Hey Justin, you ask a really neat question about Elon Musk.

嘿 贾斯汀 你问了一个关于伊隆·马斯克非常好的问题

There have been wonderful things that he’s been talking about colonizing Mars,

他一直在说些很棒的事情 比如殖民火星

obviously putting a Tesla in space, which is playing David Bowie, which I love.

还有很明显的把特斯拉送入太空 还放着大卫·鲍伊的歌 我很喜欢

He’s a really wonderful person and an inspiration to a lot of us.

他是个很优秀的人 能让所有人都受到启发

And one of the misconceptions that a lot of people have is that

很多人都有的一种错误观念就是

federal space programs like NASA and commercial space programs like SpaceX run by Elon Musk are in some type of a competition.

像NASA这样的联邦太空项目和伊隆·马斯克经营的SpaceX这样的商业太空项目 互相是一种竞争关系

I am a fan of all things space and one of the things that has been so fun for me in the last few years

我是个太空迷 过去几年我觉得非常有趣的一个现象就是

is the collaboration between those two different realms of space travel.

这两个不同领域在太空旅行方面的合作

For example, NASA routinely buys SpaceX rockets to put our payloads and our satellites up into space.

比如 NASA会照例购买SpaceX的火箭 把有效负荷和人造卫星送入太空

And that means that as a NASA scientist I’ve gotten to go to several launches and landings of these Falcon rockets.

这意味着作为NASA旗下的科学家 我有机会见识到Falcon火箭的发射和降落

And that’s amazing.

这种体验非常棒

It used to be that you would go to a launch and a big rocket would go off and everybody would cheer

以前是这样 当你吃饭的时候 听说国家发射了一个大火箭 所有人都欢呼雀跃

and then you would get in your cars and you’d drive home and it was all done,

吃完饭后你开着车回家 这一切就结束了

the amazing thing now is seven minutes later everybody just walks to the other side of the building and watches the first stage of that rocket land.

现在令人惊讶的是 火箭发射七分钟后 所有人都会走到大楼的另一侧 看着它降落的第一阶段

And that is something that is mind blowing.

那种画面非常宏伟壮观

Your eyes basically it does not compute you cannot believe what you are seeing

你的眼睛 几乎惊呆了 不敢相信自己看到的东西

because this giant thing comes down from space faster than you can imagine.

因为这个庞大的物体从太空中下落的速度快得超乎你想象

And this is something that’s a several story high building it’s a big thing

火箭是个有几层楼高的东西 很庞大

it comes careening down and just before it gets to the ground it stops, settles down and then gently lands.

它倾斜着向下降落 在到达地面前减速 慢慢下落 然后轻轻地着陆

And one of the things that I love is that you don’t even hear the sonic boom until after you see it land.

我很喜欢的一点是 你在看到它着陆前都听不到音爆声

You watch this thing come careening down then stop, land gently

你看着这个大家伙倾斜下落然后减速 轻轻着陆

and then you hear boom, boom because it broke the speed of sound coming in.

然后才听到隆隆声 因为它会突破音速

And that is something that I am just really amazed I lived to be able to see.

有生之年能看到这一幕真的是太棒了

I love SpaceX and I love NASA’s collaboration.

我喜欢SpaceX 也喜欢NASA的合作

I think what a lot of people don’t realize is that NASA is one of SpaceX’s major customers.

很多人没有意识到的是 NASA是SpaceX的大客户

We actually buy the rockets and we’d even paid for some of the development of the rockets as well.

我们（NASA）会购买火箭 甚至还会为火箭的某些发展出资

So it was never a question of one or the other, it was the idea is that we’re collaborating

所以这从来都不是一个非此即彼的问题 而是我们共同协作

the more companies going into space,

越多的公司进入太空

hey the better for us the lower the cost of the rockets and the more efficient an industry we have

对我们就越有利 火箭的成本也会越低 这个行业也会变得越高效

and hopefully the more people that think space travel and space exploration are good things.

也有可能让越多的人觉得太空旅行和太空探索是好事

Then there are the questions about whether Elon is going to build a giant rocket that can take hundreds of people to Mars,

还有一个疑问是 伊隆是否会打造一个能将数百人带至火星的巨型火箭

and this is something that as a scientist I am naturally skeptical person that’s how I was trained,

关于这个 作为一名科学家 我本性多疑 我就是专门受训成为这样的人

right now what I see is a really cool idea it reminds me a lot of my favorite science fiction stories, but it’s basically just that, an idea.

目前来看 我觉得这是个很酷的主意 它让我想起了很多我喜欢的科幻故事 但说到底 它也只是个想法而已

I think there’s a long way to go before we actually see any significant colonization, any significant number of people going to Mars.

我觉得在我们真正实现殖民 实现让很多人到达火星之前 还有很远的一段路要走

First we need to get one single person to Mars or a small team of people.

首先 我们需要让一个人或一小群人到达火星

And that is something that has proven very, very difficult.

目前已经证实要做到这一点难如登天

It’s not so much a question that we can’t build rockets to take us there because even today we have rockets that might have the capability of doing that,

问题的关键并不是说我们造不出能把人带到火星的火箭 即便是现在 我们已经有了能实现这一点的火箭

the problem is how you would keep a crew of people alive for the journey to Mars and then also alive on the surface and get them back.

问题在于你如何让一群人活着到达火星 在火星表面上停留 然后再活着回到地球

That would be very expensive and because the astronauts would not be protected from the radiation of space

这个成本太过昂贵 而且宇航员也无法免受太空辐射

right now we really don’t know how to keep them alive.

现在 我们真的不知道怎么让他们活着

It’s not impossible, there’s a lot of work that can be done,

这也不是绝不可能的事 我们能实现很多东西

but when I see people thinking that SpaceX is almost ready to send people to Mars

但是每当我看到人们觉得SpaceX差不多已经准备好把人们带至火星的时候

that’s where I have a bit of a wait and see attitude.

我是报以观望态度的

I would love to see people on Mars. I would love to see SpaceX take people to Mars.

我很希望看到人们去火星 巴不得SpaceX能把人们带至火星

I think the Tesla up there heading out toward the asteroid belt is so cool.

我觉得太空中那辆朝着小行星带前进的特斯拉真是酷极了

But, there’s a long way to go and it’s not easy.

但是 我们依然任重而道远

I think we’re not going to get there from a single company or a single nation.

我觉得单个公司或单个国家是做不到这一点的

I think that for something as large as a mission to Mars we need to collaborate on a global scale,

像去火星这样的大型任务 我们需要全球范围内的合作

work with the Europeans, work with other emerging space markets, maybe work with several different companies not just one.

需要跟欧洲人合作 跟其他新兴太空市场合作 或许同时跟多家公司而不是一家合作

It’s not a single entity, it’s a planet going out and exploring something as big as colonizing Mars.

这不是某个单一的实体 而是一颗星球去探索像殖民火星这样的大事件

I mean it’s an amazing civilization scale activity.

这是一项超棒的 整个人类文明范围内的活动

I am somewhat skeptical that in my lifetime I will see people walking on Mars.

我还有几分怀疑这辈子可能都看不到人们在火星上行走了

I hope we do. I’m not holding my breath.

但愿能见到那一幕 我期望不高