馬斯克、布蘭森和貝佐斯：為什麼外國億萬富翁都熱衷於去太空？

Musk, Branson and Bezos: Why are three billionaires determined to go to space

馬斯克、布蘭森和貝佐斯：為什麼這三位億萬富翁決心去太空？

來源：英國《獨立報》 翻譯：世界播

Billionaire Jeff Bezos says he was inspired to enter the private space race after watching the Apollo 11 mission 50 years ago and seeing 「Neil and Buzz land on the moon」.

億萬富翁傑夫?貝佐斯表示，50年前他觀看了阿波羅11號任務的執行過程，並在看到「尼爾和巴茲登上月球」後，深受啟發，因此他才有了如今進入私人太空競賽的想法。

「I got infected by that,」 he told CBS News, referring to the 20 July 1969 landing, involving Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. 「I』ve been dreaming and getting ready for this for a long time.」

他告訴CBS新聞：「我被它深深影響了」，他指的是1969年7月20日尼爾?阿姆斯特朗和巴茲?奧爾德林參與的登月任務。「我一直在做夢，並為此做了很長時間的準備。」

He added: 「We humans have to go to space if we are going to continue to have a thriving civilisation. We』re in the process of destroying our planet. We』ve sent robotic probes to every planet in the solar system. We have to preserve this planet. We can do that using the resources of space.」

他補充道：「如果我們想要繼續擁有一個繁榮的文明，我們人類就必須去往太空。我們如今正在毀滅我們的星球。我們已經向太陽系中的每顆行星都發射了機器探測器。我們必須保護這個星球。我們可以利用太空資源做到這一點。」

Half-a-century after those US astronauts beat the Soviet Union in a Cold War showdown to be the first to set foot on the moon, the space industry landscape looks very different. China, India and Europe are challenging the US』s once dominant position, and within the US, amid several dozen private entities, three major private players now dominate the space tourism and exploration sector – Bezos』s Blue Origin, Richard Branson』s Virgin Galactic and Elon Musk』s SpaceX.

在那些美國宇航員在冷戰中先於蘇聯、成為第一個登上月球的人的半個世紀之後，航天工業的前景發生了翻天覆地的變化。中國、印度和歐洲目前正在挑戰美國曾經的主導地位。在美國國內幾十家私營企業中，有三家主要的私營企業目前主導著太空旅遊和探索領域，即貝佐斯的「藍色起源」、理查德?布蘭森的維珍銀河和埃隆?馬斯克的SpaceX。

「The only reason we can do the things that we can do today is because we are, in fact, standing on the shoulders of giants,」 Bezos said this week, sitting alongside Caroline Kennedy, daughter of assassinated president John F Kennedy.

貝佐斯本周與遇刺總統約翰?F?肯尼迪的女兒卡羅琳?肯尼迪一起參加活動時表示：「如今我們之所以能實現這一切，唯一的原因其實就是我們站在了巨人的肩膀上。」

One would be forgiven for assuming a private space project was the ultimate ego trip for a middle-aged billionaire looking for kicks. But the projects of Branson, 68, Bezos, 55, and 48-year-old Musk began some years ago.

如果有人認為私人太空項目是一位中年億萬富翁尋求刺激的終極自我之旅，那是情有可原的。但是，68歲的布蘭森、55歲的貝佐斯和48歲的馬斯克的項目自幾年前就已經開始了。

Bezos, the co-founder of Amazon and the world』s richest man, established Blue Origin in 2000, Musk set up SpaceX in 2002 and Branson established Virgin Galactic in 2004.

亞馬遜聯合創始人、全球首富貝佐斯於2000年創辦了「藍色起源」，馬斯克於2002年創辦了SpaceX，布蘭森於2004年創辦了維珍銀河。

Branson』s inspiration, too, was watching the Apollo missions. 「The moon landing is what inspired me to wish to go to space,」 he said earlier this year.

布蘭森的靈感也來自觀看阿波羅任務。今年早些時候，他表示：「登月激發了我想去太空的願望。」

「I saw it on a black-and-white television set when I was very young, and this year is the 50th anniversary so it』s a very great year to celebrate.」

「我很小的時候就在黑白電視機上看到了它，今年是50周年紀念，所以這是值得慶祝的偉大一年。」

Iain Boyd, a space exploration expert and professor of engineering at the University of Michigan, says while the three billionaires are each very different, they were likely inspired by a similar frustration.

密歇根大學工程學教授、太空探索專家伊恩?博伊德表示，儘管這三位億萬富翁各不相同，但他們很可能受到了類似挫敗的啟發。

He says in the years and decades after the Apollo missions, with the limited success of the space shuttle programme and fewer funds being awarded to Nasa, there was a sense of an opportunity being wasted.

他指出，在阿波羅任務之後的幾年和幾十年里，美國太空梭取得成功的項目有限，而且美航局獲得的資金也越來越少，人們有一種機會被浪費的感覺。

「There was a generation that saw people land on the moon,」 he tells The Independent. 「But then they felt this sense of frustration.」

他在接受《獨立報》採訪時表示：「有一代人見證了人類登上月球。但後來他們感到了這種挫敗感。」

As a result, he says, it was perhaps natural that private entrepreneurs such as Bezos, Musk and Branson would seek to fill the gap.

因此，他指出，貝佐斯、馬斯克和布蘭森等私人企業家尋求填補這一空白，或許也在情理之中。

Bezos has also talked of sending humans to other planets. Last year, addressing an event to mark the 25th anniversary of the launch of Wired magazine, he said be hoped to see the solar system populated 「by one trillion people」.

貝佐斯還談到要將人類送往其他星球。去年，在《連線》雜誌創刊25周年紀念活動上，他說希望看到太陽系能「擁有1萬億人口」。

「People are starting to bump up against the absolute true fact that earth is finite,」 he said.

他表示：「人們開始意識到地球是有限的這一絕對事實。」

There are also questions as to what impact the rush to reach other planets will have on our own. Some have said that by suggesting humanity can reach places such as Mars, there will be less incentive to address the pressing crisis posed by climate change.

還有一個問題是，急於到達其他行星會對我們自己產生什麼影響。一些人表示，通過暗示並建議人類可以到達火星等地，解決氣候變化帶來的緊迫危機的動力將會減弱。

世界播

雙語資訊，讀懂世界

長按識別左邊二維碼

加入世界播用戶交流群

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！