Переводы / 10D-eng

Text 10D

Science and International Cooperation

One of the most striking features of modern science is the in­creasing tendency towards closer cooperation between scientists and scientific organizations (institutions) all over the world. In fact, it is becoming more and more evident that many of the prob­lems that affect the world today cannot be solved without joining scientific efforts and material resources on a world-wide scale. The exploration of space, world finance, global environment protection problems and the development of new sources of power are the ex­amples of areas of scientific research which are so costly and com­plicated that it is difficult for a single country to solve them efficiently and in a short period of time. The renewal of interna­tional scientific cooperation was demonstrated in the sharing of data which were obtained by Russian, Japanese and European space probes in 1986 on Halley's comet.

Many countries were successfully cooperating on a programme called Intercosmos in launching a large number of vertical geo­physical rockets and satellites. Space exploration programmes were being conducted between Russia and Austria, India, France, Swe­den and other countries. Joint manned flights by Russian and for­eign cosmonauts included citizens from numerous countries. Many international crews have worked on orbit and carried out a lot of scientific experiments.

Russian and the U.S. engineers are now working side by side on the International Space Station, the largest peacetime engineering project in history.

Launched from opposite sides of the world, the first Interna­tional Space Station components Zarya and Unity have begun a new era of exploration as 16 nations joined their scientific and technological resources in the first truly international space pro­gram to improve life on Earth. Even before its launch, the Interna­tional Space Station has opened new spheres of research on Earth by overcoming barriers of language, culture and technological dif­ferences worldwide.

Indeed, it represents unprecedented (беспрецедентный, бес­примерный) global cooperation and trust. There is no doubt that it is the first step towards a unified "planetary civilization" that will explore space as citizens of Earth, not of individual nations.