2019年经济学人太空旅行(2)（打印版）

Besides designing a new spaceship and booster,

除了设计新的飞船和助推器外，

SpaceX's engineers are busy working on a new, more efficient engine to power them.

SpaceX的工程师也忙于研制一种新的、更高效的发动机来为它们提供动力

Called Raptor, it is designed to burn super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company's current Merlin engines.

设计猛禽发动机（Raptor）的目的在于燃烧超冷的甲烷而非煤油，该公司现在的默林火箭发动机就是烧的煤油。

The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37.

Starship将装有6个猛禽火箭发动机。但每个超重型助推器将需要24到37个。

The result will be a plumber's nightmare.

其结果将是管道工的噩梦。

Mr Musk has said, perhaps optimistically,

马斯克曾表示，或许乐观来讲，

that a Starship prototype might be ready for a test flight all the way to orbit (albeit without its booster stage) within six months.

Starship原型可能将在6个月内进行直达轨道的试飞（虽然没有助推器）。

That would be of a piece with its frenetic development schedule.

这将和其疯狂的开发日程一致。

The rocket-building industry is used to generous government contracts that are about job creation as much as rocket creation.

火箭建造行业已经习惯了慷慨的政府合同，这些合同关乎就业和火箭创造。

SpaceX has brought a different sensibility, closer to the rapid-fire development practices of the software industry.

SpaceX已经带来了一种不同的感觉，更接近于软件行业的急速开发实践。

The Starship prototype, for instance, was welded together in a matter of months.

例如，Starship原型是在几个月内焊接起来的。

It was built out in the open, rather than in a carefully controlled factory environment.

它是在一个开放的环境而不是一个精密控制的工厂环境中建造的。

The firm has two teams competing against each other to produce the best design.

公司有两个团队相互竞争制造出最好的设计。

Ideas are tested quickly, taken forward if they work, and scrapped if they do not.

想法得到快速测试，如果有效就会被采纳，没效就会被废弃。

The Starship was originally to be made of a carbon-fibre composite. But the company soon abandoned that idea, destroying its production tools.

Starship原本是由碳纤维合成物制成的。但是公司很快就放弃了这个想法，毁掉了其生产工具。

Steel, noted Mr Musk, has a higher melting point than carbon fibre, making re-entry easier. It is also an order of magnitude cheaper.

马斯克指出，钢铁的熔点比碳纤维高，因此重返大气层更容易。其价格也便宜一个数量级。

To see the contrast, look at the Space Launch System (SLS),

对比一下，看看太空发射系统（SLS），

another super-heavy rocket designed to ferry astronauts to the Moon and Mars, but which is being built by NASA, America's space agency.

这是另一个设计用于向月球和火星运送宇航员的超重型火箭，但是由美国太空总署NASA建造。

The SLS has had around $14bn of taxpayers' money since it was authorised in 2011—

自2011年授权批准以来，SLS已经消耗了纳税人约140亿美元—

and that understates the true cost, since the SLS incorporates technology from old, abandoned rocket projects.

其真实成本被低估了，因为SLS将过时的、被遗弃的火箭项目技术整合到了一起。

It is due to make its first flight in 2020, though NASA has hinted that date may slip.

它将在2020年首飞，虽然NASA暗示日期可能会推迟。

Mr Musk claims that less than 5% of SpaceX's resources are dedicated to Starship. Yet it stands a good chance of beating the SLS into orbit.

马斯克宣称SpaceX只有不到5%的资源被用于建造Starship。但它很有可能击败SLS进入轨道。