极地造天堂

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  他们的工作不仅很cool,还很cold!
  他们要在这片冰封之地打造一个天文学家、科学家等研究人员的极地天堂。如果这世界真有超人,我相信,他们就是!
  
  The 1)altitude is 3,000 meters, the nearest city is almost 1,600 kilometers away, and the steel superstructure is surrounded by over 14 million square kilometers of nothing but ice and snow.
  So why build here in the first place? For scientists, the answer is obvious: the South Pole’s unique environment offers incredible opportunities not found anywhere else on Earth. For 2)astronomers, its 3)pristine atmosphere and location at the earth’s axis makes this the perfect place to gaze into the heavens. For physicists, the permanent ice sheet will allow them to study mysterious sub-atomic particles that may reveal the very first moments of our universe. Isolated like no other continent on Earth, and with some of the lowest temperatures ever recorded, Antarctica is ideal to investigate man’s impact on the climate.
  But for scientists to work at the South Pole, they’ll need to live here, and that will require a unique complex. The South Pole Station will be able to feed and house some 150 people. This new structure will have its own power plant and fuel storage, dining hall and, scattered over more than three square kilometers, will be utilities and laboratories for some of the most sophisticated science ever carried out: a water treatment plant, a highly advanced climate research centre, an enormous mobile drilling rig, and a radio-telescope that will search for clues to the origins of the universe.
  But constructing a vast science complex in this brutal environment takes an unusual breed.
  Even with the wing-like design, planners know that, eventually, snow will build up, so they 4)incorporated another unique feature. When the snow finally does reach the floor-line of the new station, the building can be jacked up a full story, an additional four meters: and not just once, but twice. This simple detail will give the new South Pole Station a lifespan of 30 to as many as 45 years.
  And with temperatures hovering at 40 degrees below zero celcius, conditions are more than just uncomfortable. They make working with steel, already the most difficult job on the site, nearly impossible. And when a part doesn’t fit, a new one absolutely, positively won’t get there overnight.
  Erick Nichols (Iron Worker Foreman): So there’s a lotta “Plan B” goin’ on.A lotta cuttin’ an’ 5)weldin’ an’ we’ll get a design from the engineers an’ just have to 6)fabricate it here on site; whatever it takes to get it all done.
  But keeping on schedule is no easy task when you can only stay outside for 90 minutes at a time.
  Jeff Bechtel (Iron Worker): The steel seems to suck the temperature right outta ya, if ya have to sit up there for a long time.
  Brian Hardin (Iron Worker): Stay out here long enough, you get a free Antarctic nose job; little here, little there, gone, free of charge.
  7)Frostbite is a constant risk for those who spend their days outside at the Pole. But extreme cold is just one of many obstacles.
  Carlton Walker (Construction Project Manager): Every year’s a battle. It’s just a different battle. It’s weather, it’s flights, it’s material, it’s everything. Every year’s different. If it was easy, I wouldn’t be here.
  This team has pulled off an amazing feat. The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station completes a dream begun more than a century ago. The first humans to reach this spot could never have imagined the world here today: a world dominated by a building that has pushed engineering and technology to the absolute limit.
  
  这里的海拔是3000米,最近的城市在几近一千六百公里外,围绕这座钢铁巨型建筑的是一千四百多万平方公里的冰雪。
  那么为何要在这里建研究站?对科学家而言,答案显而易见:南极独特的环境所提供的非凡机会是地球上其他地方无法比拟的;对天文学家而言,纯净的大气层和在地轴上的位置使其成为观测天象的完美地点;对物理学家来说,终年不化的冰层让他们能研究神秘的次原子粒子,或能看到宇宙混沌初开的原貌。与世隔绝、独一无二的地理位置,加上史上好几次出现的最低气温,南极洲是一个研究人类对气候造成的冲击的理想场所。
  但科学家要在南极工作,就得在这里居住,便需要一个独特的建筑群。南极研究站得要解决约150人的食宿问题。这座新建筑将自带发电厂和燃料存储设施、食堂,还有一系列设施和实验室,供科学家们首次展开一些最为复杂的科学研究之需:一座净水处理厂、一座极先进的气候研究中心、一座巨大的活动钻机和一架用来找寻宇宙起源线索的无线电望远镜,它们将分布在三平方公里多的冰面上。
  但在这个严峻的环境中兴建庞大的科学建筑群,需要的可不是泛泛之辈。
  即使有了如同机翼的设计,规划师知道积雪终究难以避免,于是纳入另一种特殊设计——当积雪终于到达南极新站的楼面线,建筑物可提高整整一层楼,也就是提高四米;而且不仅一次,还可以二次提升。这简单细致的设计让新的南极研究站拥有30至45年的寿命。
  气温在摄氏零下40度徘徊,这种环境实在让人很不好受。在低温下让钢铁焊接,这原本已是工地中最困难的工作,如今更是几近不可能。若有一部分无法密合,新的建材绝不可能连夜运抵。
  埃里克·尼可斯(铁工工头):永远有许多后备计划,大量的裁切和焊接。我们从工程师那里拿到设计图,就必须当场制造出来,不管要花多少心力。
  但人一次只能在户外工作90分钟,要赶上进度并非容易事。
  杰夫·贝克特尔(铁工):若要长时间待在户外,钢材就像能吸走你的体温。
  布莱恩·哈丁(铁工):待在外面的时间够长,就可做免费的南极削鼻手术了。这里一点、那里一点,鼻子就不见了,完全不用花一块钱。
  在极地户外工作的人常常要面对冻伤的危险,但酷寒只是众多障碍中的一个。
  卡尔顿·沃克(建筑项目主管):每年都是一场战役。只是跟前一场战役不同,要不是天气,就是班机、建材等问题。每年的困难都不一样。容易的话,我就不会来了。
  这支队伍完成了一个了不起的成就。阿蒙森—史考特南极研究站完成了一百多年前开始的梦想。最早踏上此地的人类绝对想象不到今天的情景,这里最抢眼的建筑物把工程学和科技发挥到了极点。
  翻译:Sylvia
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