美国国家公共电台 NPR NASA's Pushing For A Moon Landing in 2024, But That Will Be

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

NASA is shooting for the moon, and they're doing it on deadline. Here's Vice¹ President Mike Pence making the announcement last year.

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VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: It is the stated policy of this administration and the United States of America to return American astronauts to the moon within the next five years.

(APPLAUSE)

MARTIN: But is getting back to the moon by 2024 even possible? NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce reports.

NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE, BYLINE²: No one has been to the moon since 1972. But it's not like NASA hasn't wanted to go back, they've even been told to do it. Sixteen years ago, then-President George W. Bush laid out a bunch of goals for NASA, like completing the International Space Station and retiring the space shuttle.

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GEORGE W BUSH: Our third goal is to return to the moon by 2020 as the launching point for missions beyond.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: In case you haven't noticed, it's now 2020. A lot has happened in the intervening years. President Obama had other priorities in space. The current administration wants people on the moon in 2024. How realistic is that? In September, a member of Congress put that question to Ken³ Bowersox, who was acting⁴ head of human spaceflight at NASA.

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BILL POSEY: How confident are you that we'll have boots on the moon by 2024?

KEN BOWERSOX: How confident? Well, I wouldn't bet my oldest child's upcoming birthday present or anything like that.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Well, he was just the acting head of human exploration. Soon after that meeting, NASA hired a new guy, Doug Loverro. And Loverro is more bullish.

DOUG LOVERRO: I see no reason why we can't make it. I am highly confident we can make it.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: When we met at NASA headquarters, he was wearing a little brass-colored lapel pin with a number on it - 1,799. Every day, he changes the pin so that it counts down the days to the end of 2024.

LOVERRO: To me, it means recognize the value of every day.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: He's got a review underway to assess NASA's whole moon program. That review is due in about a week. It'll look at the big rocket NASA's been building, which is almost finished, although it's super expensive and years behind schedule.

NASA's also got a new astronaut-carrying capsule. It's undergoing testing. Loverro says, for a moon mission, one critical piece of hardware is missing, a lander - a spacecraft that can take people from lunar orbit down to the surface and back up.

LOVERRO: So that's the piece that right now is the focus of, how do we make sure we create a lander that we can develop and get to the moon in the next five years? That's - well, in this case, four years...

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Four years.

LOVERRO: ...Four years and 11 months.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: You got four years.

LOVERRO: And 11 months.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: NASA says contracts to build a lunar lander could be awarded in late February or March. So does the aerospace⁵ community really think this fast-paced moonshot is doable?

LORI GARVER: Oh, I don't think we will have a man or woman on the moon in 2024, and I don't know anyone who does.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Lori Garver is a former deputy NASA administrator⁶.

GARVER: The space community would love to get contracts to go back to the moon. And it doesn't really bother anyone that they would get those contracts saying they could do it in 2024 and not make the deadline. We haven't made deadlines with these major space programs since Apollo.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Rockets blow up, tests fail. The Apollo moonshot of the 1960s took about eight years, but it was basically all NASA was doing. Political leaders were united behind it. The race with the Soviet⁷ Union drove the timing⁸, the budget and the willingness to take risks.

GARVER: And I don't believe that the risk that would be required to get someone back to the moon in five years is anything this nation is ready to do.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: She says most people in the space community won't say that publicly.

GARVER: People don't want to acknowledge it because most people are bought into the system and are making money off the system. And this administration holds a grudge⁹, so it isn't a very popular thing to say that the emperor has no clothes.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: I asked one retired¹⁰ NASA astronaut, Leroy Chiao, what he thought about a 2024 moon landing.

LEROY CHIAO: You know, my realistic assessment¹¹ is that it's not likely.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Chiao served as commander of the International Space Station. He says NASA has to deal with a lot of political considerations.

CHIAO: Why was 2024 chosen? Well, everybody can see that, you know, with the election cycles and all that.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: A moon landing in 2024 would mean a triumph during the last year of President Trump¹²'s second term if he gets reelected in November. Chiao feels bad for folks at NASA headquarters. He says they really want a moon landing and are doing everything they can.

CHIAO: I don't think they're just blowing smoke, necessarily. They've set things up so that there's a somewhat believable story that if the money shows up, they can - you know, they can do it if everything goes perfectly¹³. But we know from history that that doesn't usually happen.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: Congress controls the money, and not everyone there feels the same sense of urgency as the Trump administration. Eddie Bernice Johnson is a Democrat¹⁴ from Texas who chairs the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

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EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON: I am more interested in maximizing the odds¹⁵ of success for this bold undertaking¹⁶ and making it as safe as any human journey into the deep space can be than I am in having NASA meet arbitrary deadlines.

GREENFIELDBOYCE: A NASA authorization¹⁷ bill just introduced into the House of Representatives would extend the moon landing deadline to 2028. And if someone besides President Trump wins in November, the new president will likely have his or her own feelings about a return to the moon.

Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.

1 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。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

6 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

7 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。

8 timing   

n.时间安排，时间选择

参考例句：

• The timing of the meeting is not convenient.会议的时间安排不合适。
• The timing of our statement is very opportune.我们发表声明选择的时机很恰当。

9 grudge   

n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做

参考例句：

• I grudge paying so much for such inferior goods.我不愿花这么多钱买次品。
• I do not grudge him his success.我不嫉妒他的成功。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 assessment   

n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额

参考例句：

• This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
• What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？

12 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。

13 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

14 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

15 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

16 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

17 authorization   

n.授权，委任状

参考例句：

• Anglers are required to obtain prior authorization from the park keeper.垂钓者必须事先得到公园管理者的许可。
• You cannot take a day off without authorization.未经批准你不得休假。