星移到一旁，以便为位于“星链”星座的SpaceX卫星腾出空间。

Generally speaking, collision manoeuvres aren't that uncommon - ESA did them 28 times last year - but typically these events are caused by uncontrollable satellites or dead fragments from previous collisions.

一般来说，碰撞演习并不罕见——欧洲航天局去年进行了28次——但通常这些事件是由无法控制的卫星或以前碰撞的碎片造成的。

The Starlink satellite is active however, meaning it still receives signals from Earth. When the ESA contacted Starlink about the increasingly close approach last Wednesday, the company reportedly said they had no plans to move their satellite out of the way.

然而，这颗星链卫星是活跃的，这意味着它仍然接收来自地球的信号。上周三，当欧洲航天局就日益接近的问题与Starlink取得联系时，该公司表示，他们没有将卫星移开的计划。

The agency's Earth observation satellite, Aeolus, had been in this region for 9 months, and Starlink 44 was a newcomer. As the days passed, the probability of collision continued to increase, and the space agency decided to take action.

该机构的地球观测卫星“Aeolus”已经在该地区存在了9个月，“Starlink 44”是一颗新卫星。随着时间的推移，碰撞的可能性不断增加，航天局决定采取行动。

According to the ESA, it's the first time one of its satellites has had to fire it thrusters to avoid a potential collision with a 'mega constellation' - a fleet of hundreds or thousands of spacecraft.

据欧空局称，这是其第一次卫星发射推进器，以避免与“巨型星座”(一个由成百上千个航天器组成的舰队)发生潜在碰撞。

A statement from the space agency explains that at the time of the manoeuvre, the chances of collision were around 1 in 1000, 10 times higher than the threshold dictated by safety regulations.

航天局的一份声明解释说，在演习时，碰撞的几率约为千分之一，比安全条例规定的阈值高出10倍。

SpaceX claims it had a bug in its on-call paging system that prevented officials from seeing this update, but if they had, they would have moved the satellite if necessary.

SpaceX公司声称，该公司的呼叫寻呼系统有一个漏洞，导致官员无法看到这一更新，但如果他们看到了，如果有必要，他们会把卫星移走。

"This example shows that in the absence of traffic rules and communication protocols, collision avoidance depends entirely on the pragmatism of the operators involved," says Holger Krag, the head of space safety at ESA.

欧空局空间安全主管霍尔格·克拉格说：“这个例子表明，在没有交通规则和通信协议的情况下，避免碰撞完全取决于相关运营商的务实态度。”

"Today, this negotiation is done through exchanging emails - an archaic process that is no longer viable as increasing numbers of satellites in space mean more space traffic."

“今天，这项谈判是通过交换电子邮件来完成的——这是一个古老的手段，随着太空中卫星数量的增加意味着更多的太空交通，这一过程不再可行。”

(ESA)SpaceX isn't the only company launching hundreds of new satellites into space, but it is the most ambitious. If successful, Starlink may one day be a fleet of 12,000 satellites, providing ultra-fast internet services worldwide. At the same time, companies like OneWeb and Kuiper are also launching major constellations in competition.

SpaceX并不是唯一一家向太空发射数百颗新卫星的公司，但它是最雄心勃勃的公司。如果成功的话，Starlink可能有一天会拥有一支由1.2万颗卫星组成的舰队，在全球范围内提供超高速互联网服务。与此同时，OneWeb和Kuiper等公司也在竞争中推出了主要星座。

Today, there are over 5,000 objects orbiting Earth, and 2,000 of those are active. Experts on space debris at ESA are worried what these mega constellations might do to space traffic if no rules are implemented.

今天，有5000多个物体围绕地球运行，其中2000个是活跃的。欧空局的空间碎片专家担心，如果不执行任何规则，这些巨型星座可能会对空间交通造成什么影响。

They argue that as the number of potential collisions rapidly increases, the ability to manage these events will require far more than human brain power. The manual system we currently use just won't be able to keep up with the sheer number of objects soon to be orbiting Earth.

他们认为，随着潜在碰撞的数量迅速增加，管理这些事件的能力将需要远远超过人类的脑力。我们目前使用的人工系统无法跟上即将环绕地球运行的物体的数量。

"No one was at fault here, but this example does show the urgent need for proper space traffic management, with clear communication protocols and more automation," explains Krag.

克拉格解释说：“没有人有错，但这个例子确实表明，迫切需要适当的空间交通管理，有明确的通信协议和更多的自动化。”

"This is how air traffic control has worked for many decades, and now space operators need to get together to define automated manoeuvre coordination."

“这就是空中交通管制几十年来的工作方式，现在空间运营商需要团结起来定义自动操纵协调。”

The ESA says it is now creating an automated collision avoidance system to weigh up the possibility of collisions and potential outcomes quicker than ever. But keeping peace on the 'streets' of Earth's orbit will require more than just that, they argue; it will also require cooperation.

欧空局表示，目前正在创建一个自动避碰系统，以比以往更快地衡量碰撞的可能性和潜在后果。但他们认为，在地球轨道的“街道”上维持和平不仅需要这些，还需要合作。

"What I want is an organised way of doing space traffic. It must be clear when you have such a situation who has to react," Krag told Forbes.

“我想要的是一种有组织的空间交通方式。当你遇到这样的情况时，必须有明确的反应。”克拉格告诉《福布斯》。

"It cannot be when we have 10,000 satellites in space that there are operators writing the email what to do. This is not how I imagine modern spaceflight."

“当我们在太空中有1万颗卫星的时候，运营商就不可能写邮件来说明该怎么做了。这不是我想象的现代太空飞行。”