王一宇

Yuri Gagarin， Alan Shepard， John Glenn， Neil Armstrong—the first wave of space travelers—were military-trained astronauts thought to have the “right stuff” for risky missions.

But early spaceflight wasn’t the exclusive province of men—or even humans. Fruit flies， monkeys， mice， dogs， rabbits， and rats flew into space before humans.

More than three years before Gagarin became the first human in space with his April 1961 journey around Earth， the Soviets famously—or perhaps infamously—sent up a stray dog. Laika was the first animal to orbit Earth but died during her flight. The United States launched a chimpanzee named Ham into space. Happily， he survived， clearing the way for Shepard to became the first American in space in May 1961.

Despite discrimination， women were also pioneers. Some， such as mathematician Katherine Johnson—who hand-calculated the details of the trajectory of the flight that would make Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962—stayed behind the scenes. Valentina Tereshkova， an early cosmonaut， became the first woman in orbit in 1963. It wasn’t until two decades later that Sally Ride flew on the space shuttle Challenger to become the first American woman to reach space.

A bespectacled， bearded Russian recluse fond of science fiction， Konstantin Tsiolkovsky believed humanity’s destiny lay among the stars. By the early 1900s， he had worked out the equation for humans to slip beyond Earth’s gravitational pull. He also imagined how moon-bound rockets would work： using a mix of liquid propellants and igniting multiple stages.

Independently， Hermann Oberth and Robert Goddard reached similar conclusions. By 1926， Goddard， an American， had built and launched the first liquid-fueled rocket. About that time， Oberth， who lived in Germany， determined multiple stages are crucial for long journeys.

Four decades later， the trio’s ideas roared to life in the enormous Saturn V rockets that thrust Apollo crews into space. Measuring 363 feet tall and fueled by liquid hydrogen， liquid oxygen， and kerosene， the Saturn V was the most powerful rocket ever built. Engineered by Wernher von Braun—a Nazi Germany rocket scientist who relocated much of his team to work for the U.S. after World War II—the Saturn V had three stages that fired in sequence. Rocketry is still governed by Tsiolkovsky’s equation. But no rocket has yet eclipsed the Saturn V， which propelled humans closer to the stars than ever before.

In the 1960s our moon was still very much a mystery. To learn the most from the Apollo visits， NASA selected landing sites in a variety of lunar terrains， including the dark， flat plains sculpted by vanished lava oceans and highlands formed by meteor impacts.

From 1969 to 1972， U.S. astronauts landed at six sites， each chosen for different scientific objectives. All of them were on the moon’s mottled near side， where the terrain had been studied extensively by lunar orbiters and Mission Control could remain in direct contact with the astronauts.

Space agencies have sent probes， with no people on them and thus no need to worry about human safety， to visit far-flung places in the solar system. Spacecraft have explored 60 other moons and even set down on one， Saturn’s Titan. On our own moon， robotic rovers have left tracks at four sites.

Over four years， NASA astronauts hauled 842 pounds of moon rocks back to Earth. But the most profound souvenirs weigh nothing： images of Earth. Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders snapped an iconic one on Christmas Eve in 1968， showing our blue planet suspended in darkness near the moon’s sterile， cratered1 horizon.

Astronauts didn’t just take photos and collect moon rocks， they also carried an array of objects from Earth into space with them. John Young （Gemini 3） notoriously smuggled aboard a corned beef sandwich and shared it with Gus Grissom， his crewmate. Grissom pocketed it when crumbs began to float around the cabin. Neil Armstrong （Apollo 11） carried a piece of the Wright Flyer’s wooden propeller. Charles Duke （Apollo 16） packed a family photo and left it in the Descartes highlands.

Fifty years on from the moon landing， we’re doing extraordinary things in space.

We’ve sent uncrewed probes to explore all the other planets in our solar system， yielding astonishing photographs and troves of data. The twin Voyager spacecraft2 have literally sped across the solar system and into interstellar space， the first human-made objects ever to do so. They’re more than 11 billion miles away and still communicating with us.

