Some 20,000 pieces of rubbish are currently being monitored in low-Earth orbit, the majority of which are discarded bits of spacecraft or debris from collisions.

Unfortunately, most won't even last as long as Curiosity; eventually, they'll succumb to space debris impacts.

不幸的是，大多数的灯可以坚持的时间甚至还不如“好奇号”，最终它们都会被太空垃圾撞毁。

The lower drag can cause space junk to accumulate in orbit, which could result in a collision with the International Space Station or other spacecraft.

阻力变小会使太空垃圾积聚在轨道上，可能会与国际空间站或其他航天器相撞。

It should be easier to reach an agreement on space junk than on greenhouse gases.

比起温室气体问题，太空垃圾问题应更容易达成共识。

Nasa engineer Creon Levit said it was imperative that something was done about space junk.

美国宇航局工程师克里昂？莱维特表示，处理太空垃圾迫在眉睫。

The report, Limiting future collision risk to spacecraft, was commissioned by Nasa last April to evaluate its programmes on'space junk', officially known as MMOD ( Micrometeoroids and Orbital Debris).

一份旨在限制未来这些碎片可能会对航空飞船造成的危险的报告在去年的四月份由宇航局发布，用来评估他们关于太空垃圾，名为MMOD（微流星体和太空碎片）的项目。

The drifting space junk may collides with the solar panels. The dynamics characteristic of the structure is an important indicator when spacecraft was designed.

漂移的太空垃圾可能与太阳能帆板发生碰撞，帆板结构的动力学特性也是设计需要考虑的重要指标。

Its purpose is unknown, and could be civilian: a project to hoover up space junk, for example.

目前还不知道该物体的目的是什么，不能排除民用目的：比如一个吸入太空垃圾的项目。

The single largest space-junk incident was in 2007, when the Chinese military blew up a satellite just to show that it could.

而最大的一起太空垃圾事件发生在2007年，当时中国军方炸掉了一颗卫星，只是为了展示中国有能力这么做。

NASA says it believes a large piece of space junk is not going to be any threat to the astronauts in space.

NASA称，大片的太空垃圾不会对太空中的宇航员造成威胁。

NASA says a large piece of space junk could pass within 2 miles at the station today, but notes it does not expect to be a problem.

NASA称，今日将由一大片太空垃圾进入国际空间站2英里范围之内，但是预计不会造成什么问题。

Red-faced astronomers only discovered it a few days before and until then they thought it was a piece of space junk.

这块红色的物体被发现以及有几天的时间了，在最后被证实其实只是一块太空垃圾。

As with climate change, there's a burden to be shared here, a threat of uncertain magnitude, and plenty of opportunity for free riding.

太空垃圾问题和气候变化问题类似：需要大家共担责任，面临的威胁大小难以预料，有许多“搭便车”的机会。

Have you ever seen some space junk with your own eyes?

你在空间站亲眼眼看到过太空垃圾吗？

Yet there's a sense of everything happening spontaneously, of surreal freedom plus a fearful randomness that unleashes those debris storms.

但它给人一种一切都自然发生的感觉，给人一种超现实的自由感，和一种恐怖的随机感（太空垃圾风暴无端爆发）。

It will always be cheaper and easier to prevent debris rather than remove it after the fact.

防止太空垃圾产生总是比产生之后清除成本要低，也更容易。

For example, when a U.S. satellite hit an old Russian rocket in 2009, it broke into more than 2,000 pieces, increasing the amount of space junk.

例如,2009年,一颗美国卫星撞上一枚老旧的俄罗斯火箭时,它裂成了2000多块碎片,增加了太空垃圾的数量。

It is the solar maximum period so some solar activity can be expected, and they have already laid the groundwork for their space junk claims.

现在是太阳活动峰期所以可以预期某些太阳活动，而且他们已经为太空垃圾的声明打好了底子。

To reduce additional space junk, countries have agreed that all new space tools can only stay in space for 25 years at most.

为了减少额外的太空垃圾，各国同意所有新的太空工具最多只能在太空停留25年。

NASA says it believes a large piece of space junk is not going to be any threat to the astronauts in space.The rocket debris is expected to pass within 2 miles of the Shuttle Discovery and international space station tomorrow.

NASA称，大片的太空垃圾不会对太空中的宇航员造成威胁。明天，预期该火箭残骸将进入发现号航天飞机和国际空间站两英里之内。

Many scientists also suggesting different ways to clean up space junk.

许多科学家还提出了清理太空垃圾的不同方法。