当前位置:主页 > 国内 >

断头谷

国际空间站掉下来的垃圾,把人家房子砸了个窟窿?!_我的网站

巨星秀

A |     

美国东部时间3月8日的下午,美国佛罗里达州的居民亚历杭德罗·博特罗(Alejandro Otero)正在外旅游,而他独自在家的儿子打来的一通电话,让他不得不提前终止了这次旅行。    
Vessels enter a ship lock of the Pinglu Canal in Lingshan county, Qinzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on August 12, 2026.
    Vessels enter a ship lock of the Pinglu Canal in Lingshan county, Qinzhou, South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on August 12, 2026.
Equipped with China's homegrown BeiDou positioning systems, drones and sensors, four vessels began trial runs along China's Pinglu Canal on Wednesday. The canal, which is planned for opening in September, will greatly inject economic vitality to areas along its route and turbocharge China's trade connection with the ASEAN with its cost-saving transportation, a Chinese analyst said.
The vessels conducting trials on Wednesday represent the main types expected to sail on this canal, namely loaded and unloaded 5,000-tonne ships as well as loaded 3,000-tonne and 1,000-tonne vessels, Xinhua News Agency reported.
The trials began when an unloaded 5,000-ton vessel departed from the Xinfu service area along the canal in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
With sensors collect data on their routes, movements, water currents and safe distances between ships, the tests will assess navigation under both normal and adverse conditions and examine whether the canal's waterways, locks, anchorages, service areas and navigation facilities are ready for operation.
Chinese analysts said the tests starting on Wednesday, days after the canal completed its first full-route patrol, indicated that the canal is one step closer to its scheduled opening in September as final preparation work ramp up.
Zheng Ping, chief analyst at industry news portal chineseport.cn, told the Global Times on Wednesday that as a major project in the nation's water network, the opening of the canal later this year will bring sea changes to areas along its route with fresh economic opportunities with its role as a low-cost enabler for domestic and international trade.
"Inland water traffic has great advantage in transportation capacity and costs. While a train can typically carry 20 40-foot container or more, a waterborne vessel can easily carry over 100 such containers. So a five-times capacity is gained here, greatly reducing transportation costs for goods," Zheng said.
For goods that are not time sensitive, or for bulk cargo such as coal, aluminum or fertilizers, waterborne traffic has unparallel advantage, the expert noted.
The 134.2-kilometer-long Pinglu Canal is a key project of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor. With total investment exceeding 70 billion yuan ($10.37 billion), the canal begins at the Pingtang River estuary in Hengzhou, administered by Nanning, follows the Qinjiang River into the Beibu Gulf, according to Xinhua News Agency.
It is China's first major river-to-sea canal project planned and coordinated at the national level since 1949 and is designed to accommodate vessels of up to 5,000 tons.
In addition to facilitating transportation, modern canal system will also have the function of water resource diversion, flood control and irrigation, greatly boosting up local economic development, Zheng said.
Lei Xiaohua, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, told the Global Times on Wednesday that the Pinglu Canal will serve as a new engine for the deep integration of industrial chains between China and ASEAN.
"Raw materials from ASEAN can enter China's hinterland via the Beibu Gulf ports at lower costs, while Chinese exports including aluminum products and building materials can reach Southeast Asia more efficiently," Lei said.
Against the backdrop of deep industrial chain integration between China and Vietnam, the canal, which offers a low-cost, high-capacity transport route, is poised to foster new models of cross-border industrial capacity cooperation, said Lei.
When operational in September, the canal will give inland regions in Southwest China a more direct river route to the sea. Cargo that previously had to travel eastward through the Port of Guangzhou will be able to head south directly toward ports in the Beibu Gulf, shortening some inland waterway journeys by about 560 kilometers, according to Xinhua.
The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor is an international trade and logistics network connecting China's western regions to ASEAN countries and other overseas markets.
The corridor has continued to record strong trade growth. During the first half of 2026, imports and exports transported through the corridor by its participating regions reached 517.23 billion yuan, up 13 percent year-on-year and setting a new record for the same period, per data released by Chongqing municipal government.
The corridor's rail service handled a record 1.425 million 20-foot equivalent units of cargo in 2025, up 47.6 percent year-on-year. As of early June of 2026, its network reached 593 ports in 128 countries and regions.
当天下午2:34,一个从天而降的不明物体,突然砸中了他们位于那不勒斯市的房子。该物体击穿屋顶,穿过了两层楼,砸入了地板里。“当时发出了十分巨大的声音,(这个物体)差点就砸到我儿子了。”博特罗在接受当地媒体WINK News的采访时说道。
对房子的损坏
图源:WINK News接到儿子电话后,博特罗的第一反应是陨石砸中了自己的房子。但当他回到家,将这个物体从地板下取出来后,他发现这个 “天外来物”更有可能是人造的。“从顶部形状可以看出来,它最初应该是圆柱形的物体,在穿过大气层时,顶部金属在燃烧中融化

