译者按：想要去月球度个假吗？或许在你的有生之年真的可以实现。读完本文你将了解全球各地最新的登月计划，以及广泛存在于科技团队、私营公司和公共部门、国家和国家之间的太空竞争。无论这些竞争的结果如何，它们带来的科技突破成果都属于全人类，并注定会把人类带向太空探索的新纪元。
本文译自《经济学人》3月4日刊。

龙太空舱

Lunar spaceflight

fly who to the moon?

把谁送上月球？

One race to the Moon is nearing its end. Another is just beginning
一场到月球的比赛即将结束。另一场才刚刚开始

1. THE $30m Google Lunar XPRIZE has had a slow time of it. Set up in 2007, it originally required competitors to land robots on the Moon by 2012. But the interest in returning to the Moon that the prize sought to catalyse did not quickly materialise; faced with a dearth of likely winners, the XPRIZE Foundation was forced to push back its deadline again and again. Now, though, five competing teams have launch contracts to get their little marvels to the Moon by the end of this year. And as those robotic explorers head into the final straight, a new contest is opening up.

Google月球X大奖赛（Google Lunar X PRIZE）是一个太空竞赛，由X奖基金会发起，Google赞助。Google月球X大奖赛征求团队完成无人探测器登陆月球，在月面移动500米，并传输数据和清晰图片回地球。2015年，XPRIZE宣布如果至少有一支队伍能在2015年12月31日前获得发射合约，比赛最后期限将延长到2017年12月。——维基百科
materialise: (usually used in negative sentences) to take place or start to exist as expected or planned
e.g. The promotion he had been promised failed to materialize.
a dearth of: a lack of something
e.g. a dearth of job opportunities
final straight or home straight: the last part of an activity, etc. when it is nearly completed (straight有田径跑道的直段之意，引申为比赛终点前最后一段冲刺)
e.g. We're going into the home stretch of the presidential election.

1）3000万美元Google月球X大奖的时间很慢。设立于2007年，它最初要求竞赛者在2012年之前将机器人登陆到月球上。但是，奖励试图催化的回到月球的的兴趣没有迅速按计划实现；面对缺乏可能的赢家，X大奖基金会被迫一次又一次推迟其截止日期。然而，现在，五个竞争团队拥有发射合约，以在今年年底前将他们的小奇迹们推向月球。而当那些机器人探险者们进入最后的冲刺，一场新的比赛正在开始。

2. On February 27th Elon Musk said that SpaceX, his aerospace company, had agreed to send two paying customers around the Moon some time in 2018, using a new (and as yet untried) version of its Falcon rocket, the Falcon Heavy. They would be the first people to travel beyond low-Earth orbit since 1972. Two weeks before Mr Musk’s announcement, NASA said it was considering using the first flight of its new rocket, the Space Launch System (SLS; also untested), to do something similar, though with astronauts, not paying tourists. The race, it seems, is on.
   2）2月27日，伊隆·马斯克说，他的航天公司SpaceX已经同意在2018年的某个时候把两个付费客户送到月球附近，使用一个新的（还没有经过测试）版本的猎鹰火箭，猎鹰重型运载火箭 。他们将是自1972年以来第一批在低地球轨道之外旅行的人。在马斯克先生宣布前两周，NASA表示正在考虑使用其新型火箭，即太空发射系统（SLS；也未经测试）的第一次飞行来做类似的事情，只不过是搭乘宇航员，而不是付费的游客。这场竞赛，看起来，正在进行。

3. This is not, though, a simple story of private sector versus public. For one thing, SpaceX can offer such a trip only thanks to NASA’s previous largesse. The company’s Dragon space capsule, in which the Moon tourists would fly, was developed to carry first cargo and, soon, people up to the International Space Station—services for which NASA pays generously. For another, NASA might end up deciding to pay SpaceX for its Moon jollies, just as it pays for rides to the space station.

largesse: when someone gives money or gifts to people who have less than they do, or the money or gifts that they give
= generosity
jollies: to get pleasure from a particular experience or activity, especially a strange activity

3）然而，这不是一个简单的私营部门对抗公共部门的故事。一方面，SpaceX能够提供这样的旅行全是因为NASA之前的慷慨。该公司的龙太空舱（月球旅客将乘其飞行）被开发来携带第一批货物，并很快将携带人上到国际空间站—— NASA慷慨地为这些服务付费。另一方面，NASA可能最终决定为SpaceX的月球娱乐付费，就像它支付到空间站旅程的费用。

