流星雨应该算是最浪漫的天象奇观了，但是流星和很多珍贵的东西一样，都是可遇而不可求，于是日本一家企业决定打造“人工流星雨”，只要你愿意花很多钱，就可以想看流星就看流星。但是专家却指出，这个主意糟透了，为什么呢？

Photo by Austin Schmid on Unsplash

To glimpse a meteor shower, sometimes you've got to wake up in the middle of the night, bundle up against frigid cold, and wait many minutes or hours. All to see a streak of light, a piece of space that crosses briefly into our world. 为了看一场流星雨，有时候你得在深更半夜起床，忍受着刺骨的寒冷，等待数十分钟甚至数小时。这一切都只是为了看一道光，看一块和地球不期而遇的太空碎片。

Soon, though, all you may need is enough cash. 不过，在不久的以后，看流星所需的可能只是足够的钱。

A Japanese "space entertainment firm" called Astro Live Experiences (ALE) says it will launch its first satellite in 2019 to create artificial meteor showers on demand, for large events or at the whim of the wealthiest among us. 日本一家名为天文直播体验（缩写为ALE）的“太空娱乐公司”称，它将在2019年发射首颗能够按需制造人工流星雨的人造卫星。这些流星雨可能是为大型活动制造，也可能为了某个富豪的一个念头。

Though ALE hasn't named a specific price per event, BuzzFeed News suggests each ALE meteor shower will likely cost several million dollars. 尽管ALE公司还没有给人造流星雨定价，但BuzzFeed新闻网站指出，ALE制造的每一场流星雨可能将耗资数百万美元。

According to CNN, ALE "meteors" will be small metallic pellets made of a proprietary composition that glows orange, blue, or green as they burn up in the atmosphere. 据CNN报道，ALE公司的“流星”将会是用独家成分制造的小金属球，在大气中燃烧时会发出橙色、蓝色或绿色的光。

Yet unlike ordinary meteors, which are usually around the size of a sand grain, ALE's fake shooting stars will be substantially bigger - around two centimeters in diameter (smaller than a ping-pong ball, but slightly larger than a marble) - and released in a cloud. 不过，不同的是，普通流星一般是沙粒那么大，而ALE的人造流星将会大得多——直径约为2厘米（比乒乓球小，但比弹珠略大些），而且是在云层中释放。

Experts have raised concerns that this could threaten low-orbiting spacecraft. 专家指出，这可能会威胁低轨道航天器的安全。这一论述引发了人们的担忧。

"I salute them for cleverness and for their technical expertise, but from an orbital debris standpoint, it's not a great idea," University of Michigan astronomer Patrick Seitzer told BuzzFeed. 密歇根大学的天文学家帕特里克·赛策尔告诉BuzzFeed网站说：“我欣赏他们的机智和专业技术，但从轨道碎片的角度看，这不是个好主意。”

Moving at high speeds brought on by Earth's gravity, a 2 centimeter-wide object is more than enough to shoot right through a metal spacecraft - and leave devastation in its wake. 当一个2厘米宽的物体在地球引力作用下高速运转时，产生的力量足以射穿一个金属太空飞船，并留下破坏性后果。

ALE seems to be taking steps to ensure this would be an unlikely event. ALE公司似乎正在采取行动预防这种情况的发生。

ALE's satellite would likely orbit just below the International Space Station to avoid collisions; any pellet that ALE's satellite releases will go from an altitude of 220 miles (354 km) to about 37 miles (59.5 km) above the surface before burning up. ALE的人造卫星会在国际空间站下方绕轨道运行以避免相撞；ALE的人造卫星所释放的任何金属球都会从地表以上220英里（354千米）的高度下降到37英里（59.5千米）的高度才会开始燃烧。

Rodenbaugh told BuzzFeed that only 40 other satellites orbit below 220 miles, and that the company would call off any event that would put their artificial meteors close to a tracked satellite.罗登堡告诉BuzzFeed网站，只有40颗其他人造卫星在220英里以下的高度绕轨道运行，如果人造流星雨的位置离可追踪卫星太近，公司会取消流星雨计划。

Yet fake meteor showers could still impact spy satellites, which are not tracked and can dip as low as 158 miles. 尽管如此，人造流星雨仍然会对间谍卫星产生影响，因为这些卫星无法追踪，而且会在低至158英里（254千米）的高度运行。

Low-earth orbit (that is, anything under 2,000 km from the Earth's surface) is also slated to become a lot busier in the coming years, Seitzer told Buzzfeed. 赛策尔告诉BuzzFeed网站说，近地轨道（距离地表2000千米以内）在未来也将变得更加繁忙。

Indeed, there are plans in the works that suggest low-earth orbit is about to become a lot more crowded. SpaceX and other companies plan to send up a number of satellites to establish satellite-based internet services; SpaceX alone plans to put over 4,000 of them between 700 and 900 miles (1,100 and 1,400 kilometers). 目前正在实施的计划显示，近地轨道确实将变得更拥挤。SpaceX和其他公司计划发送多颗人造卫星来建立基于卫星的网络服务；SpaceX公司还计划将4000多颗卫星放在700至900英里间的高度（1100到1400千米之间）。

There are also the high-speed rockets and space planes that companies plan to fill with tourists, and low-altitude spacecraft that the military wants to use to deliver yet more satellites. 多个公司还计划让游客乘坐高速火箭和航天飞机上天，军方则希望通过低空飞行器运送更多卫星。

Add thousands of falling metal pellets to the 500,000 pieces of man-made debris we already know circle our planet, and the risk for any of these spacecraft becomes significantly higher. 在已知环绕地球的50万个人造碎片之外，再添加数千个坠落的金属球，将会大大增加所有这些航天器所面临的风险。

Call us purists, but artificially creating shooting stars also overlooks what makes meteor showers so incredible in the first place: that you never know exactly when you're going to see them. 叫我们纯粹主义者也罢，但是人造流星的创造者们忽视了流星雨如此可贵的最初原因：那就是你永远不能确切地知道你什么时候能看见它们。

Paying for a manufactured one doesn't exactly have the same thrill. (May we humbly suggest you instead use your considerable wealth to address the problem of light pollution, so that more people could see natural shooting stars?) 付钱让人制造一场流星雨并不能引发同样的震撼。（容我们建议，你还不如用你的巨额财产来解决光污染问题，好让更多人能看到自然的流星。）

Creating a space hazard simply to provide a cheap imitation of a natural wonder seems to be missing the point. 给太空制造安全隐患，只为了蹩脚地模仿自然奇观，似乎完全抓错了重点。