Book 3   Unit 9

                                    Text C   Your Future in Space

When I was growing up, airplanes were my great love. With my parents, I would visit the nearest airport to watch planes roar off into the sky.(1) Their power and grace(2) excited me. But I never dreamed of the much more explosive power of the Saturn V rocket that one day would send me to the Moon. Even less did I guess I would spend 59 days in space(3) as commander of an orbiting laboratory known as Skylab Mission Two.

Astronauts of the future will have the opportunity to go even farther in space.(4) The National Commission on Space predicts that someday we will not only complete a planned space station in Earth orbit, but will also return to the Moon to establish a lunar base. Mars is also waiting.(5) Someday, readers of this magazine may venture into the outer reaches of our solar system.(6) When you think about space it's hard to dream too big a dream.(7)

Living in Space

The space station will become our first permanent settlement beyond Earth's atmosphere.(8) Crews will shuttle（穿梭般来回） to and from Earth on a regular basis. They'll live in more comfort than the Apollo astronauts did on their trips to the Moon, or our Skylab crew. Each crew member will have a private compartment （分隔间）for sleeping and relaxing. Food, packaged in individual containers, will be similar to that on the shuttle: dried meats, fruit and vegetables, but there'll also be refrigerators, so there will be some fresh foods too. Crew members will be able to shower; and engineers are designing washers and dryers to work in zero gravity （失重状态）.

The lack of gravity on board will help scientists develop experimental metals, crystals and other materials, all with properties that can't be produced on Earth. At this point, we can barely imagine the potential of the space station.(9)

Some of the things we discovered in Skylab will help in planning space stations. Skylab was the first American program in which the goal was living and working in space. On previous missions, the main goal was exploration. On Skylab, Jack Lousma and Owen Garriott and I spent 59 days in space performing experiments.

Moon Base

By the early 21st century, we may have a lunar base. Wendell W. Mendell, who was with NASA's Solar System Exploration Division, suggested that Moon settlers eventually will grow their own food and will mine the Moon for minerals, including fuel to propel rockets farther into space. But in the more immediate future,(10) in addition to pilots and scientists, NASA will need to recruit geographers, oceanographers, astronomers and medical doctors.

“Unlike the space station, which must continuously be resupplied,” Mendell said, “the lunar base has the potential of becoming self-sufficient(11).”

Mars and Beyond

Meanwhile, we'll continue sending probes to Mars, as well as to its moons, the asteroid belt （小行星带）and the moons of Jupiter. The probes will be robots, directed by human and artificial intelligence(12) to explore and to perform tasks similar to those we did as astronauts during the Apollo program. Computer engineers and automation （自动化）experts will be needed to design these machines.

Man will eventually step onto the surface of Mars -- but not merely to plant a flag(13) and come back home. Mars is 49 million miles from Earth. Bridging this gap(14) takes nine or more months; the round trip(15) is nearly two years.

Beyond these great adventures, it's difficult to make reasonable guesses concerning our progress farther into the universe. Who knows what new tools science will offer us?

How to Get There From Here

When I ventured into space, the only route was by learning to fly. As we explore space in the future, we will need not only pilots, but also technicians, scientists -- and probably people with jobs nobody has yet imagined or described.

Those interested in space careers should first get a good education, says Joseph Loftus, assistant director of engineering at the Johnson Space Center. He recommends a college degree in science, including mathematics, physics, engineering and biology.

Perhaps equally important is having a desire to succeed in space. During my learning years, I was never the smartest student. After I joined the Navy（海军）, I was never the best pilot. But I tried hard, studied hard and worked hard to improve because I loved what I was doing. I enjoyed the thrill of exploring the unknown.(16)

I have seen fellow pilots killed in crashes of experimental aircraft. Three astronauts died in a launch-pad （发射坪）fire during the Apollo program. Risk will always be a part of the dream of reaching farther into space. We were all shocked by this realization once again,(17) Jan. 28, 1986, when the Challenger crew died in an explosion just after the launch. 

Attempts to pioneer can sometimes be painful. But the pioneer spirit(18) also leads to moments such as the one when Neil A. Armstrong stepped onto the Moon on July 21, 1969, saying, “That's one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind.”

