从半机械女佣、水动力汽车、狗语翻译器到“火箭靴”，日本科学家们在寻求将科幻变成现实的道路上取得了丰硕成果。
From cyborg housemaids and waterpowered cars to dog translators and rocket boots, Japanese boffins have racked up plenty of near-misses in the quest to turn science fiction into reality.
如今，日本最伟大的科学家们正在致力于一项最伟大的科幻愿景：太空梯。
Now the finest scientific minds of Japan are devoting themselves to cracking the greatest sci-fi vision of all: the space elevator.
迄今为止，人类虽然已经艰难地冲出大气层，开始了征服宇宙的征程，但是21世纪的今天，人类应该更轻松地进入最后的疆界——宇宙空间。
Man has so far conquered space by painfully and inefficiently blasting himself out of the atmosphere but the 21st century should bring a more leisurely ride to the final frontier.
对化学家、物理学家、材料科学家以及宇航员及全世界的梦想家们来说，太空电梯代表了最令人向往的理念：
For chemists, physicists, material scientists, astronauts and dreamers across the globe, the space elevator represents the most tantalising of concepts:
太空电梯所用的缆索比以往制成的纤维缆索都要更坚韧，更轻。它一端连接地面，另一端冲出大气层，连接地球同步轨道卫星站。
cables stronger and lighter than any fibre yet woven, tethered to the ground and disappearing beyond the atmosphere to a satellite docking station in geosynchronous orbit above Earth.
缆索也称平带状电缆，全长2.2万英里（3.6万公里）。在这上面，将运行电梯轿厢。
Up and down the 22,000 mile-long (36,000km) cables — or flat ribbons — will run the elevator carriages,
而它们（轿箱）本身也需要在工程学方面有所突破，日本最大的公司和高校们正高度关注这个问题。
themselves requiring huge breakthroughs in engineering to which the biggest Japanese companies and universities have turned their collective attention.
提出这一想法的科学家在接受《泰晤士报》采访时透露，轿厢内可装载许多的货物。
In the carriages, the scientists behind the idea told The Times, could be any number of cargoes.
太空梯可携带人、大型太阳能发电装置，甚至是放射性废物。
A space elevator could carry people, huge solar-powered generators or even casks of radioactive waste.
最主要的是，摆脱地球引力将不再需要那么多的能量——也许还不到发射航天飞机所需能量的1％。
The point is that breaking free of Earth's gravity will no longer require so much energy — perhaps 100 times less than launching the space shuttle.
日本太空梯协会会长大野修一(音译)表示：“就像出国旅行一样，将来任何人都可以乘电梯去太空旅行。”
"Just like travelling abroad, anyone will be able to ride the elevator into space," Shuichi Ono, chairman of the Japan Space Elevator Association, said.
知名科幻大师阿瑟－克拉克1979年在小说《天堂喷泉》中首次提出太空梯概念，这一概念具有伟大科幻作品的一切最佳因素：
First envisioned by the celebrated master of science fiction, Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1979 work The Fountains of Paradise, the concept has all the best qualities of great science fiction:
大胆无畏，极具想象力，将改变我们的生活。
it is bold, it is a leap of imagination and it would change life as we know it.
与《星舰迷航》和威尔斯的《时光机器》描绘的虚无飘渺的科学构想不同，太空梯这一科学概念具有科学依据。
Unlike the warp drives in Star Trek, or H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, the idea of the space elevator does not mess with the laws of science;
它（太空梯）涉及到了一系列非常，非常复杂的工程学问题。
it just presents a series of very, very complex engineering problems.
日本科学家越来越自信。他们认为，其庞大的学术和工业基础可以解决这些问题。
Japan is increasingly confident that its sprawling academic and industrial base can solve those issues,
他们）甚至给建造太空梯的成本标上了1万亿日元（50亿英镑）的惊人超低价格。
and has even put the astonishingly low price tag of a trillion yen (￡5 billion) on building the elevator.
日本以精密工程和高质量材料生产而闻名，没有这些的话，这一构想将不可想象。
Japan is renowned as a global leader in the precision engineering and high-quality material production without which the idea could never be possible.
最大挑战在于缆索。
The biggest obstacle lies in the cables.
将太空梯从地面延伸至静止卫星必须确保电缆的长度达到平衡力的两倍，只有做到这一点，电缆才能保持其张力。
To extend the elevator to a stationary satellite from the Earth's surface would require twice that length of cable to reach a counterweight, ensuring that the cable maintains its tension.
此外，电缆的重量必须超轻，强度超强，可以承受射向地球大气层内外的所有抛射物的撞击。
The cable must be exceptionally light, staggeringly strong and able to withstand all projectiles thrown at it inside and outside the atmosphere.
青木芳雄是日本太空梯协会主任。
Yoshio Aoki is a director of the Japan Space Elevator Association.
他表示，太空梯电缆强度必须是当前最结实的碳纳米管材质纤维强度的4倍，或是钢筋强度的180倍左右。
He said that the cable would need to be about four times stronger than what is currently the strongest carbon nanotube fibre, or about 180 times stronger than steel.
同样的，轿厢在向太空爬升过程中的动力问题也是一大挑战。
Equally, there is the issue of powering the carriages as they climb into space.
青木芳雄教授说：“我们正在考虑采用我国子弹头列车中使用的技术。”
"We are thinking of using the technology employed in our bullet trains," Professor Aoki said.
“碳纳米管是一种良好的导电材料，所以，我们考虑在太空梯升降过程中再使用一条缆索提供电力。”
"Carbon nanotubes are good conductors of electricity, so we are thinking of having a second cable to provide power all along the
