《中英對照讀新聞》Letter to Mars? Royal Mail works it out for British boy, 5 寫信到火星？皇家郵局幫英國5歲男童算出來了

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Britain’s Royal Mail has turned to NASA for help after a five-year-old boy wrote in asking how much it would cost to post a letter to Mars. But Oliver Giddings probably won’t be able to send a letter to outer space as the price -- $18,000 -- is well beyond the reach of most children’s pocket money.

一名5歲男童寫信詢問英國皇家郵局，寫信到火星要花多少錢之後，英國皇家郵局求助於美國航空暨太空總署（NASA）。但這名男童奧立佛．吉丁斯的信可能送不到外太空，因為這個價錢—1萬8000美元，遠超出大多數小孩的口袋深度。

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In its reply to Oliver, who wants to become an astronaut, the Royal Mail explained how the figure was calculated.

英國皇家郵局寫信給希望當太空人的奧立佛，解釋這筆錢是怎麼算出來的。

"Fuel is very expensive and affects the cost of sending letters around our planet," senior customer advisor Andrew Smout wrote.

資深客戶顧問史莫特寫道：「燃料非常貴，影響在地球各地送信的成本。」

"NASA also told me that their last visit to Mars, carrying the Curiosity rover, cost about $700 million. The spaceship itself is very small so storage is at a premium. Based on how much the spaceship weighed compared to how much it costs to get to Mars, they said that something weighing up to 100 grams would cost them approximately $18,000 to fly to Mars."

「NASA也告訴我，他們上次把好奇號探測車送上火星，花了大約7億美元。這艘太空船本身非常小，所以儲存量非常珍貴。根據這艘太空船的重量，和它到達火星要花的成本做比較，他們說，重量100克的東西要送上火星，要花大約1萬8000美元。」

新聞辭典

work sth out：片語，計算出。例句：We need to work out the total cost of the project.（我們需要算出這項計畫的總成本。）

reach：名詞，（某人能力等）所及範圍。例句：An ​expensive ​trip like that would be ​completely beyond my reach.（那麼昂貴的旅行，我完全負擔不起。）

at a premium：片語，非常貴的，很難得到的。例句：During the negotiations, sleep was at a premium.（談判期間，睡眠相當奢侈。）