[2008.08.23] 外太空：华盛顿,我们有麻烦了

Space
外太空

Washington, we have a problem
华盛顿,我们有麻烦了

Aug 21st 2008
From The Economist print edition

America’s space efforts are being hampered by politics
美国发展空间技术的努力遭遇政治阻碍

SPACE technology has been a sinew of military power ever since the Soviet Union shocked America into the space race when it launched Sputnik 1 into orbit 51 years ago. The rivalry is about more than bragging rights. The rockets that carry space-bound payloads are close relatives of the intercontinental missiles that carry enemy-bound warheads. And satellites furnish information and communications to soldier and civilian alike. So it is only natural for America, now the leader in space, to try to protect its dominance and prevent weapons proliferating by controlling the export of its space technology.
51年前苏联将1号人造地球卫星发射上轨，此举使美国大为震惊并引发了太空竞争；从那时起，空间技术一直就是一国军事实力的命脉。这种竞争不仅仅停留在炫耀的层面上:可以携带配载飞向太空的火箭,其技术同可以携带弹头飞向敌人的洲际导弹联系非常紧密,同时空间卫星还可以提供军用和民用的信息及通讯。作为空间技术的领先者，美国自然会通过控制空间技术的出口来保持他的主导地位，并且防止空间武器的扩散。

Yet rarely has such a reasonable aim been so self-defeating. The system of export controls, known as the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), is managed with almost comic zeal by the State Department. Anything that is part of a satellite assembly needs vetting-even if it is as common as a lithium-ion battery, as insignificant as a screw or as innocuous as a stand for a satellite (see article). The cost, delays and inconvenience of dealing with the American space industry are exasperating enough to send its foreign partners into orbit.
如此合理的目标实施的时候却事与愿违。国际武器运输条例(ITAR)作为出口的管控系统，受到国务院近乎滑稽的疯狂管理:他们要求任何组装卫星所需的部件都需要审查，即使普通到一块锂电池或者一个无关紧要的螺丝，甚至一个无用的卫星支架。同美国空间产业合作的低效率、不便捷和高成本已经足够让人恼火了，这很容易使国外合伙人实现技术突破。

Which is exactly where they have been going-on their own. The American space industry’s share of commercial-satellite manufacturing has fallen from over 80% before 1999 to 50% now. The French are going great guns with an “ITAR-free” design. The Canadians, who once looked to their allies across the border for their satellites, have found that they can buy everything they need elsewhere.
而这正是他们一直努力的方向–摆脱技术上对美国的依赖，实现自力更生。美国空间工业在商业卫星制造业的市场分额从 1999年以前的超过80%衰降到现在的50% 法国人的设计理念是不受ITAR约束，因此其生意兴旺发达。加拿大曾经指望与之接壤的盟友向他们提供卫星，但现在却发现所有需要的东西在别的地方可以买到。

You might argue that keeping American technology out of foreign satellites was always the intention of the legislation, even if that harmed American firms. Except that America’s export policy is harming both its industry and its security at the same time. Much of the space technology that Europeans and others are now making poses no strategic threat. It is just lost American business. Foreign firms may not have bothered to develop their own technology if the American sort had been available. And starved of revenues, the Pentagon fears, America’s space industry is now so vulnerable in places that national security is threatened-which is precisely the outcome the legislation sought to avoid.
你也许会认为不让国外的卫星拥有美国航天技术就是立法的原意，即使这样做会损害美国公司的利益。只可惜美国这般的出口管控政策不仅伤害了空间工业，同时对国家安全也是一种破坏。目前欧洲和其它地区发展的空间技术并没有造成任何战略威胁，只是不再和美国做生意了。如果可以得到美国的技术，国外公司就不会费事研发自己的。五角大楼担心收入的匮乏会使美国空间工业变得脆弱，进而威胁到国家安全–而这却正是立法想要避免的结果。

High-handed
高压政策

This week Barack Obama promised that, if elected, he would direct a review of ITAR with a special focus on space hardware. Outdated restrictions, said his space-policy document, have cost American satellite and space-hardware makers billions of dollars in lost business. If the space-export regime is typical, then similar mistakes are being made in other areas of defence technology, with similarly harmful consequences.
本周奥巴马承诺：一旦当选，他会授权针对空间武器对ITAR进行特别复审。在空间发展政策中，他指出那些过时的限制规定已经让美国卫星和空间技术硬件制造商损失了数十亿美元的生意。如果说空间技术出口领域的现状具有典型性，那么同样的问题也出现在防卫技术的其他领域，其结果的伤害性是一致的。

It makes sense for America to use trade restrictions to hamper foreign efforts in space. But the country would be safer if parts of the industry were more profitable-otherwise firms are unlikely to innovate and may even go out of business. ITAR needs reworking so that it concentrates on a few vital technologies that must not get into enemy hands, leaving the many commonplace technologies to commerce. That is hard, admittedly, because space technology is complex and it is constantly evolving. Moreover, bureaucrats would be expected to make judgments in favour of trade-in full knowledge that these could leave them open to the charge of allowing “sensitive technology” to leak to the enemy. They will therefore need support from politicians.
美国有理由使用贸易限制阻碍别国在空间技术上的发展，但是如果部分空间技术工业可以赢得更丰厚的利润，那么也许国家安全状况会更加令人满意；否则很多空间技术公司不但很难投入到技术革新中，而且会被淘汰出局。ITAR的工作重点应该集中在保证少数核心技术不被敌人窃取，同时允许大量的普通技术流入商业领域。但是谈何容易，空间技术的复杂性和持续更新性是大家公认的；而且政府官僚们的决断通常于有利于贸易发展，这明显容易让他们背上向敌人泄漏”敏感技术”的骂名。所以他们需要政客们的支持。

People who work in the space business like to keep the motto per aspera ad astra close to their hearts. It means “through hardship to the stars”. It was never intended to be a bureaucrats’ charter.
航天领域工作的人们内心笃信传承至今的箴言”十年磨一剑” 但这并不应该成为官僚们设置障碍的借口.

译者：Tidehunter    http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=13571&extra=page%3D1