最牛"驢友":一起"私奔"到月球大綱

Moon tourism

月球旅遊業

Fly me to the moon.

好風憑藉力，送我窺月宮。

Two private firms are offering moon jaunts to the rich and dedicated.

兩傢俬營公司正向熱忱的富豪提供月球之旅服務。

Are we nearly there yet?

咱快到了吧？

The space race between America and the Soviet Union was as much about ideological one-upmanship as extraterrestrial exploration. A new space race to the moon has an even less lofty goal: sightseeing. Two space-tourism companies are planning rival lunar missions that could see private individuals paying to fly to Earth's nearest celestial neighbour.

美蘇之間的太空競賽不僅有關外空間探索，同樣也爲了在意識形態上壓倒對方。新一輪奔月競賽的目標更不能算高：只不過是去觀光。兩家太空旅遊公司正在計劃相互競爭的探月項目，這可能會讓個人以私人身份買票，飛往地球最近的鄰居。

On June 19th Excalibur Almaz, a space company based on the Isle of Man, a British dependency in the Irish Sea, became the second company-after Space Adventures, an American space-tourism firm-to offer tickets for a commercial moonshot. Both firms are charging $150m a seat, a price that includes months of ground-based training. Neither is offering a descent to the moon's surface-just a lunar fly-by.

6月19日，繼美國的太空探險公司(Space Adventures)之後，設在愛爾蘭海(Irish Sea)中的英國屬地曼恩島(Isle of Man)上的航天公司王劍鑽石(Excalibur Almaz)[注1]成了第二家向公衆出售探月航行飛船票的公司。兩家公司的票價都是每位1億5千萬美元，其服務包括升空前的幾個月地面訓練。它們都不提供登月之旅。

Whereas the Americans won the first space race, the Russians are favourites for the rematch. Both Excalibur Almaz and Space Adventures are using Russian-made rockets and spacecraft. Space Adventures plans to re-engineer the veteran Soyuz craft that it has used to shuttle seven space tourists up to the International Space Station (ISS). Excalibur Almaz intends to refit two Almaz space stations that were originally made for the Soviet armed forces.

儘管美國在第一次太空競賽中獲勝，但在當前的複賽中俄羅斯卻備受青睞。王劍鑽石和太空探險都使用俄製火箭和飛船。太空探險計劃重建老式的聯盟號飛船(Soyuz)，這種飛船完成了7名太空旅行者的國際太空站(International Space Station (ISS))往返航程；而王劍鑽石則想重新裝備原來爲蘇軍打造的兩座俄羅斯鑽石空間站(Almaz space station)。

The space-tourism business is famously long on hype but rather short, so far, on results. And both firms face big engineering challenges, to put it mildly. The easier task probably falls to Space Adventures, whose well-tested Soyuz capsules-which have been flying, in one form or another, since the 1960s-require a beefier communications system, larger portholes (everyone wants a window seat, after all) and a better heat shield for re-entry. A separate booster rocket will be necessary to break the craft out of Earth orbit.

空間旅遊業長期以來鼓譟宣傳，人盡皆知，但至今尚未真正成行。即使輕描淡寫地說，兩家公司也都面臨着巨大的技術挑戰。這方面太空探險的工作可能輕鬆些，因爲他們的聯盟號太空艙久經考驗，從上世紀60年代起就以不同型號升空，只不過現在需要更可靠的通訊系統、更大的舷窗(畢竟人人都要靠窗的座位)和爲重返大氣層提供更好的耐熱罩，此外還需要一個助推火箭讓飛船脫離地球軌道。

Excalibur Almaz's bulky space stations will need a lot more work to convert into lunar spacecraft. The first step will be to attach engines. The company plans to use ion thrusters, a high-tech propulsion system in which propellant is ejected using an electric field. Such motors are extremely efficient, and can be powered from a station's solar panels. But they generate little thrust, meaning that Excalibur Almaz's mission will take at least six months, compared with just six days for Space Adventures' chemical-powered craft. In fact, the low-energy trajectory planned by Excalibur Almaz will take its crew members farther from the than any other humans have been.

把王劍鑽石寬敞的空間站改裝成探月飛船需要做的工作就多得多了。首先是要安裝發動機。該公司計劃使用離子推進器。這是一種高技術推進系統，其中的推進劑通過電場噴射。這樣的馬達效率極高，可以通過系統的太陽能電池提供動力。但它們推力不大，這讓王劍鑽石的一次旅行至少費時6個月；相比之下，太空探險用化學燃料爲飛船提供動力，一次旅行只要6天。實際上，王劍鑽石計劃採用的低能軌道將使它的飛船乘員創造人類飛行的最遠紀錄。

A journey that long would be risky. One danger is from unpredictable and potentially deadly solar flares, giant releases of stellar energy that would bombard the craft with radiation and fry its occupants. To protect its passengers, the company plans to build an internal "storm shelter" that uses the spacecraft's water supplies to absorb radiation.

這樣長遠的太空航行會有風險。一種危險來自無法預測而且很可能會致命的太陽耀斑，這是恆星能量的大規模爆發，它會以強烈的輻射轟擊飛船，煎烤飛船乘員。爲保護乘客，王劍鑽石計劃在飛船內建造 "暴風庇護所"，它可以利用飛船中貯存的水吸收輻射。

Neither firm will start refitting its spacecraft, a process expected to take around three years, until it has sold all the seats on its maiden flights (two for Space Adventures, three for Excalibur Almaz). The companies are marketing their lunar missions to the same high-tech entrepreneurs and ultra-rich thrill-seekers who have snapped up tourist visits to the ISS and suborbital joyrides-long planned, but yet to fly-with firms such as Virgin Galactic.

這兩家公司都沒有開始重建飛船，這一過程會持續三年，要在公司售出了處女航的所有船票(太空探險兩張、王劍鑽石三張)之後纔開始。已經有一批高科技企業家和追求刺激的超級富豪抓緊機會買了維珍銀河(Virgin Galactic)等公司的船票，將要進行計劃已久但尚未成行的國際太空站訪問，或在環地球軌道上作較短的兜風航行；上述兩家公司正向同一批人兜售他們的探月之旅。

Space Adventures already claims to have sold one ticket. That has led Excalibur Almaz to sweeten its deal by offering equity in the company to its first paying passengers. But filling seats may prove tricky. Not only is the asking price more than seven times the $20m cost of a jaunt to the ISS, it also requires months of demanding physical and psychological training. And even if the engineering can be perfected, it remains to be seen how many daredevil billionaires will be willing to spend months cooped up in a metal tube eating freeze-dried food.

太空探險聲稱他們已經售出了一張船票。這讓王劍鑽石爲自己的服務增加添頭，例如向第一批付款買票的顧客贈送本公司的股票等。但讓人買票可能會很不容易。這不單因爲他們的票價是前往國際空間站的短期訪問票價(2000萬美元)的7倍以上，而且乘客在旅行前還要接受長達數月之久的高強度體力與心理訓練。更何況，即使技術上可以做到毫無問題，去旅遊的人依然需要在金屬管子裏一呆好幾個月，只靠啃幹凍食品充飢；到底有多少捍不畏死的億萬富翁願意這樣做？人們只能拭目以待。