英倫翻譯社/ Trsmaster

◎鄭寺音

A call by Nasa for donations of urine so it can create the perfect space lavatory has been leaked, resulting in a flood of offers.

美國航太總署呼籲捐贈尿液，好讓它打造完美太空廁所的消息披露後，捐贈的尿液如洪水般湧來。

The US space programme said it was seeking urine from workers at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, as part of its work on the new Orion space capsule.

此一美國太空計畫正向德州休士頓的詹森太空中心的工作人員徵求尿液，作為其「獵戶座」太空船工作的一環。

The Orion will eventually take astronauts to the moon.

獵戶座終將把太空人送入月球。

Designers of the Orion, which will park unoccupied in space for up to six months while astronauts work on the moon, have to solve a pressing issue of getting rid of stored urine, said John Lewis, Nasa’s head of life support systems for Orion.

太空人在月球工作期間，獵戶座會空船待在太空中長達6個月，獵戶座的設計師必須解決丟棄儲存尿液的急迫議題，航太總署獵戶座生活支持系統主任李維斯說。

To design, build and test the systems, Nasa needs nearly 8 gallons of urine every day - about the total daily output of 30 people.

為了設計、建造與測試這項系統，航太總署每天需要將近8加侖的尿液，相當於30人每天的排尿量。

"Urine is a mess because urine is full of solids," Mr Lewis said. Those solids clog the venting system for dumping urine which meant keeping the waste disposal system clear is "really a challenge," he added.

李維斯說，「尿液很麻煩，因為尿充滿固體」，他又說，那些固體阻塞丟棄尿液的排泄口，意味著讓這個排泄物處理系統保持暢通「實在是個挑戰」。

新聞辭典

result in：導致。例句：Their dispute resulted in war.（他們的爭端導致戰爭。）

a flood of：大批，大量。例句：He received a flood of grateful telegrams and letters.（他收到大量表示感謝的電報和信件。）flood 為洪水之意，用在本文為一語雙關。

waste：廢棄物，排泄物。例句：A lot of poisonous waste from the chemical works polluted the river.（化工廠的許多有毒廢料污染這條河。）

文章出處：<a href="http://iservice.libertytimes.com.tw/Service/english/">自由時報電子報中英對照新聞