和曾经的美苏强权太空竞赛相比，如今中国的策略并无不同 [英国媒体]

Nasa rejected it as too difficult and costly an undertaking. Last week, China declared “mission accomplished” after landing a spacecraft, Chang’e-4, on the far side of the moon.

美国国家航空航天局（NASA）曾拒绝这项任务，因为它太困难，成本也太高。而上周（注：1月3号），随着嫦娥四号着陆器在月球背面成功着陆，中国宣布“任务完成”。

It was a remarkable endeavour. As the far side of the moon never faces the Earth, mission control cannot communicate directly with the spacecraft, but only via an orbiting satellite. The terrain is more broken and cratered than the near side, so landing a craft is that much more difficult. Even Nasa was impressed: “a first for humanity and an impressive accomplishment!”, the administrator tweeted.

这是一项非凡的尝试。由于月球背面永远不会面向地球，地面指挥中心不能直接与航天器通信，只能借助于在轨卫星。而月背地形也远比她正对地球的一面坑洼破碎，所以航天器在此着陆难度也更大。就连NASA也由衷赞叹，它的局长在推特上发文说：“这是人类的第一次，一个令人印象深刻的成就！”



Where Russians exulted, Americans despaired. The New York Times was terrified that “neutral nations may come to believe the wave of the future is Russian”. “Continued Soviet superiority in space might undermine US prestige,” reported the National Security Council. As news filtered through of Gagarin’s flight, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice-president Lyndon B Johnson. “Is there any… space programme which promises dramatic results in which we could win?” it plaintively asked.

那时的俄罗斯人欢呼雀跃，美国人则陷入绝望。《纽约时报》发出“中立国家可能会相信，未来属于俄罗斯”的哀嚎；美国国家安全委员会的报告称：“苏联在太空持续取得领先，很可能会削弱美国的声望。”随着加加林在太空中的消息不断传来，肯尼迪给当时的副总统林登·B·约翰逊发了一份备忘录，里面无助地问道：“我们有没有……什么太空计划，能确保我们戏剧性地扭转局面？”

The answer, the two men decided, was a manned moon landing. The following month, Kennedy demanded of Congress that it provided funds to enable “this nation [to] commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon”. Eight years later, on 21 July 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to tread on the moon. Their journey may have been fuelled in part by cold war desperation, but it was also an extraordinary triumph of knowledge and will, an act of the technological sublime.

最后，美国总统和他的副手敲定——答案就是，载人登月。接下来的一个月，肯尼迪要求国会提供资金，确保“这个国家全力以赴，实现十年内登陆月球的目标”。八年后的1969年7月21日，尼尔·阿姆斯特朗和巴兹·奥尔德林成为了首批登上月球的人类。他们的月球之旅或许部分源于冷战时期的孤注一掷，但同时，它也是知识和意志的非凡胜利，是一次人类技术的壮举。



While the US still leads the way in the knowledge economy, China comes second in terms of research and development spending and, mindful of the pollution affecting its cities, has been investing impressively large sums into green technologies.

尽管美国在知识经济领域仍处于领先地位，但在研发支出方面，中国已位居第二；而出于污染对城市生活造成的影响的忧虑，中国对绿色（新能源）技术的投资更是大得惊人。

Once America was satisfied that the Soviet Union had been put in its place, space exploration became politically less important. Manned moon missions ended in 1972. Nasa was normalised into a regular government technology programme.As America downgraded its space ambitions, Chinese aspirations took flight. In 1992, the Chinese government approved the Shenzhou manned spaceflight programme. Eleven years later, Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut in space.

当美国对苏联放下心来时，空间探索也就不那么重要了。载人登月任务于1972年结束。NASA被正常化为一个政府常规技术部门。然而正当美国的太空野心逐渐熄灭之时，中国的计划起步了。1992年，中国政府批准了神舟载人航天计划。十一年后，杨利伟成为中国第一位太空人。

America barred China from participating in the International Space Station (ISS). In 2011, China launched the first of two prototypes of its own space station. It plans to launch the core module of a permanent space station, Tianhe, by 2020. The ISS is due to be retired by 2028; China may then have the only functioning orbiting station. By the end of that decade, Beijing aims to be the dominant force in space exploration. There will be many more “propaganda coups”.

美国一直禁止中国参与国际空间站项目。但2011年，中国发射了自己的两个空间站原型舱中的第一个（即天宫一号目标飞行器）。下一步计划是在2020年，发射她的永久空间站核心舱——天河号。目前的国际空间站将于2028年退役；届时，中国可能拥有人类唯一在轨运行的空间站。北京的目标是，到下个十年结束时成为太空探索的主导力量。我们，还将迎来更多这样的“宣传策略”。



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usini
Good for the Chinese. Space exploration is something for all of us.

