把爱写在星星上？情人节祝福信息能上太空了！

Valentine's Day can be a bit of a struggle. How much should you spend on him to let him know you care? Will she like that perfume you bought her?
情人节是个有些令人纠结费神的日子。你该花多少钱才能让他知道你在乎他？她会喜欢你买给她的香水吗？

And then there's the card - is it too cheesy, or just nice enough?
然后就是卡片了，会不会太过俗气？还是也算不错呢？

Well, now there might be another option, thanks to three enterprising PhD researchers at the University of Leuven in Belgium - yes, really, they're a romantic bunch.
多亏比利时鲁汶大学3位具有开创精神的博士研究员，如今你或许能有另一种选择了，没错，他们真的是个浪漫团队。

Maarten, Tjorven and Jeroen have launched writeitinthestars.com, a project to fund future research at their university.
Maarten、Tjorven和Jeroen三人推出了writeitinthestars网站，这一项目旨在为他们大学未来要做的研究筹集资金。

Essentially, they're going to put people's paid-for messages on a cubesat, or miniature satellite, and send it up into orbit. It has its setbacks, but it's a nice enough gesture if you're stuck for a present to buy.
其实，他们要做的是将人们付过费的信息放入一个迷你卫星中，然后将卫星送到绕地轨道上去。虽然这份礼物有其自身的缺陷，但如果你不知道要买什么礼物好，它也算是相当不错的选择。

What happens?
会发生什么事？

"We take your love message into space, where it will pass over every part of the world for years to come. After 10 years, the satellite will enter the atmosphere and your message will turn into a beautiful shooting star."
“我们会将你的爱之信息送入太空，在接下来的几年里，它将飞过地球的每个角落。十年后，这颗卫星将进入大气层，而你的信息也会随之化为一颗美丽的流星。”

What's the catch?
缺点是什么？

The launch of the cubesat isn't set to take place until next year... So your loved one will be waiting a long time before your message gets up into orbit. Let's hope you're still together by then.
这颗迷你卫星直到明年才会发射……所以你的爱人在你的信息发上地球轨道前要等很久。但愿那时你们还在一起。

You also won't be able to see it, of course, as the tiny object will be orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 500km and a speed of 27000 km/h.
当然，你也看不到这颗迷你卫星，因为这个小小的物体会在500公里的高空，以每小时2.7万公里的速度绕地球转动。

How much does it cost?
这份礼物多少钱？

At the moment the price of the messages is about €0.88 per character - or 65p for us Brits.
目前，发信息上太空的价格是每个字符约0.88欧元，或对英国人来说是65便士。

What will happen to the money?
所得收入用来作什么？

The team at writeitinthestars.com is planning to fund 'lots of stuff' with the money they make from this project.
writeitinthestars.com网站小组计划用他们从该项目中赚到的钱，为很多将要进行的项目提供资金。

"Our goal is to fund space research at KU Leuven and we want to do plenty. For example, extra funding will allow us to purchase more components for our Master thesis students."
“我们的目标是为鲁汶大学的太空研究募资，我们还有很多事想做。比如说，盈余的资金能让我们为写硕士论文的学生购入更多组件。”

What about old-fashioned romance?
传统罗曼蒂克怎么样？

The Valentine's message also comes with a print-out version of one of five unique designs that can be downloaded from writeitinthestars.com, so you can hand it to the person you love.
情人节祝福信息也有印刷版，用户可从writeitinthestars.com下载五种独到设计中的一种，将其送给所爱之人。

Vocabulary

cheesy: 粗陋的，低级的
enterprising: 具有开创能力的
cubesat: cube satellite的缩写，微型卫星
shooting star: 流星
altitude: 高度，海拔
design: 图案

（译者：实习生陈思迪 编辑：丁一）