ORBITAL SUBMARINE
太空潜水艇
Q. How long could a nuclear submarine last in orbit?
Q．核潜艇在近地轨道太空中能坚持多久？
-Jason Lathbury
——贾森•拉思伯里
A. THE SUBMARINE WOULD BE fine, but the crew would be in trouble.
A．潜艇本身不会有什么问题，但里面的艇员可就有麻烦了。
The submarine wouldn 8217;t burst. Submarine hulls are strong enough to withstand 50 to 80 atmospheres of external pressure from water, so they 8217;d have no problem containing 1 atmosphere of internal pressure from air.
潜艇不会在太空中爆炸。潜艇的外壳强度足以承受50～80倍大气压的外部水压，所以承受内部的一个大气压对它来说根本不是问题。
The hull would likely be airtight. Although watertight seals don 8217;t necessarily hold back air, the fact that water can 8217;t find a way through the hull under 50 atmospheres of pressure suggests that air won 8217;t escape quickly. There may be a few specialized one-way valves that would let air out, but in all likelihood, the submarine would remain sealed.
潜艇的整个艇体应该是气密的。虽然水密并不意味着它能防止气体泄漏，但潜艇能在50个大气压下保证不漏水这一事实，应该能够说明至少空气不会泄漏得太快。潜艇上或许会有一些专门设计用来释放空气的单向阀门，但总体来说潜艇应该算是密封的。
The big problem the crew would face would be the obvious one: air.
艇员面对的问题显而易见：空气。
Nuclear submarines use electricity to extract oxygen from water. In space, there 8217;s no water,[citation needed ] so they wouldn 8217;t be able to manufacture more air. They carry enough oxygen in reserve to survive for a few days, at least, but eventually they 8217;d be in trouble.
核潜艇使用电力从海水中提取氧气。但在太空中没有水，因而也没法用来产生更多的空气。潜艇上备有一些应急的氧气储备，可以供艇员用上几天，但最终他们还是会面临氧气用尽的困境。
To stay warm, they could run their reactor, but they 8217;d have to be very careful how much they ran it-because the ocean is colder than space.
他们可以使用反应堆来保持温暖，不过他们需要小心掌握好尺度，因为海洋比太空更“冷”一些。
Technically, that 8217;s not really true. Everyone knows that space is very cold. The reason spacecraft can overheat is that space isn 8217;t as thermally conductive as water, so heat builds up more quickly in spacecraft than in boats.
严格来说，这句话是不对的，所有人都知道太空非常寒冷。太空飞船在太空中过热的原因在于太空的热传导性能不如海水，所以热量在太空飞船中聚积的速度比在海里的更快。
But if you 8217;re even more pedantic, it is true. The ocean is colder than space.
但如果你在咬文嚼字上更进一步，这句话也是正确的。海洋确实要比太空更冷。
Interstellar space is very cold, but space near the Sun-and near Earth-is actually incredibly hot! The reason it doesn 8217;t seem that way is that in space, the definition of “temperature” breaks down a little bit. Space seems cold because it 8217;s so empty.
星际空间非常寒冷，但在太阳（或地球）附近其实是非常热的！之所以太空看起来没有那么热，是因为“温度”的定义在太空中有点不那么适用。太空很冷，是因为它太空了。