B | ” 博特罗说。

该“天外来物”样貌
图源:WINK News
此次“高空抛物”,最大的嫌疑来自地球上空约400千米的国际空间站(International Space Station)
国际空间站
图源:NASA空间站丢的故事可能得从2018年10月的某天讲起。那天,美国航空航天局(NASA)宇航员尼克·黑格(Nick Hague)和俄罗斯宇航员阿列克谢·奥夫奇宁(Aleksey Ovchinin)本该在哈萨克斯坦乘着俄罗斯“联盟号”(Soyuz)运载火箭启程,前往国际空间站。然而,火箭在起飞不久后,助推器失灵,没能成功进入轨道,两位宇航员只能返回地面,没有按计划到达国际空间站。

C | 黑格此次前往国际空间站的任务之一是帮助空间站升级电力系统。他会到空间站外进行太空行走,帮助换掉原来的镍氢电池,并安装新的锂离子电池

D | 可惜黑格并没有按时到达空间站。

E | 但问题是,第一批锂离子电池已经由日本的HTV货运飞船运送至了国际空间站。原本的计划是,被这一批锂离子电池替换的旧镍氢电池,用同一艘HTV货运飞船带走。但由于黑格没能登上空间站,NASA只好暂时取消此次换电池的太空行走任务,将锂离子电池留在空间站,等待下一个能执行该任务的宇航员到来。这艘HTV货运飞船也只能直接离开,并未带上镍氢电池

F | 由于每艘飞船的载货量都是固定的,所以HTV货运飞船没办法一次性带走两倍数量的旧电池。

G | 于是,随后每一次HTV货运飞船运来新一批的锂离子电池,都会带走上一批替换下来的旧镍氢电池,直到2020年最后一艘HTV货运飞船离开国际空间站。但这时,空间站上还剩下最后一批镍氢电池没有带走

H | 这个装有九块旧镍氢电池的货物托盘,编号为EP9,总重量相当于一辆大型SUV。

最后一艘HTV运载飞船载着镍氢电池离开空间站
图源:NASA
后来,日本开始改用新的运载飞船,所以不再会有HTV运载飞船来到国际空间站了。而其它运载飞船的设计,比如SpaceX的龙飞船(Dragon),没有办法装下EP9将其运走。

I | 换句话说,只有HTV货运飞船,才能运走EP9,但HTV已经不会再来了国际空间站的每寸空间都很宝贵,EP9这样的大物件,自然不能一直留在空间站上。于是NASA做了一个决定,它们计划直接丢掉EP9——这也是国际空间站丢弃过的最大太空垃圾(space debris)。2021年3月11日,当国际空间站运行至中美洲以西太平洋上空约418千米处时, NASA的地面控制人员操控国际空间站上的机械臂,将EP9从空间站上释放,丢入了太空当时NASA表示,EP9将会绕地球漂浮2至3年,然后坠入大气层,并在其中完全燃烧。

J | 空间站丢弃EP9

图源:NASA
大约三年后,在今年的3月8日,EP9终于完成了它在太空的旅程,在墨西哥湾的上空一头扎进地球大气层,开始剧烈燃烧。欧洲空间局(ESA)的“太空垃圾和独立安全办公室”(Space Debris and Independent Safety Offices)密切跟踪着EP9随后的动态。ESA表示:“电池的总质量估计为2.6吨,其中大部分可能在重返大气层期间燃烧殆尽。虽然有些部分可能会落到地面上,但伤亡风险(人员被击中的可能性)非常低。

