One small step back to where we started
The Apollo missions were supposed to reveal the truth about the Moon. In fact, they taught us about the Earth – and ourselves
阿波罗任务的原本目的为更多地了解月球，但实际上，它让我们更多地了解了地球以及我们自己。
In July 1969, soon after their return from the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were shown footage of the world’s reaction to the lunar landing. They saw the US newscaster Walter Cronkite wiping away his tears; people gathered around televisions from China to Brazil; pavements outside TV shops crammed as people watched in awe. Aldrin turned to Armstrong. “Neil,” he said, “we missed the whole thing”. 1969年7月，有人给刚刚从月球返回的尼尔•阿姆斯特朗和巴斯•奥尔德林放了一段录像，录像反映的是全世界人们对登陆月球的反应。他们看到美国新闻播音员沃尔特•科尼凯特抹着眼泪；看到从中国到巴西，人们都聚集在电视机旁观看登月；看到电视机商店外面的过道被怀着敬畏心情观看直播的人们挤得水泄不通。看到这些，奥尔德林转向阿姆斯特朗，“尼尔，”他说，“我们错过了这一切。”
That comment (reminiscent of George Harrison’s complaint that the Beatles felt left out because “We were the only people who never got to see the Beatles”) reveals the surprising truth about the Apollo missions they weren’t about the Moon. They were about the Earth.
这句话（令人想起乔治•哈里森曾经的抱怨：甲壳虫乐队成员觉得自己被忽略了，因为“我们是唯一的不能够去看甲壳虫乐队表演的人”。）向我们揭示了阿波罗任务的真相，虽然这一点非常出人意料：阿波罗任务不是为了月球，而是为了地球。
The clues had been there from the start, when the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to leave their home planet’s orbit. Orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968, fulfilling dreams as old as mankind itself, their real wonder was not at the dead grey planet beneath them, but at the vibrant blue globe in the distance. The first three men to see the Moon up close soon realised — with a much deeper sense of reverence — that they were the first three men to see the Earth from a distance. Witnessing an earthrise made them feel humble. They read the opening chapters of Genesis to a worldwide audience of millions, signing off with, “Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.”
当阿波罗8号的机组人员成为第一批离开母亲星球轨道的人类时，这一切就不言而喻了。1968年圣诞节前夕，他们在环绕月球的轨道上飞行，实现着和人类自身一样古老的梦想。然而，真正令他们惊叹的并不是下面那个死气沉沉的灰色星球，而是远方那颗生机勃勃的蓝色星球。在第一次以越来越近的距离欣赏月球的过程中，这三位宇航员很快意识到——怀着更深的敬畏——他们是第一批从遥远的太空注视地球的人。亲眼目睹着地球从月球的地平线上升起，他们感到自己是如此的卑微。他们向着全世界数以百万的观众朗诵了《创世纪》的开篇，在结束时他们说：“圣诞快乐。愿上帝保佑你们，所有那些生活在美丽地球上的人。”
Over the next four years, Apollo taught us what it means to be human in a word, restless. Curiosity is never satisfied, it merely finds new targets. Quite how quickly the shift can occur was learnt by Pete Conrad, the third man to walk on the Moon (and the first to fall over on it). Once Armstrong and Aldrin had claimed the prize, no one was interested in Apollo 12. Conrad later appeared in an American Express advert of famous Americans nobody recognised. (Others included Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny.) Yet in many ways Conrad’s was the most interesting Apollo mission of all. His fellow moonwalker, Al Bean, never the most naturally gifted astronaut, compensated with sheer hard work. Finally standing on the lunar surface, he threw his silver Nasa badge into the distance, knowing that the moonwalk had earned him a gold one. But as they flew back to Earth, he turned to Conrad and admitted disappointment in the Moon itself “It’s kind of like the song Is That All There Is” Another timeless truth achievements themselves aren’t what count, it’s the fact that you worked for them.
