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You probably didn't notice, but one of the most dangerous asteroids on record whizzed past Earth last month, luckily closely avoiding us.
你恐怕沒注意到，但是紀錄上最危險的一顆小行星上個月和地球擦身而過，幸好千鈞一髮地避開了我們。

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Though it begs the question: What would we do if an asteroid were on a collision course with our planet?
但這不禁讓人要問：萬一有顆小行星在與我們的地球相撞的路徑上，我們該怎麼辦呢？

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Tom Foreman reports scientists are looking at novel ways to deal with that threat.
湯姆．佛曼報導指出，科學家正在研究新穎的方法來因應這類威脅。

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Amid all this popular talk about the idea that an asteroid could hit the earth one day, NASA has a very serious proposal:
就在大家熱烈談論小行星可能有一天會撞上地球這個想法時，美國太空總署有一個非常認真的提議：

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Why not go into space and try to capture one so we can learn more about asteroids?
何不進入太空，設法捕捉一顆小行星，好讓我們更進一步了解小行星呢？

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And this is how they propose to do that.
以下是他們建議的作法。

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A very powerful rocket would take off from Earth and it would launch what's called an asteroid redirect vehicle,
一具威力強大的火箭會從地球上起飛，火箭會發射出一艘所謂的小行星改道載具，

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which is essentially a robotic spacecraft which would shoot off into space driven by the most powerful solar electric propulsion system we've ever seen.
它基本上是一艘機器太空船，我們見過最強力的太陽能電力推進系統將它發射到太空中。

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Now, it wouldn't actually go beyond the stars,
該艘載具不會真的飛越外太空，

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but this does give a sense that it would go many, many hundreds of thousands of miles off into space,
但感覺上它確實會進入到數百萬英里深的太空中，尋找一個非常小的目標，

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looking for a very small target, because the asteroids they're after would only be about this big, as big as two or three big pick-up trucks,
因為他們在追尋的小行星只有這麼大，體積相當於兩、三輛貨卡車，

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although this would weigh as much as two freight train engines. And it would be rotating slowly.
但重量和兩具貨運火車頭一樣重，還會緩慢地翻轉。

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That's a challenge because they have to stop that before they transport it.
這會是一項挑戰，因為他們在運送它之前，必須要先讓它停止轉動。

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So, let me scale this down to size so you have a better idea of what we're talking about.
我來把這東西縮小一點，好讓你們更明白我們在說什麼。

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Because as the redirect vehicle comes toward it, it will deploy a giant technical space bag.
因為當改道載具朝向小行星飛去時，它會拋出一個巨型的專用太空袋，

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And over a period of hours, gradually ease that over the rotating asteroid and squeeze down on it to stop that rotation.
然後在幾個小時之內，逐漸讓袋子移動包覆轉動中的小行星，然後收緊讓它停止轉動。

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Then the whole shebang will take off, flying back toward the earth, and more importantly, toward the moon
接著，整個起飛飛回地球，較主要的是飛向月球，

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where it would go into a rotation around the moon about 40,000 miles above the lunar surface.
並且在距離月球表面四萬英里處的上空開始繞著月球轉動。

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This way, scientists could travel out there, astronauts, to visit this asteroid and conduct experiments on it.
如此一來，科學家和太空人便能旅行到那裡造訪這顆小行星，並針對它做實驗。

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Why we do this, though?
但我們為何要這麼做呢？

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This will cost many, many billions of dollars at a time when the country doesn't have much money.
這會花掉數十億美元，而此刻美國並沒有太多錢。

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Well, the scientific community says,
科學界的人表示，

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because it will give us very important knowledge about new deep-space technologies, propulsion systems, solar energy --
因為此舉能提供我們有關外太空科技、推進系統、太陽能方面非常重要的知識，

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all sorts of things that we use all the time on Earth.
各式各樣我們在地球上經常使用的東西。

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Secondly, it would actually give us an idea of what to do if we had an asteroid coming toward Earth.
其次，它其實能讓我們知道，萬一有顆小行星朝著地球而來時，我們該怎麼辦。

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We've handled one. We'd have some idea how to handle another.
我們處理過一顆了，就多少知道該如何處理另一顆。

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And just as importantly, we would find out what sort of minerals and things are contained inside these asteroids,
同樣重要的是，我們會找出這些小行星內部含有哪些礦物及成份，

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whether or not that's something we could mine for purposes on Earth
無論那是不是我們為了地球所用而去開採的東西，

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or perhaps to be used in future exploration further into space.
還是可能在未來用來進一步探索太空的東西。

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Bottom line, they say, yes, it's expensive, but it's called exploration because you never really know what you might find.
重點是，他們說，對，的確很貴，但這就叫做探索，因為你永遠不知道你可能發現什麼。