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Private-sector space flight
私人公司的太空旅行
Moon dreams
奔月之梦
The Americans may still go to the moon before the Chinese
也许美国人仍会比中国人更早登月
Feb 18th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
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WHEN America’s space agency, NASA, announced its spending plans in February, some people worried that its cancellation of the Constellation moon programme had ended any hopes of Americans returning to the Earth’s rocky satellite. The next footprints on the lunar regolith were therefore thought likely to be Chinese. Now, though, the private sector is arguing that the new spending plan actually makes it more likely America will return to the moon.
当美国宇航局在二月份宣布预算案时，一些人担心“星座计划”的取消会熄灭美国人重返地球卫星的希望。所以有人认为下一个在月壤留下脚印的可能会是中国人。但现在，私有企业辩称，新的预算案实际上更可能使美国登月。
The new plan encourages firms to compete to provide transport to low Earth orbit (LEO). The budget proposes $6 billion over five years to spur the development of commercial crew and cargo services to the international space station. This money will be spent on “man-rating” existing rockets, such as Boeing’s Atlas V, and on developing new spacecraft that could be launched on many different rockets. The point of all this activity is to create healthy private-sector competition for transport to the space station—and in doing so to drive down the cost of getting into space.
新计划鼓励私人公司通过竞争来提供近地轨道的运输服务。预算案意图在五年内花费60亿美元来刺激国际空间站的商业载客与载货服务的发展。这笔资金将用于现有的波音阿特拉斯五号等火箭的“载人改造”以及可以被不同火箭搭载的宇宙飞船的研发。所有这些举措都是为私人公司竞争国际空间站的运输服务创造一个良好条件，并以此降低进入太空的成本。
Eric Anderson, the boss of a space-travel company called Space Adventures, is optimistic about the changes. They will, he says, build “railroads into space”. Space Adventures has already sent seven people to the space station, using Russian rockets. It would certainly benefit from a new generation of cheap launchers.
“太空探险”旅行公司的老板埃里克•安德森对于所发生的变化持乐观态度。他说，他们公司将修筑“太空轨道”。该公司利用俄罗斯运载火箭，已将七人送入国际空间站。他们肯定会从新一代廉价发射器中获益。
Another potential beneficiary—and advocate of private-sector transport—is Robert Bigelow, a wealthy entrepreneur who founded a hotel chain called Budget Suites of America. Mr Bigelow has so far spent $180m of his own money on space development—probably more than any other individual in history. He has been developing so-called expandable space habitats, a technology he bought from NASA a number of years ago.
另一个潜在的受益者，也是私人公司运输的拥趸，就是创建了“美国廉价套间”连锁旅馆的大亨罗伯特•比奇洛。比奇洛目前已经花费了1.8亿美元用于太空开发，堪称前无古人。他一直在开发所谓可伸展的太空屋，这是他几年前从美国宇航局购买的技术。
These habitats, which are folded up for launch and then inflated in space, were designed as interplanetary vehicles for a trip to Mars, but they are also likely to be useful general-purpose accommodation. The company already has two scaled-down versions in orbit.
这些太空屋，可以在发射时折叠起来，在太空中打开。它们曾被设计成火星之旅的星际车辆，但它们也可能成为多用途的住房。比奇洛的公司已经有两个缩小版在轨道上运行。
Mr Bigelow is preparing to build a space station that will offer cheap access to space to other governments—something he believes will generate a lot of interest. The current plan is to launch the first full-scale habitat (called Sundancer) in 2014. Further modules will be added to this over the course of a year, and the result will be a space station with more usable volume than the existing international one. Mr Bigelow’s price is just under $23m per astronaut. That is about half what Russia charges for a trip to the international station, a price that is likely to go up after the space shuttle retires later this year. He says he will be able to offer this price by bulk-buying launches on newly man-rated rockets. Since most of the cost of space travel is the launch, the price might come down even more if the private sector can lower the costs of getting into orbit.
比奇洛准备建造一个空间站，向其他国家提供廉价进入太空的机会，他相信此举会引起许多国家浓厚的兴趣。现阶段的计划是2014年发射首个实际比例的太空屋（阳光舞者），更多舱室将在一年之内添加完毕，完成后将比现有的国际空间站拥有更多可使用面积。比奇洛太空旅馆的价格仅为每人不到2300万美元，该价格仅是俄罗斯为国际空间站旅行定价的一半，而且这个定价还有可能由于航天飞机在今年退役而水涨船高。比奇洛称，它将向大量购买使用新载人火箭升空的旅客提供这个价格。因为太空旅行最大的开销就是发射，一旦私人公司可以降低发射成本，旅行价格甚至可能会下降得更多。
The ultimate aim of all his investment, Mr Bigelow says, is to get to the moon. LEO is merely his proving ground. He says that if the technology does work in orbit, the habitats will be ideal for building bases on the moon. To go there, however, he will have to prove that the expandable habitat does indeed work, and also generate substantial returns on his investment in LEO, to provide the necessary cash.
比奇洛称，他所有投资的最终目的是登月。近地轨道飞行只是他的试验田。他说，如果这项技术可以在轨道上成功实施，可伸展太空屋将是建立月球基地的理想材料。然而为了达到那个目标，他将要证明可伸展太空屋确实能用，而且需要他在近地轨道飞行的投资产生大量的回报来提供必需资金。
If all goes well, the next target will be L1, the point 85% of the way to the moon where the gravitational pulls of moon and Earth balance. “It’s a terrific dumping off point,” he says. “We could transport a completed lunar base [to L1] and put it down on the lunar surface intact.”
如果一切顺利，下一个目标将是第一个拉格朗日点（这个点在到月球路程的85%处，该点地月引力平衡）。比奇洛称：“这是一个完美的安置点，我们可以将一个完整的月球基地运到那里，然后将它完好地放在月球表面。”
There are others with lunar ambitions, too. Some 20 teams are competing for the Google Lunar X Prize, a purse of $30m that will be given to the first private mission which lands a robot on the moon, travels across the surface and sends pictures back to Earth. Space Adventures, meanwhile, is in discussions with almost a dozen potential clients about a circumlunar mission, costing $100m a head.
其他人也对登月抱有雄心壮志。20多只队伍正在角逐谷歌月球X大奖，谷歌出资3000万美元用来赞助首个让无人探测器登上月球，在表面漫步一段距离，拍摄图片传回地球的私人公司。与此同时，“太空探险”公司正在与十多位潜在客户商谈环月旅行，价格为每人1亿美元。
The original Apollo project was mainly a race to prove the superiority of American capitalism over Soviet communism. Capitalism won—but at the cost of creating, in NASA, one of the largest bureaucracies in American history. If the United States is to return to the moon, it needs to do so in a way that is demonstrably superior to the first trip—for example, being led by business rather than government. Engaging in another government-driven spending battle, this time with the Chinese, will do nothing more than show that America has missed the point.
阿波罗计划最初只是为了证明美国资本主义比苏联社会主义更优越而进行的竞争。资本主义取得了胜利，但代价是造就了美国历史上最大的官僚机构之一——美国宇航局。如果美国重返月球，就需要用明显优于第一次的方式来完成，例如由企业主导而不是government。而如果美国再次卷入由government主导的军备竞赛的话，一切只会表明美国必输无疑，因为这次的对手是中国。 |
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