在接下来的四年里，阿波罗任务告诉了我们它们对于人类意味着什么，用一个词来说：永不停息。好奇心永远得不到满足，它只是有了新的目标。这个新旧目标的转变到底有多快，皮特•康拉德深有体会，他是第三个踏上月球的人（也是第一个在月球上摔了一跤的人）。一旦阿姆斯特朗和奥尔德林赢得了首次登月的殊荣，再没有人去关注阿波罗12号。后来，美国运通公司公布了一个默默无闻的美国名人名单，康拉德的名字赫然在列。（其他人还包括梅尔•布兰科，他是兔八哥的配音者。）然而从很多方面来说，康拉德的那次登月任务都是阿波罗任务中最有趣的。他的登月同伴，阿兰•比恩，绝对不是最具天赋的宇航员，但是他做到了勤能补拙。当他最终站在月球上的时候，他把他那枚银质NASA徽章远远地扔了出去，因为他知道这次月球任务已经为他赢得了一枚金质徽章。但是在回到地球以后，他却向康拉德坦承了自己对月球本身的失望：“感觉就像《仅仅如此而已吗？》里唱的一样。”由此我们可以得到另一个亘古不变的真理：最重要的不是成绩本身，而是你为之努力的过程。
When Bean returned to Earth he would sit in shopping malls, simply to marvel at the variety of human life. And he has never again complained about the weather “I’m just glad there is weather.” As so often, a journey into the unknown had revealed more about the traveller’s home than about the destination.
回到地球以后，比恩经常坐在大型购物中心，而这仅仅为了感受并惊叹丰富多彩的人类生活。登月之行后，他再也不去抱怨天气：“我很高兴我们能感受各种各样的天气。”正如常有的那样，通往未知世界的旅程更多的是让我们了解我们出发的地方，而不是目的地。
Virtually every Apollo astronaut came back with a deep sense of the Earth’s fragility. Ed Mitchell, Moonwalker No 6 “When we see ourselves in this bigger perspective — call it the ET point of view, the God point of view — a shift takes place in your perception and you start to think quite differently.” Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke describes Earth as “hanging in space like a jewel”. “People are always asking what we discovered when we went to the Moon,” says Dick Gordon, of Apollo 12. “What we discovered was the Earth.”
实际上，当阿波罗任务的宇航员们回到地球后，他们都会深切地体会到地球的脆弱。第6位登上月球的埃德•米切尔曾说：“当我们从一个更大的视角——可以称之为外星人视角或者上帝视角——来审视我们自己的时候，我们的看法就会改变，开始以一种截然不同的方式来思考。”执行阿波罗16号任务的查理•杜克如此描述地球：“一颗悬浮在太空中的宝石”。而阿波罗12号的迪克•戈登则说：“人们总是会问，当我们到达月球的时候我们有什么新的发现。我会回答说，我们的新发现就是地球。”
The discovery gave a big boost to the nascent Green movement. Sir Jonathon Porritt cites the “deep and lasting effect” that Apollo had on “many environmentalists — including me”. Friends of the Earth was founded in the same year that man first walked on the Moon. The inaugural Earth Day happened a year later. Everyone seemed to agree with Michael Collins’s thought as he splashed back down into the Pacific with Armstrong and Aldrin “Nice ocean you got here, planet Earth.”
这一发现极大地推动了当时尚处于萌芽阶段的环境保护运动。乔纳森•波利特爵士赞扬阿波罗计划曾经对“包括我在内的许多环保主义者”产生了“深远影响”。在人类登上月球的同一年，环保组织地球之友随之建立。而一年之后，世界地球日创立。迈克尔•柯林斯心里曾闪过一个所有人都会认同的念头，当时他正与阿姆斯特朗和奥尔德林一同坠入太平洋：“我的地球家园啊，你这里拥有多么美丽的海洋！”
Politically, too, there was a shift. The Earth from space looks just like a map — except without the national borders. Collins remembers people of every nation saying to him, “‘We did it’ — it was a wonderful thing.” Ed Mitchell, on his way back from the Moon, realised that “the molecules of my body and of the spacecraft and of my partners were manufactured in some ancient generation of stars — and that was an overwhelming sense of oneness and connectedness”. Inspired by the landings, René Dubos coined the phrase “Think globally, act locally”. T minus zero for Apollo was T plus one for globalisation.
与此同时，人们的政治观念也发生了转变。从外太空来看地球，它就像一幅地图——只是没有国界。柯林斯记得每个人都会对他说：“‘我们做到了’——这真是太棒了。” 而不管他们是来自哪个国家。在从月球返回的途中，埃德•米切尔意识到：“那些构成我的身体、飞船以及我的同伴身体的分子都是从某些古老的恒星中产生出来的——这种相互联系、融为一体的感觉极其强烈。”受登陆月球的启发，雷尼•杜伯斯首创了这个警句“心怀全球、足立本土”。
Yet despite the astronauts’ protestations that the Moon itself was a letdown, which of us, given the chance, wouldn’t want to go there The Chinese are planning missions of their own, and the commercial investment being ploughed into space tourism proves just how much we yearn for new experiences. So much so that we resent anyone who dampens our excitement.