4. In January an adviser to Donald Trump sent an e-mail to senior Republicans interested in space policy suggesting an “internal competition between Old Space and New Space” at the agency to get people back to lunar orbit. “Old Space” almost certainly meant the in-house SLS effort; “New Space” probably means SpaceX—or possibly Blue Origin, a company owned by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, which is also working on a suitably big rocket. A New Space option would seem to make budgetary sense. Though the Falcon Heavy needed for SpaceX’s Moon trip has yet to fly, it is certain to be far cheaper than the SLS. But the SLS has a great deal of support in the Senate—and there are some in Washington who have their doubts about making the country’s space programme too dependent on sometimes capricious billionaires.
   4）1月，唐纳德·特朗普的一位顾问给对太空政策感兴趣的高级共和党人发了一封电子邮件，建议在机构（NASA）进行“旧太空与新太空之间的内部竞争”，以使人们回到月球轨道。 “旧太空”几乎肯定意味着内部SLS的努力; “新太空”可能意味着SpaceX，或者可能是Blue Origin，一家由亚马逊的创始人杰弗里·贝索斯拥有的、也在研发合适大小火箭的公司。新太空选项将似乎在预算上来说是明智的。虽然SpaceX的月球旅行中需要的猎鹰重型运载火箭还没有发射，但肯定比SLS便宜得多。但是，SLS在参议院受到很大的支持，而且在华盛顿有一些人对于让这个国家的太空计划过于依赖有时反复无常的亿万富翁们心存疑虑。

5. The new administration has yet to weigh in—or to appoint a NASA administrator. But its ambitions may have been hinted at when Mr Trump evoked some of the wonders the United States might achieve by the time of its sestercentenary in this week’s speech to Congress: “American footprints on distant worlds,” he said, “are not too big a dream.” The only distant world any foot will be leaving prints on by 2026 is the Moon.

weigh in: to join in an argument or fight
e.g. The chairman then weighed in with his views.

5）新政府还没有介入—— 或者说任命一个NASA管理者。但是当特朗普在这周向国会发表的演讲中描绘了到美国建国250周年纪念时（9年后）可能实现的一些奇迹，新政府的野心可能已经有所暗示：“美国在遥远世界的足迹”，他说，“并不是太大的梦想“。到2026年前任何脚会留下印记的唯一遥远的世界是月球。

6. Such feet do not have to be American. China sent a rover called Yutu to the Moon in 2013, and plans a mission to return rocks to Earth this year. The idea of landing people on the Moon by 2030, or perhaps even earlier, has been discussed in public. That brings the possibility of yet another race.
   6）这些脚不一定是美国人的。中国于2013年向月球发送了一艘名为“玉兔”的飞行器，并策划一项今年将岩石送回地球的任务。到2030年或甚至更早的时候让人登上月球的想法已经进行了公开讨论。这带来了又一场竞赛的可能性。

7. In all such races it would be wise, as the XPRIZE shows, to expect delays. The crew-carrying version of the Dragon is not expected to make its first flight to the space station until the middle of 2018 at the earli- est: sending one around the Moon by the end of that year is a tall order. That said, SpaceX’s customers may not mind if the schedule slips to 2019—the 50th anniversary of the first Apollo Moon landing would add yet more pizzazz to what is sure to be a very high-profile venture.

A tall order: a task or job that is difficult to carry out.
pizzazz: something that has pizzazz is exciting and has a strong interesting style
e.g. Their new album has plenty of pizzazz.

7）在所有这样的竞赛中，正如X大奖展现的那样，对于延迟的期待是明智的。龙太空舱的载人版本预计最早要到2018年中期才会第一次飞往太空站：在那年年底前向月球周围发射（一艘载人飞船）是一项很难完成的任务 。也就是说，SpaceX的客户可能不介意，如果时间表不知不觉拖到2019年——第一次阿波罗登月的50周年纪念肯定会给一次非常高调的冒险增加更多刺激。

8. Who the purchasers of this pizzazz might be is not yet known, though one, at least, must be very rich. One possibility is Steve Jurvetson, a venture capitalist on SpaceX’s board. Another is the film-maker James Cameron, who directed “Avatar”, the most profitable film ever made. Mr Cameron has already plumbed the Mariana Trench in a submersible; in 2011 he showed interest in a privately funded Russian mission to the Moon. Having such a film-maker on board would certainly ensure that the trip was spectacularly documented. With the right lenses, he might even pick out the tiny XPRIZE rovers as he flashes by.

plumbed: (try to) understand(sth) thoroughly
e.g. plumb the mysteries of the universe
pick out: If you pick out someone or something, you recognize them when it is difficult to see them, for example because they are among a large group
flash by: to move very quickly
e.g. A meteor flashed by/past/through the sky.

8）这份刺激的购买者可能是谁还不知道，但至少，一定是非常富有的人。一个可能性是史帝夫·賈維森，SpaceX董事会的风险资本家。另一个是电影制作人詹姆斯·卡梅伦，他曾导演过《阿凡达》，这部有史以来最赚钱的电影。卡梅伦先生已经乘坐潜水器彻底探索了马里亚纳海沟；在2011年，他对一个私人资助的俄罗斯探月太空行动表现出兴趣。有这样一个电影制作者在飞船上肯定会确保这次旅行被壮观地记录下来。使用正确的镜头，当他快速经过月球上空时，他甚至可以认出微小的X大奖飞行器。

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原文出处：经济学人杂志

译者：七呵夫

本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用，谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文所涉法律后果均由本人承担。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后，删除文章。