中国人干得好。太空探索是可以造福我们所有人的事。



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checkreakity
In 2014, the European Space Agency landed a probe not on a, more or less, stationary object but on a comet travelling at around 135,000 km/hr.
In addition, the surface the probe landed on was far more uneven than the far side of the moon.
Time for a bit of perspective. Impossible in a newspaper?

2014年，欧洲航天局（ESA）将探测器降落在一颗彗星上，彗星可不是（像月球那样？）静止不动的，它以13.5万公里/小时的速度运行。
此外，探测器着陆的彗星表面也比月球背面更不平整。难道就不值得报纸报道一下？人们也该有点自己的看法了。

DoctorWibble @checkreakity
Absolute speed in space has no bearing on landing difficulty or indeed on anything at all. Journalists who bang on about it either don't understand or don't care that they are misleading their readers. I typed this comment whilst hurtling round the sun at 106,700 kph and simultaneously hurtling round the galactic centre at about 822,000 kph. As did you.
The moon is more or less doing the same thing. It is not stationary. There is no such thing as stationary. Relative speed is what matters and overcoming big differences for space probes is a relatively simple matter of using planning, timing, trajectory and patience to minimise the fuel they need to lift into space (the expensive bit of most missions).

太空中的绝对速度和着陆困难与否并无关联，甚至和任何事都没关系。那些突然拿这个出来对比的记者，要么是不懂，要么就是有意误导读者。此时此刻，我就一边发表着评论，一边在以106700公里/小时的速度绕太阳疾驰，同时以822000公里/小时的速度围绕银河系的银心运动。你也一样。
月球也不例外，它不是静止的，没有静止不动的东西。重要的是物体间的相对运动速度，而克服空间探测器与目标之间的巨大速度差其实也并不太难，只要充分计划、算准时间、轨道，然后耐心地把发射升空所需的燃料减至最少（这在大多数太空任务中都是极其昂贵的成本）。



Erongi
As someone who lived in China for a couple of decades a lot of the comments from little old Britain , with a great past but an uncertain present and future, seem ill advised. Whilst Britain has been debating whether to build one little "hi-speed" line and a third runway, China has built a vast hi-speed rail network,1000s of miles of track and, some of the largest airports in the world to connect some of the largest cities in the world which whilst being polluted, but little more so than London, are impressive in a scale as unknown in Europe. The Russkies were and are good at some technology but otherwise all they ever were, was oil.There is no comparison between Russia or the current day UK and the might that China has become.

作为一个在中国生活过近二十年的人，看到许多来自又老又小的不列颠的评论——这里虽然曾经伟大，但现在和未来却充满了不确定——似乎大都有欠考虑。当英国还在继续争论要不要修一条小“高铁”线、给机场加第三条跑道时，中国已经建起了一个庞大的高铁网，拥有数千英里的铁轨，多座世界最大型的机场联接起众多世界最大的城市。这些城市虽然受到污染，也并不比伦敦严重多少，却拥有着在欧洲难以想象的规模。俄国人不论过去或现在，除了在某些技术领域确有专长外，他们就只剩石油了。不论是俄罗斯还是今天的英国，都和中国已经累积起的国力，没有任何可比性。

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MattBucks
The difference this time is that both the USA and Russia explored space initially to as a rivalry, each wanted to prove they were better than the other. Other benefits (both military and civilian) came from that and both space programs are now less by a desire to explore and gain knowledge of the wider universe. China's drive appears to be driven by the desire to find something which can be exploited.

美国和俄罗斯一开始是作为竞争对手展开空间探索，两个都想证明自己比对方强。在这种愿望的驱使下，空间探索催生了很多科技进步（既有军用也有民用）。而如今，这俩的空间项目都已对探索未知、获取更广阔的宇宙知识意兴阑珊。中国这次则不同，他们的项目似乎是由寻找可开发利用资源的愿望驱动的。

MightyBuccaneer @MattBucks
There really is no difference at all if you compare like with like.
It's just like with climate change: Western countries admonish others for wanting to do what they've done in the past to their benefit, but now no longer do, or do less

如果你硬要拿不同国家（从空间探索中）“想要得到什么”来对比，你会发现其实并无区别。
这很类似气候变化问题：西方国家告诫别的国家，不要做他们曾经做过的那些事情——但正是这些事让西方自己得到发展，只是现在他们不做或做得少了。



praha7 @nellieknox
Yes, I too hope that they return the generosity of the US's in refusal to allow China to participate in the ISS in a suitable manner.

是的，我也很希望他们能以适当的方式，回报美国长期以来拒绝他们参与国际空间站项目（ISS）的这份情谊。

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scubadoc
What about space science, rather than space “conquest”?

与其不停讨论太空“竞赛”，为什么不多谈谈空间科学？



haemodroid
It's quite an achievement. Hopefully there will be more cooperation between nations in future space exploration, and less militarised competition.
I know, I'm a dreamer...

这的确是一个相当大的成就。希望未来世界各国能少搞点军备竞赛，而在空间探索中展开更多合作。
我知道，我是一个爱做梦的人……
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