Developing countries don’t have the same ____1____ satellite information as do first-world nations. A given country might want to monitor dust storms, measure rice yields or track population migrations. But satellites were typically built____2____and were very pricey items.

Now countries like South Africa, Nigeria and Turkey are building their own satellite capabilities. Thanks to small companies and university research groups that____3____methods to build smaller, cheaper satellites from everyday electronics. This emerging trend was reviewed in a paper in the journal Acta Astronautica.

For example, England’s University of Surrey spun out a company that today sells remote-sensing satellites about the size of a refrigerator. The company also offers training to countries that can send engineers to learn how to build satellites back at home.

The MIT-based authors of the journal article note that the trend could____4____some problems, such as the growing____5____in earth orbit as well as the danger of spreading space debris.

But the knowledge can also spread. South Korea focused on developing a satellite-building program in the early 1990s, and they’re now teaching countries such as Dubai and Malaysia. So that everyone can get some help from above.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
access to one-at-a-time pioneered exacerbate congestion
发展中国家不能与发达国家共享卫星传送的资料。一个领先的国家需要检测沙尘暴,测量大米产量,和跟踪人口流动。但是一个卫星只能有一种典型的功能,并且花费巨大。 现在有些国家,如南非,尼日利亚,土耳其,也正在开发他们自己的卫星项目。这得益于一些电子工程领域的小公司和大学研究组开创出生产更小更便宜的卫星的方法。这些新鲜出炉的信息在《宇航学报》上有报道。 例如,英国的萨里大学开创了一个经营遥感卫星的公司,其卫星像冰箱一样小。这个公司同时为客户提供工程师的培训,告诉他们如何在本国内开发卫星。 一个麻省理工的研究者写文章指出这种趋势加重了一些问题,如日趋严重的地球轨道堵塞和正在增加的空间垃圾。 但是卫星的研究成果是能够传播的。韩国在20世纪90年代时集中精力研究卫星项目,并且传授技术给迪拜人和马来西亚人。这样使得所有人都能从中获益。