Turning moon dust into water 把月球塵埃變成水

本集內容

學習要點

有關 “space exploration（太空探索）” 的詞匯

邊看邊答

Where might the experiment with moon rock be carried out in the future?

文字稿

One of the first things Neil Armstrong did after stepping onto the Moon was collect some soil.

尼爾·阿姆斯特朗登月後最先做的事情之一就是收集土壤。

Fifty years later, here it is at the Open University in Milton Keynes. In fact, the OU has been testing Apollo moon rock for decades. Incredible as it sounds, in their latest experiment, PhD student Hannah Sargeant is turning lunar dust into water.

五十年後，采回的土壤被送到瞭這裡，英國米爾頓·凱恩斯鎮的開放大學。其實，開放大學幾十年來一直在分析檢測 “阿波羅” 號采回的月球巖石。雖然聽起來不可思議，但在最近的實驗中，博士生漢娜·薩金特把月球塵埃變成瞭水。

Hannah Sargeant, PhD student, The Open University
Water is one of the most critical resources we need for space exploration. Not just for the life support needs of humans, but also to make rocket fuel, hydrogen and oxygen – it is propellant. So if we can produce that on the surface of the Moon, we can support long-term space exploration missions and produce the rocket propellant we need to perhaps use the Moon as a sort of pit stop for missions on the way to Mars.

漢娜·薩金特開放大學博士生
“水是我們進行太空探索時所需的最關鍵的資源之一。它不僅用於維持人類的生命需要，還用於制造火箭燃料，氫和氧——它是一種推進劑。所以，如果我們能在月球表面制造出水，我們就能支持長期的太空探索任務，並制造出我們需要的火箭推進劑，這樣也許就能在前往火星的任務途中在月球上補充燃料。”

In five years’ time, thanks to a collaboration between the European Space Agency and the Russians, her experiment could be happening at the south pole of the Moon.

在五年內，通過歐洲航天局和俄羅斯專傢的合作，她的實驗可能會在月球南極展開。

It’s one of the coldest places in our solar system.

月球南極是太陽系中最冷的地方之一。

They’ll be heating moon rocks to five times the temperature of your oven, so the oxygen inside reacts with hydrogen they’ve brought along – making H2O.

科學傢們將把月球巖石樣品加熱到傢用烤箱溫度的五倍，這樣一來，巖石內部的氧就能與科學傢添加的氫產生反應，生成 H2O（水）。