                            你在太空的未来

在我长大的过程中，飞机是我的一大爱好。我经常和父母一起去参观离我家最近的机场，看飞机轰鸣着飞上蓝天。它们的威力和英姿令我激动不已。但是我从来没有梦想到有一天土星五号火箭会用强大得多的爆发力把我送上月球。我更没有想到我会作为称作太空实验室计划二号的轨道实验室的负责人在太空生活了59天。

未来的宇航员将会有机会去太空中更遥远的地方。国家太空委员会预测有一天我们不仅会在地球轨道上建成一个预定的太空站，还会重返月球去建立一个月球基地。火星也在等着我们。有一天，本杂志的读者们也许会去我们太阳系的外层空间探险。关于太空，你可以尽情地去梦想。

在太空生活

空间站将成为我们在地球大气层以外的第一个永久性居留地。工作人员将会定期往返于地球和空间站。他们将比阿波罗的登月宇航员或者太空实验室的工作人员生活得舒适。每个工作人员会有一个睡觉和休息的私人小间。包装在一个个容器里的食物将同航天飞机上的食物相似：脱水的肉、水果和蔬菜，不过还会有冰箱，所以也会有一些新鲜食品。工作人员能够洗淋浴；工程师们正在设计能在失重状态下工作的洗衣机和烘干机。 

舱内的失重状态将帮助科学家们开发试验性金属、水晶和其它材料，它们都具备在地球上不能产生的性能。此刻，我们还很难想象空间站的潜力。

我们在太空实验室所作的一些发现将有助于空间站的规划。太空实验室是美国第一个以在太空生活和工作为目的的项目。在先前的几次任务中，主要的目的是探索。在太空实验室，我和杰克. 劳斯玛、欧文. 加里奥特在太空中做了59天实验。

月球基地

到21世纪初，我们可能会有一个月球基地。国家航空航天局太阳系探索部的温德尔·W·门德尔提出，移居月球的移民最终将会自己种植食物，开采月球矿藏，包括开采推动火箭进入更遥远太空的燃料。但是在不久的将来，除了飞行员和科学家之外，国家航空航天局还需要招募地理学家、海洋学家、天文学家和医生。

“与必须不断得到补给的空间站不同，”门德尔说，“月球基地有自给自足的潜力。” 

火星和更远的地方

与此同时，我们将继续向火星和它的卫星、小行星带和木星的卫星发射探测器。探测器将是在人和人工智能的指挥下探索和完成任务的机器人，其任务同我们在阿波罗计划中担任宇航员的任务相似。这些机器的设计将需要电脑工程师和自动化专家。

人类将最终踏上火星的地面--但不仅仅是插上一面旗子就回来。火星距地球有4，900万英里。跨越这段距离需要九个月甚至更长；来回需要近两年的时间。

除了这些宏大的探险以外，现在还很难对我们在宇宙中进一步行动作出合理的猜测。谁知道科学会提供给我们什么新的工具呢？ 

如何由此及彼

当我去太空探险时，唯一的途径是学会飞行。将来我们探索宇宙空间时，我们需要的将不仅是飞行员，还有技术员，科学家--也许还有一些从事目前尚未想到或描述过的工作的人们。

约翰逊太空中心工程部副主任约瑟夫·洛夫特斯说，那些对宇宙空间事业感兴趣的人首先应该接受良好的教育，他建议要取得一个理科的学士学位，包括数学、物理、工程学和生物学。 

也许同样重要的是要有一种在太空中取得成功的愿望。我当学生时，从来不是最聪明的学生。参加海军之后，我从来不是最好的飞行员。但是我努力尝试，努力学习，努力工作，来提高自己，因为我热爱我在做的工作。探索未知世界令我激动，我喜欢这种激动。


我曾看到同行在试飞中因飞机失事而丧生。在阿波罗计划期间，三名宇航员死于发射坪的大火之中。危险将永远是到达更遥远的太空之梦的一部分。1986年1月28日，在“挑战者”号的机组人员在升空后不久的爆炸中丧生之际，我们都再一次认识到这一点而震惊不已。

开拓的尝试有时侯可能是痛苦的。但开拓精神也会带来激动人心的时刻，如1969 年7月21日的那一刻，当时奈尔·A·阿姆斯特朗登上了月球，他说道：“对于一个人来说，这只是一小步，但是对于人类来说，却是一次巨大的飞跃。”