Because the Voyagers could travel forever into the void and both the sun and the Earth have an expiration date （don’t worry， it’s a ways off）， it’s conceivable that one day these sedan-size eternal sojourners3 will be the only evidence that we ever existed. Yet it’s also conceivable that a successor species to us will have long gone interstellar by then， hopefully granting us some recognition for their feat.

The action in space is hardly confined to American companies or Russia’s program. In January， China boasted that it “opened a new chapter” in lunar exploration by soft-landing an uncrewed spaceship on the far side of the moon， the first time a vehicle had ever touched down there. That spacecraft deployed a rover and carried a “mini-biosphere，” designed to test whether fruit flies and a variety of plants and seeds can work together to create a self-contained food chain in lunar conditions.

The first private lander to reach the moon crashed in April， but the Israeli nonprofit behind it quickly announced plans to try again.

And in Japan， JAXA4， the official space agency， announced in March that it was working with Toyota to develop a crewed moon rover that would enable astronauts to travel 6，000 miles on the lunar surface.

尤里·加加林、艾倫·謝潑德、約翰·格倫、尼爾·阿姆斯特朗，他們是首批經(jīng)過軍事訓(xùn)練的、有“實力”承擔(dān)高風(fēng)險任務(wù)的宇航員。

然而，早期的宇宙航行并非由男性獨(dú)占，甚至并非由人類獨(dú)占，果蠅、猴、鼠、狗、兔均在人類之前進(jìn)入外太空。

1961年4月，加加林成為第一個進(jìn)入太空并繞地球一周的人。而在此三年多之前發(fā)生了一件著名或者說屢遭詬病的事——蘇聯(lián)將流浪狗萊卡送進(jìn)了太空，她是第一個環(huán)繞地球飛行的動物，但在飛行途中死亡。美國則把黑猩猩漢姆送上太空，值得高興的是，他在任務(wù)中活了下來，這為謝潑德于1961年5月成為第一個進(jìn)入太空的美國人開辟了道路。

盡管當(dāng)時存在性別歧視，仍有女性成為先行者。比如數(shù)學(xué)家凱瑟琳·約翰遜身在幕后，她手算出飛行軌道的細(xì)節(jié)，這次飛行使格倫在1962年成為第一個環(huán)繞地球飛行的美國人;早期宇航員瓦蓮京娜·捷列什科娃于1963年成為第一位進(jìn)入太空軌道的女性;在20年后，薩莉·賴德搭乘挑戰(zhàn)者號航天飛機(jī)，成為首位進(jìn)入太空的美國女性。

康斯坦丁·齊奧爾科夫斯基是一位戴眼鏡、蓄胡須、愛讀科幻小說、離群索居的俄羅斯人，他相信人類的命運(yùn)在地外星系。至20世紀(jì)初，他已計算出使人類擺脫地球引力的公式，并構(gòu)想了登月火箭如何運(yùn)行：采用液體推進(jìn)劑和多級點火。

針對這一設(shè)想，赫爾曼·奧伯特和羅伯特·戈達(dá)德各自得出了相似的結(jié)論。1926年，美國人戈達(dá)德建造并發(fā)射了世界上第一枚液體火箭。大約同時，奧伯特確定多級火箭對長途太空飛行的重要性。

40年后，這三位科學(xué)家的構(gòu)想在巨大的土星5號運(yùn)載火箭上得到實現(xiàn)，最終推動阿波羅計劃的成員進(jìn)入太空。土星5號高達(dá)363英尺，使用液氫、液氧和煤油燃料，是迄今動力最大的火箭。土星5號由沃納·馮·布勞恩主持設(shè)計。布勞恩是納粹德國火箭科學(xué)家;二戰(zhàn)后，他帶領(lǐng)他的團(tuán)隊大部分成員遷居美國。土星5號按三級依次發(fā)射。如今的火箭技術(shù)仍遵循齊奧爾科夫斯基提出的公式，但時至今日，土星5號依然是讓人類最接近星辰的火箭，還沒有任何一枚火箭將其超越。

