VOA标准英语2009年-Former Astronaut Buzz Aldrin Hopes for Spa

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
20 September 2009
 

This year is the 40th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, and a time to look ahead to future space exploration, says Buzz Aldrin, one of the first two men to step on the moon. 

 
This interior view of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module¹ "Eagle" shows astronaut Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., lunar module pilot, during the lunar landing mission (NASA image)
It was a moment that galvanized the world, as the lunar lander Eagle touched down in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20, 1969.

"'Tranquility Base, here. The Eagle has landed."

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans on the moon. Ten more astronauts would follow.

Aldrin says competition between the world's superpowers, the United States and Soviet² Union, drove the mission. But with the goal attained³, competition was not enough to sustain the program. Six crews would touch down between 1969 and the last lunar landing in 1972. "And I think those stories need to be told over and over again," he said.

The US space agency NASA turned to other missions, including the space shuttle and the International Space Station, a cooperative project of 16 nations, including Russia, Japan and Canada.

Aldrin says the United States now has a president who promised change, and one change the former astronaut wants to see is greater cooperation in space. "We, the United States, could help the international partners that we could bring into the space station - China, India, South Korea, Brazil - have them join there and begin to gradually look at the moon as an international project that the US experience can help the other nations land on the moon, and we'll work with them, but not spend our resources and our big rockets and spacecraft to go to the moon. We've done that," he said.

 
Books by Buzz Aldrin
In 2003, President George W. Bush announced a plan to return humans to the moon by 2020 and use the moon as a base to go to Mars.

NASA is now reevaluating its options. An advisory⁴ panel has presented a report to the White House saying the projected program of manned space exploration requires a major infusion⁵ of money. Aldrin believes the space program should remain flexible, responding to new priorities and available resources. But he says the United States could keep its attention focused on inter-planetary travel, and reevaluate the goal 10 years from now. "We could reaffirm that, or we could say, well, we've looked at it and I think we want to go and visit the asteroids⁶ more and get some minerals from there…. or if we find minerals that are on the moon with robotic exploration by 2020, or maybe we run out of money again, and we say, well, let's build another space station or let's just have robotics," he said.

Still, Aldrin hopes the United States will put humans on Mars soon after 2030. And he says the nation should consider a stop-over base on the Martian moon Phobos. 

The former astronaut believes nations can compete to develop space technology, but then pool their efforts for major missions. He says the stakes are high and require the kind leadership shown by great explorers and other leaders in history. "The historical nature of a world leader that commits a realistic path of about two dozen years to take creatures from the surface of one planet like the earth and begin to have a growing permanent settlement on another planet in the solar system, historically that is in my estimation greater than Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, Magellan, Columbus, Kennedy," he said.

Aldrin has chronicled his own life journey in the book Magnificent Desolation, and also written a children's text called Look to the Stars, which is meant to inspire young readers with a vision of humanity's future in space.

 

1 module   

n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱

参考例句：

• The centre module displays traffic guidance information.中央模块显示交通引导信息。
• Two large tanks in the service module held liquid oxygen.服务舱的两个大气瓶中装有液态氧。

2 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

3 attained   

（通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况）

参考例句：

• She has attained the degree of Master of Arts. 她已获得文学硕士学位。
• Lu Hsun attained a high position in the republic of letters. 鲁迅在文坛上获得崇高的地位。

4 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

5 infusion   

n.灌输

参考例句：

• Old families need an infusion of new blood from time to time.古老的家族需要不时地注入新鲜血液。
• Careful observation of the infusion site is necessary.必须仔细观察输液部位。

6 asteroids   

n.小行星( asteroid的名词复数 )；海盘车，海星

参考例句：

• Asteroids,also known as "minor planets",are numerous in the outer space. 小行星，亦称为“小型行星”，在外太空中不计其数。
• Most stars probably have their quota of planets, meteorids, comets, and asteroids. 多数恒星也许还拥有若干行星、流星、彗星和小行星。