K | ”而最后的结果大家已经知道了,EP9其中一块碎片并没有在重返大气层的过程中完全被烧,也并没有直接落入墨西哥湾,而是落向了旁边的佛罗里达,最终击中了亚历杭德罗·博特罗的房子。为了确认击中博特罗房子的物体就是EP9的碎片,NASA与博特罗取得了联系,将该物体送到了NASA位于佛罗里达州的肯尼迪航天中心。通过分析该物体的尺寸、特征和材料,并将其与EP9上的硬件相对比,NASA最终确定,该物体是EP9上的一根支柱,用于将电池固定在货物托盘上,由铬镍铁合金制成,重 0.7kg,10cm,直径 4cm。

该物体与完好支柱对比
图源:NASA
太空里全是垃圾
被国际空间站扔入太空的EP9,只是众多太空垃圾的一个。人类越来越频繁的太空活动,也让太空垃圾越来越多。根据ESA的数据,截至2023年10月6日,人类已经成功向太空发射了约6500枚火箭,在地球轨道上放置了约16990颗卫星,尚在工作的有9000颗。而停止工作的卫星、火箭推进器、航天器和空间站丢弃的物件……充满了地球上空的轨道,成为了太空垃圾。目前,仅美国“空间监视网”(Space Surveillance Network,SSN)定期跟踪的太空垃圾数量就约为35150,而实际太空垃圾数量只会更多
截至2016,太空垃圾的增长
图源:ESA
这些太空垃圾的积累让地球上空变得越来越拥挤,为以后和当下的太空任务造成了很多困扰。国际空间站就曾多次为避开太空垃圾,而调整轨道。至于太空垃圾对地面的影响。ESA表示,大约每一周就会有一个较大的空间物体通过大气层冲入地球,不过大部分碎片在到达地面之前就已经完全燃烧了

L | 大多数航天器、运载火箭和运行硬件的设计都是为了尽量让其在大气层中完全燃烧,从而降低相关风险。但此次EP9事件告诉我们,太空垃圾也可能会威胁地面。事实上,这已经不是第一次太空垃圾砸向地面,并威胁人身安全的事件了。据《纽约时报》(The New York Times)报道,1969年,苏联航天器的碎片击中了西伯利亚海岸附近的一艘日本小船,造成 5 人受伤。

M | 据福克斯新闻(Fox News)、ABC新闻(ABC News)等多家媒体报道,1997年,美国俄克拉荷马州的一位居民也曾被火箭的碎片击中过肩膀。不过,大家也不用过于恐慌,毕竟被太空垃圾击中的概率非常非常小,而且世界各国也在积极尝试太空垃圾的清理办法,如英国2018年就开始部署“清除碎片”系统,相信未来我们可以还太空一个干净的环境。

参考文献
[1]https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2024/04/15/nasa-completes-analysis-of-recovered-space-object/[2]https://images.nasa.gov/details/iss064e041512[3]https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Reentry_of_International_Space_Station_ISS_batteries_into_Earth_s_atmosphere[4]https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/About_space_debris[5]https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers[6]https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/04/trash-from-the-international-space-station-may-have-hit-a-house-in-florida/2/[7]https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/space-junk-from-the-international-space-station-may-have-struck-a-home-in/[8]https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/a-soyuz-crew-makes-an-emergency-landing-after-rocket-fails/[9]https://www.nytimes.com/1969/07/05/archives/soviet-space-debris-hits-japanese-ship-injuring-5.html[10] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01718[11]https://www.foxnews.com/science/woman-hit-by-space-junk-lives-to-tell-the-tale[12]https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=98700&page=1

撰文:冬鸢
审校 :clefable

Current article:http://www.liawucunsainantaonao.sbs/o7y/7bj9v.xlsx

Published on:02:46:11


相关新闻

最后更新

热门新闻