PBS高端访谈:特朗普执政期间 人类登月计划有望重启

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And now to our Leading edge segment for this week: a potential return to the moon.

　　Near the end of his address last night, the president made a reference to space travel, saying — quote — "American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream."

　　It was only a line. But whenever a president speaks on the subject, the space community is closely trying to read the tea leaves. The sentence leaves a lot to interpretation¹, but all signs seem to indicate there is renewed focus inside the Trump² administration, NASA and the private sector³ on travel to the moon, sooner than you might think.

　　Our science correspondent, Miles O'Brien, is here.

　　So, Miles, why the moon after all these years?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Aside from the "because it's there" answer, it's actually a good destination to go and learn about living and working on an encampment in space.

　　You know, we went to the moon 50 years ago now. We left some footprints and flags behind, but we didn't really learn how to live there on a sustained basis. So, while NASA would still like to go to Mars, there's a lot of things you can learn about by setting up an encampment on the moon.

　　And we have learned in the past 50 years there's a lot of water ice on the moon. What is water? Hydrogen and oxygen. What is rocket fuel? Hydrogen and oxygen. So you can learn a lot about how to create rocket fuel on location and perhaps push deeper into space.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: So this didn't just spring up as an idea because they couldn't think of anything else?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Well, there was one other factor. There was a mission planned at the end of '18 for the Space Launch System, which is the next heavy lift that NASA is working — heavy lift rocket.

　　One piece of it wasn't going to be ready, built by the Europeans, a service module⁵. And so NASA was faced with the possibility of delaying that mission, an unmanned mission, even later, or maybe doing something like we did with Apollo 8, something bold.

　　In the case of Apollo 8, the lunar module wasn't ready. And we decided⁶ to go around the moon. In this case, they're thinking about putting astronauts on this flight maybe early '19, and send them around the moon Apollo 8-style.

　　So, a lot of things have lined up. And, all of a sudden, there is wide agreement in the space community, this might be the next step.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And you were telling me, Miles, there's a private sector piece in all of this, Elon Musk⁷ announcing just the other day that two individuals, I guess, with some extra spending money …

　　MILES O'BRIEN: To say the least.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: … have told him they want to go around the moon and come back to Earth.

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Yes.

　　He got a lot of attention for that. He doesn't have a rocket to do it yet. It's just a design right now. It's called the Falcon⁸ Heavy, which would have almost the thrust of the mighty⁹ Saturn¹⁰ 5 of Apollo days.

　　It will fly for the first time, he hopes, by the summer. So saying there are going to be paying passengers on there by '18 is optimistic, for sure. So, we will watch that with skepticism.

　　But to the extent that the private sector and the government space enterprise sort of push each other toward this destination, a lot of space people are pretty excited about it.

　　特朗普执政期间 人类登月计划有望重启

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Now, remind us, Miles, why was the moon — it was on the agenda at NASA for a while, but it came off. What was that all about?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Politics.

　　Of course, we lost the shuttle Columbia in '03. President Bush at the time canceled the shuttle program and said, let's go back to the moon, a program called Constellation¹¹. That got some traction¹².

　　And then, of course, President Obama came in and said, we're not going to the moon. We're going to Mars.

　　And he wouldn't let anybody talk about going to the moon. There were a lot of people who said, you know, we should try the moon first before we move onto Mars, but that got shelved during the Obama administration.

　　Politics now is different, obviously, with the Trump administration there. And I'm told the Trump administration would really like to have U.S. astronauts taking off from a U.S. spaceport some time in its first term. And so this idea of turning that unmanned Space Launch System flight into a crewed mission is gaining a lot of traction.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: And, finally, Miles, there is this question of money. It costs money to go into space.

　　This is a president who has talked about cutting back domestic discretionary spending. Where's the money going to come from?

　　MILES O'BRIEN: You know, it's interesting.

　　You have to look at the entire space enterprise here. NASA's budget is a little more than $19 billion, but if you look at the budget for the military side of space, it's about $40 billion. So, what if they reconsider this idea of a space council, which they're doing, headed by the vice⁴ president, and they start looking at ways to carve out and eliminate some of the redundancies between the military and the civilian¹³ side?

　　There may be some ways, even with NASA cuts, that they can borrow from each other, feed each other technology, as it were, military and civilian, which could be a bit of a force multiplier and could make it still possible.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Interesting, because the president has talked about spending a lot more money on defense¹⁴.

　　MILES O'BRIEN: Exactly. So, that money might ultimately help NASA.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Miles O'Brien, taking us to the moon and back, thank you.

　　MILES O'BRIEN: To the moon, Alice.

　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you.

　　MILES O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

1 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 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。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

8 falcon   

n.隼，猎鹰

参考例句：

• The falcon was twice his size with pouted feathers.鹰张开羽毛比两只鹰还大。
• The boys went hunting with their falcon.男孩子们带着猎鹰出去打猎了。

9 mighty   

adj.强有力的；巨大的

参考例句：

• A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
• The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。

10 Saturn   

n.农神，土星

参考例句：

• Astronomers used to ask why only Saturn has rings.天文学家们过去一直感到奇怪，为什么只有土星有光环。
• These comparisons suggested that Saturn is made of lighter materials.这些比较告诉我们，土星由较轻的物质构成。

11 constellation   

n.星座n.灿烂的一群

参考例句：

• A constellation is a pattern of stars as seen from the earth. 一个星座只是从地球上看到的某些恒星的一种样子。
• The Big Dipper is not by itself a constellation. 北斗七星本身不是一个星座。

12 traction   

n.牵引；附着摩擦力

参考例句：

• I'll show you how the traction is applied.我会让你看如何做这种牵引。
• She's injured her back and is in traction for a month.她背部受伤，正在作一个月的牵引治疗。

13 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

14 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。