Tom Murphy wants to know how far it is to the moon. Not just how many miles， or how many feet， or even how many inches. Tom Murphy想知道地球到月亮有多遠，有多少英里，多少英尺，多少英寸。
He wants to know it within a millimeter， and that's less than a 25th of an inch.And he wants to know exactly how far it is every moment of every day. That'sdespite the fact that the distance changes minute by minute because the moon is in an elliptical 28-day orbit ranging from 220，000 to about 252，000 miles from Earth.他想用毫米來測量這一距離，而一毫米不到一英寸的1/25.Murphy還想知道每天的每分每秒地球與月亮的距離是多少。盡管事實上月球是在一個周長為28天的橢圓形軌道上運行，與地球的距離每分鐘都在變，在220，000至252，000英里不等。
To achieve his goal， the University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in physics and astronomy will use the latest in laser technology， a large telescope in New Mexico， a team of other experts， a little funding from NASA， and a whole lot of luck.為了實現(xiàn)他的目標(biāo)，這位華盛頓大學(xué)物理與天文學(xué)博士后研究生，將利用最新的激光技術(shù)、一個設(shè)在新墨西哥州的大型望遠鏡、一隊專家、一筆來自美國航空航天局的微薄資金和還有全部的運氣。
The stakes are high. If it doesn't work， he could spend the rest of his life trying to live down "Murphy's folly." If it does， he might disprove part of Einstein's theory of General Relativity， or he might discover evidence of an unseen celestial body in our solar system， either of which would earn him a page in the history books. What Murphy is really doing is using the Earth and the moon as his laboratory， because the questions he is asking can't be answered in an ordinary lab. The tools just aren't big enough.這項研究的賭注高昂。如果失敗，他可能會在"Murphy的遇蠢 "的恥辱下度過余生。如果成功了，他也許證明愛因斯坦廣義相對論的部分理論不成立，或者他也許會發(fā)現(xiàn)太陽系新天體存在的證據(jù)，無論如何他都將名垂青史。Murphy真正要做的事，就是把地球和月亮作為自己的實驗室，因為他不可能在普通實驗室找到答案，沒有這么大的實驗工具。
Murphy‘s primary method will be something called "laser ranging."Light from a laser fired from the Earth could hit a reflector on the surface of the moon and bounce back. The time it took for the light to travel from Earth to the reflector and back would reveal the exact distance， or at least within a few inches. That would reveal much about the lunar orbit， and that data could in turn be used to test some of the tantalizing ideas in Einstein's theories. Murphy的基本方法將是"激光測距"，從地球上發(fā)出的激光打射到設(shè)在月球表面的反射器上，然后反射回地球。光從地球到達反射器后再反射回來的所用的時間，可以揭示月球與地球的實際距離，至少可以將誤差降到幾英寸以內(nèi)。這就可以揭示許多關(guān)于月球軌道的奧秘。這些數(shù)據(jù)繼而又可以用來檢驗愛因斯坦理論中一些令人困擾、捉摸不透的概念，
By using a laser system mounted on a 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point， N.M.，and equipped with a sophisticated array of detectors that can capture and isolate every photon of light that bounces back from the moon， Murphy hopes to get the number down well below a millimeter.依靠使用安放在新墨西州Apache Point市３。５米望遠鏡上的激光系統(tǒng)，并裝備一組能捕獲分離從月球反射回來光子的精密探測儀，Murphy希望能把月地距離的測量精確到１毫米之內(nèi)。
The laser will blast a 1-billion-watt "bullet" of light at the moon 20 times every second. But the Earth's atmosphere will distort the beam once it leaves the telescope， so by the time it gets to the moon the beam will cover an area more than a mile wide. Murphy is hoping that at least one out of every 30 million photons hits a reflector and bounces back toward Earth. That would send about a billion photons back from each bullet.這種激光將以每秒２０次的速度向月球發(fā)射１０億瓦特的光＂子彈一百萬千瓦的光束＂，但是地球的大氣會扭曲這些光束，所以等光束到達月球時，所經(jīng)過的地帶將達一英里多寬。Murphy希望在每３千萬光子中至少有一個能碰到反射器后回地球。這就可以使每一個光彈反射回大約１０億個光子。
But by the time the reflected laser beam reaches Earth， it will have spread out to nearly 10 miles in diameter， so probably only about one out of 30 million reflected protons will actually be captured by the detectors. That data will be fed into a powerful computer， but all it will tell is the distance between the telescope and the reflector.但是當(dāng)反射的激光束到達地球時，他的直徑將擴散到大約１０英里，所以在事實上很可能每３千萬反射光子中才大約有一個光子能被探測儀捕獲到。這數(shù)據(jù)將輸入功能強大的計算機處理，但所有這些將闡明的，只是望遠鏡和反射鏡的距離。
