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太空旅游的商业展望

时间:2017-03-08 23:18:26

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It was a surprising announcement: SpaceX, a private company, said it will fly two people to the moon next year. This has not been attempted since NASA’s Apollo moon landings about 45 years ago.

The news came from SpaceX founder1 and chief executive officer, Elon Musk2. He is a billionaire who made his money from technology. In a news conference, he said two people have already paid SpaceX a “significant” amount of money to send them on a weeklong flight just beyond the moon and back.

No one has been to the moon since 1972. NASA flew 24 astronauts around it, and twelve Americans walked on its surface beginning in 1969.

Elon Musk’s plan is “a bold challenge” says Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation3 (CSF). The group has more than 70 members in the spaceflight business, including Musk’s SpaceX.

Stallmer says Musk’s work in the last ten years is “incredibly impressive.” He started SpaceX with his money, and now has large contracts with NASA and the U.S. defense4 department. And he is building reusable rockets.

But Musk is not alone in the business race into space. Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, is also developing reusable rockets. Using them will bring down the cost of going into space. Last September, Bezos announced a new “heavy-lift” rocket—one that will be able to deliver people and supplies to low-Earth orbit and farther, too.

Other companies, like Richard Branson’s Virgin5 Galactic, are building space airplanes to take passengers for a ride up into space and back — 62,000 miles above Earth. Other companies are developing and building many products for spaceflight, like rockets, and housing for humans traveling and working in space.

The business of space travel

But why space? Why are wealthy business people sending their money into space?

Some of them dreamed of space travel as children, and now they have the money to chase those dreams.

So there is adventure, and yes, there is money.

Stallmer says there is “a huge marketplace to be had in space.”

“There’s tremendous opportunities to be made, from the commercial aspect of it. Whether it is providing data or communications or remote sensing information. There’s that aspect of it. And then the idea that people just want to go to space.”

Plus, he says, the cost of doing space business is coming down with new technology.

“There's eighth graders that are building small satellites, these microsats that are going up and performing real world missions for hundreds, and maybe a thousand dollars. And you are seeing companies that are building larger satellite constellations7, very affordably.”

The commercial space business took off around 2008 when the country was in an economic recession, and many high-tech8 scientists were out of a job. Since then, CSF claims, its members have created “thousands of high-tech jobs driven by billions of dollars” invested by wealthy people.

Some question whether private companies will be safe as they race into orbit. Stallmer answers that safety comes first for these companies, and that much “attention to detail has to be paid to everything” that they do.

If a company does not have the safest vehicle out there, he says, “you’re not going to be in business very long.”

Companies that have had failures, like SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, have worked to fix their technology.

Elon Musk’s plan to go to the moon is “a very risky9 mission,” says Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer10 with The Franklin Institute science museum in Philadelphia. He says that while people may question whether a non-government group can achieve this goal, he thinks SpaceX can.

The trip to the moon fits into Musk’s “very clear plan” to build a colony on Mars, Pitts explains.

The astronomer sees two kinds of private space business developing. Some companies provide launch services-- like rockets to send satellites into space and deliver supplies for the International Space Station. Others build vehicles to provide space tourism.

“This is a brand new track in which companies are trying to provide opportunity for regular people, non-astronauts, non-military to be able to consider a trip to space as a viable11 vacation option.”

Now, for about $5,000, a company called Zero G provides rides in a specially12 designed plane to give people short moments of experiencing the weightlessness of being in space.

“The prices are already beginning to drop and more opportunities will be available for all the rest of us to possibly have some piece of that adventure of being a space explorer.”

What will happen to NASA and other space agencies?

Until now, space explorers have been astronauts from NASA, Russia, China or a few other countries. A small number of people also paid governments large sums to travel in space.

As commercial space companies grow, the role of NASA in the U.S. is changing. Some critics say NASA is too careful and too slow and that has left it behind these private companies. But Pitts defends the U.S. space agency, saying NASA is limited by what lawmakers in Congress allow the agency to do.

“It’s not that NASA doesn’t have the talent, doesn’t have the desire, they certainly do. But these independent companies don’t have to deal with the bureaucratic13 problems that NASA also has.”

Pitts praises the work NASA has done getting information about our solar system by using vehicles, probes and remote spacecraft. “It’s really just amazing,” he says.

Pitts says going forward commercial companies can take care of matters closer to Earth, like satellites and supplies. Then NASA can concern itself with “the big exploration tasks that might carry people out to the deeper reaches of the solar system.”

As commercial space business is growing, some predict there will be a human settlement on the moon in 10 years. And that will be just a step on the way to colonize14 Mars.

Words in This Story

commercial – adj. related to or used in the buying and selling of goods and services

federation – n. an organization that is made by of joining together smaller organizations

bold – adj. not afraid of danger or difficult situations

remote sensing –n. the use of satellites to collect information about and take photographs of the Earth

microsats – n. very small satellites

constellation6 – n. a group of people or things that are similar in some way

viable – adj. capable of being done or used


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1 Founder wigxF     
n.创始者,缔造者
参考例句:
  • He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
  • According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说,罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。
2 musk v6pzO     
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。
3 federation htCzMS     
n.同盟,联邦,联合,联盟,联合会
参考例句:
  • It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
  • Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。
4 defense AxbxB     
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。
5 virgin phPwj     
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的
参考例句:
  • Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗?
  • There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。
6 constellation CptzI     
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。
7 constellations ee34f7988ee4aa80f9502f825177c85d     
n.星座( constellation的名词复数 );一群杰出人物;一系列(相关的想法、事物);一群(相关的人)
参考例句:
  • The map of the heavens showed all the northern constellations. 这份天体图标明了北半部所有的星座。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • His time was coming, he would move in the constellations of power. 他时来运转,要进入权力中心了。 来自教父部分
8 high-tech high-tech     
adj.高科技的
参考例句:
  • The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展,这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
  • The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。
9 risky IXVxe     
adj.有风险的,冒险的
参考例句:
  • It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
  • He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。
10 astronomer DOEyh     
n.天文学家
参考例句:
  • A new star attracted the notice of the astronomer.新发现的一颗星引起了那位天文学家的注意。
  • He is reputed to have been a good astronomer.他以一个优秀的天文学者闻名于世。
11 viable mi2wZ     
adj.可行的,切实可行的,能活下去的
参考例句:
  • The scheme is economically viable.这个计划从经济效益来看是可行的。
  • The economy of the country is not viable.这个国家经济是难以维持的。
12 specially Hviwq     
adv.特定地;特殊地;明确地
参考例句:
  • They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
  • The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。
13 bureaucratic OSFyE     
adj.官僚的,繁文缛节的
参考例句:
  • The sweat of labour washed away his bureaucratic airs.劳动的汗水冲掉了他身上的官气。
  • In this company you have to go through complex bureaucratic procedures just to get a new pencil.在这个公司里即使是领一支新铅笔,也必须通过繁琐的手续。
14 colonize mqzzM     
v.建立殖民地,拓殖;定居,居于
参考例句:
  • Around 700 Arabs began to colonize East Africa.公元700年阿拉伯人开始把东非变为殖民地。
  • Japan used to colonize many countries in Asia.日本曾经殖民过许多亚洲国家。

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