在20世紀(jì)60年代，月球仍是一個很大的謎。為了從阿波羅計劃的探索中獲取盡可能多的信息，美國國家航空航天局在眾多月球地形中挑選登陸地點，包括由消失的巖漿海洋形成的暗色熔巖平原和由流星撞擊形成的高地。

自1969年至1972年，美國宇航員在月球六個地點登陸，每一處選擇服務(wù)于不同的科學(xué)目的，但均位于月球斑駁的近地端，繞月飛行器已對這里的地形進(jìn)行過廣泛研究，地面指揮中心也能與這里的宇航員保持直接聯(lián)系。

航天機(jī)構(gòu)發(fā)射探測器至太陽系中離地遙遠(yuǎn)的地方，由于所發(fā)射的均是無人探測器，人身安全問題不在考慮之列。航天器又探索了60個衛(wèi)星，甚至登陸了其中一顆衛(wèi)星——土星的泰坦衛(wèi)星。在我們自己的衛(wèi)星——月球上，探測機(jī)器人已在四個地點留下足跡。

四年間，美國宇航員將842磅重的月球巖石帶回地球，但最厚重的紀(jì)念品其實是不占重量的地球照片。阿波羅8號的宇航員威廉·安德斯于1968年平安夜拍攝了一張標(biāo)志性的照片，照片上我們的藍(lán)色星球懸掛在貧瘠、坑洼的 月球地平線上方的黑暗中。

宇航員不僅僅拍攝地球照片和收集月球巖石，他們還從地球攜帶一系列物品進(jìn)入太空。比如雙子星座3號上發(fā)生的一件有名的丑事：宇航員約翰·揚(yáng)私帶了一份咸牛肉三明治，并與同行宇航員古斯·格里索姆分享，隨后三明治碎屑在機(jī)艙內(nèi)飄散，格里索姆便將其收進(jìn)了口袋。阿波羅11號的尼爾·阿姆斯特朗則攜帶了萊特飛行器的木制助推器;阿波羅16號的查爾斯·杜克帶了一張全家福照片并將其留在了笛卡爾高地。

在登月50周年之際，人類依然在對太空進(jìn)行卓越的探索。

我們發(fā)射無人探測器探索太陽系中的其他行星，獲取驚人的圖像和寶貴的數(shù)據(jù)。兩架“旅行者號”探測器已經(jīng)真正沖出太陽系進(jìn)入星際空間，成為最先實現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)的人造航天器，他們與地球相隔超過110億英里，但仍與我們保持聯(lián)絡(luò)。

由于“旅行者號”可以在浩瀚宇宙中永久航行，而太陽和地球都有“有效期”（別擔(dān)心，還早著呢），可能有一天這些轎車大小的探測器會成為我們?nèi)祟惔嬖诘奈ㄒ蛔C據(jù)。但是也可能到那一天，接替人類的物種已經(jīng)久居于星際空間，希望他們會因這些探測器的貢獻(xiàn)而給予我們一些認(rèn)可。

宇宙探索并不局限于美國企業(yè)或俄羅斯項目。今年1月，中國宣稱將開啟月球探索“新篇章”，實現(xiàn)無人宇宙飛船在月球背面軟著陸，這是首次有探測器在該處著陸。該探測器裝載了月球車和一個“微型生態(tài)圈”，測試果蠅和多種植物及種子是否可以在月球環(huán)境中創(chuàng)造自給自足的食物鏈。

今年4月，首個私人資助月球著陸器墜毀，但其設(shè)計團(tuán)隊——以色列非營利組織很快宣布計劃重啟。

今年3月，日本官方航天機(jī)構(gòu)——日本宇宙航空研究開發(fā)機(jī)構(gòu)宣布將與豐田合作研發(fā)載人月球車，使宇航員在月球表面行進(jìn)6000英里。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎選手）