Today， our species is responsible for more than 500，000 pieces of junk hurtling around Earth at phenomenal speeds， and if we dont start actively removing the largest pieces， the risk of collisions will only grow worse.

“Imagine how dangerous sailing the high seas would be if all the ships ever lost in history were still drifting on top of the water，” says Jan W?rner， European Space Agency （ESA） director general.

“That is the current situation in orbit， and it cannot be allowed to continue.”

Its almost as if we need a tow truck to remove all the thousands of failed satellites from our orbit; incidentally， thats exactly what the ESA is working on.

By 2025， the agency plans on launching the worlds first orbiting junk collector， a four-armed robot that tracks down space waste like Pac-Man in a maze.

The first-of-its-kind mission， known as ClearSpace-1， will start out small， collecting only a single piece of space junk to prove the concept works. The target in this case is called Vespa， a left-over remnant from ESAs Vega rocket launch in 2013.

This piece of junk weighs roughly the same as a small satellite and has a simple shape that should make it easy to grab with four robotic arms. Once its safely in the arms of the junk collector， it will then be dragged out of orbit and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere.

現(xiàn)在人類要為超過50萬件繞地球高速飛行的垃圾負(fù)責(zé)。如果我們再不積極行動起來清理大型垃圾，碰撞的危險只會越來越大。

歐洲航天局局長Jan W?rner說：“想象一下如果曾經(jīng)失蹤的所有船只都漂浮在水面上，在公海航行會有多危險。”

“目前太空軌道上就是這種情況，不能再任其繼續(xù)發(fā)展了?！?/p>

就好像我們需要一輛拖車把成千上萬顆失靈的衛(wèi)星拖離軌道。順便說一句，這正是歐洲航天局正在研究的問題。

該機構(gòu)計劃到2025年發(fā)射世界上第一個軌道垃圾收集器，這個四條手臂的機器人就像迷宮里的吃豆人一樣追蹤太空垃圾。

首次這樣的任務(wù)被稱為ClearSpace-1，將先執(zhí)行小任務(wù)，只收集單件的太空垃圾來證明這一概念的可行性。這一任務(wù)的目標(biāo)是Vespa，是歐洲航天局2013年發(fā)射織女星火箭留下的殘骸。

這件垃圾的重量幾乎相當(dāng)于一顆小型衛(wèi)星，形狀簡單，機器人的四條手臂應(yīng)該能很容易地抓取。一旦被垃圾收集器安全抓取，它就會被拖出軌道，在大氣層中燒毀。

Word Study

collision /k?'l??n/ n. 碰撞（或相撞）事故

Their van was involved in a collision with a car.

track /tr?k/ v. 追蹤;跟蹤

n. 蹤跡;軌道

We continued tracking the plane on our radar.

We followed the bears tracks in the snow.