He wants to know it within a millimeter， and that's less than a 25th of an inch.And he wants to know exactly how far it is every moment of every day. That'sdespite the fact that the distance changes minute by minute because the moon is in an elliptical 28-day orbit ranging from 220，000 to about 252，000 miles from Earth.他想用毫米來測量這一距離，而一毫米不到一英寸的1/25.Murphy還想知道每天的每分每秒地球與月亮的距離是多少。盡管事實上月球是在一個周長為28天的橢圓形軌道上運行，與地球的距離每分鐘都在變，在220，000至252，000英里不等。
To achieve his goal， the University of Washington postdoctoral researcher in physics and astronomy will use the latest in laser technology， a large telescope in New Mexico， a team of other experts， a little funding from NASA， and a whole lot of luck.為了實現(xiàn)他的目標(biāo)，這位華盛頓大學(xué)物理與天文學(xué)博士后研究生，將利用最新的激光技術(shù)、一個設(shè)在新墨西哥州的大型望遠鏡、一隊專家、一筆來自美國航空航天局的微薄資金和還有全部的運氣。
The stakes are high. If it doesn't work， he could spend the rest of his life trying to live down "Murphy's folly." If it does， he might disprove part of Einstein's theory of General Relativity， or he might discover evidence of an unseen celestial body in our solar system， either of which would earn him a page in the history books. What Murphy is really doing is using the Earth and the moon as his laboratory， because the questions he is asking can't be answered in an ordinary lab. The tools just aren't big enough.這項研究的賭注高昂。如果失敗，他可能會在"Murphy的遇蠢 "的恥辱下度過余生。如果成功了，他也許證明愛因斯坦廣義相對論的部分理論不成立，或者他也許會發(fā)現(xiàn)太陽系新天體存在的證據(jù)，無論如何他都將名垂青史。Murphy真正要做的事，就是把地球和月亮作為自己的實驗室，因為他不可能在普通實驗室找到答案，沒有這么大的實驗工具。
Murphy‘s primary method will be something called "laser ranging."Light from a laser fired from the Earth could hit a reflector on the surface of the moon and bounce back. The time it took for the light to travel from Earth to the reflector and back would reveal the exact distance， or at least within a few inches. That would reveal much about the lunar orbit， and that data could in turn be used to test some of the tantalizing ideas in Einstein's theories. Murphy的基本方法將是"激光測距"，從地球上發(fā)出的激光打射到設(shè)在月球表面的反射器上，然后反射回地球。光從地球到達反射器后再反射回來的所用的時間，可以揭示月球與地球的實際距離，至少可以將誤差降到幾英寸以內(nèi)。這就可以揭示許多關(guān)于月球軌道的奧秘。這些數(shù)據(jù)繼而又可以用來檢驗愛因斯坦理論中一些令人困擾、捉摸不透的概念，
By using a laser system mounted on a 3.5-meter telescope at Apache Point， N.M.，and equipped with a sophisticated array of detectors that can capture and isolate every photon of light that bounces back from the moon， Murphy hopes to get the number down well below a millimeter.依靠使用安放在新墨西州Apache Point市３。５米望遠鏡上的激光系統(tǒng)，并裝備一組能捕獲分離從月球反射回來光子的精密探測儀，Murphy希望能把月地距離的測量精確到１毫米之內(nèi)。
The laser will blast a 1-billion-watt "bullet" of light at the moon 20 times every second. But the Earth's atmosphere will distort the beam once it leaves the telescope， so by the time it gets to the moon the beam will cover an area more than a mile wide. Murphy is hoping that at least one out of every 30 million photons hits a reflector and bounces back toward Earth. That would send about a billion photons back from each bullet.這種激光將以每秒２０次的速度向月球發(fā)射１０億瓦特的光＂子彈一百萬千瓦的光束＂，但是地球的大氣會扭曲這些光束，所以等光束到達月球時，所經(jīng)過的地帶將達一英里多寬。Murphy希望在每３千萬光子中至少有一個能碰到反射器后回地球。這就可以使每一個光彈反射回大約１０億個光子。
But by the time the reflected laser beam reaches Earth， it will have spread out to nearly 10 miles in diameter， so probably only about one out of 30 million reflected protons will actually be captured by the detectors. That data will be fed into a powerful computer， but all it will tell is the distance between the telescope and the reflector.但是當(dāng)反射的激光束到達地球時，他的直徑將擴散到大約１０英里，所以在事實上很可能每３千萬反射光子中才大約有一個光子能被探測儀捕獲到。這數(shù)據(jù)將輸入功能強大的計算機處理，但所有這些將闡明的，只是望遠鏡和反射鏡的距離。