尽管登月的宇航员们表示月球本身很令人失望，然而只要有机会，有谁会不想去那里呢？中国人正在推进着他们自己的登月计划，而大量卷入太空旅行的商业投资也恰恰证明了我们是如何渴望拥有全新的体验。这种渴望是如此强烈，以至于我们会十分讨厌那些扫我们兴致的人。
Pete Conrad used to say he was prouder of his work on the Skylab missions than his walk on the Moon. “Some people even get mad,” he said. “‘What do you mean, the Moon isn’t the biggest thing in your life’ I say ‘Well, it isn’t’. They think, ‘Well, it should be’. I say ‘Why I’m the guy that did this’.” Maybe life is one long “wet paint” sign you don’t believe it until you reach out and touch.
皮特•康拉德过去常说，与在月球上漫步相比，在太空实验室里的工作更让他感到自豪。“有些人对此会感到不可思议，”他说，“他们反问：‘你这是什么意思？难道月球任务不是你生命中最重要的部分吗？’我说：‘没错，它不是。’他们的想法却是‘它理应是最重要的’。而我说：‘为什么？当事人是我。’”也许生命的过程就像一块长长的印着“油漆未干”的牌子，只有亲手触摸以后，你才会相信。
Certainly, Dave Scott, of Apollo 15, thought so. Standing on the Moon, he voiced his thoughts to Houston “I realise there’s a fundamental truth to our nature man must explore.” Home is never far from our thoughts, though. How many times have you looked forward for months to a holiday, only to find that on day three you’re already dreaming of your own bed But when you return, the process starts all over again. This idea of life as a perpetual cycle seems particularly comforting in a recession. Even though we’ve overreached (and overborrowed), and been reminded of some home truths, we know that one day we’ll reach out once more.
毫无疑问，阿波罗15号的戴夫•斯科特也赞成这种想法。站在月球上，他向着休斯顿指挥中心的同行们道出了自己的心声：“我领悟到自然界的一个基本真理：人类必须探索。”尽管思乡之心人皆有之。曾经多少次，翘首期盼了数月之久的假期到了，然而我们总是在头几天就开始渴望自家的床。但是，当从假期旅行归来，又开始渴望假期，并且永远是这样。生活是一个永无休止的循环，这种想法在经济萧条时期似乎能给人们一种特别的宽慰。即使我们挥霍过度（而且外债累累），并被告知了一些难以接受的事实，我们依然知道终有一天我们会重复这个过程。
When Bean retired from Nasa he became an artist. His paintings of the lunar landscape, which fetch tens of thousands of dollars, bear the lessons of his time as an astronaut. Just as he worked hard to reach the Moon, now he works hard to perfect his painting. “That’s what I tell myself when the colours don’t come out right or it hasn’t worked like I thought it would ‘That’s why they call it art’.”
从NASA退休后，比恩成了一位画家。他画的那些承载着自己宇航员经历的月球风景图，卖到了数万美元。正如他为了登上月球而努力拼搏，现在他为了使自己的作品更加完美而竭尽全力。“当色彩给人的感觉不好或者作品和我所期望的不一样时，我会对自己说：‘这就是它们会被称之为艺术的原因。’”
Another of Bean’s thoughts sums up the very essence of the Apollo missions, indeed of all human travel that it isn’t about where you’re going, it’s about who you are. “Everybody came back just more like I knew them. I think maybe success doesn’t change you as much as reveal you.”
比恩的另外一个认识话道出了阿波罗任务乃至所有人类活动的精髓：最重要的不是你要去哪，而是你本身是什么样的人。“每个人从月球返回后，我都觉得他们更像我最初认识的他们。我想或许成功更多地是展现你，而不是改变你。”
Which is why the greatest reason to celebrate this 40th anniversary isn’t scientific or environmental or political; it’s personal. The next time you go down a footpath just to see where it leads, or when the only thing that will stop your baby crying is taking it for a drive, remember the 12 men who stood on the Moon and looked at Earth. As T. S. Eliot put it
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
这就是为什么我们庆祝登月40周年最重要的原因不在于科学、环境保护以及政治，而在于人性。以后，当你沿着某条路前行只是为了弄清它通向哪里，或者哄自己小孩不哭的唯一途径是驾车出去兜风时，请记住那12个曾经站在月球上遥望地球的人。正如托马斯•斯特尔那斯•艾略特的诗句所述：
我们将不停止探索
而我们一切探索的终点
将是到达我们出发的地方
并且是生平第一遭知道这地方。 |
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