近50年前，搭乘著阿波羅17號(hào)登月艙，兩位宇航員在月球逡巡三天，并帶著地質(zhì)樣品返回了地球。這是人類最后一次踏上月球的土地。

如今，全世界最富有的男人、亞馬遜（Amazon）的首席執(zhí)行官杰夫·貝佐斯和他創(chuàng)立的另一家公司Blue Origin，希望為人類對(duì)這個(gè)地球小衛(wèi)星的探索歷程續(xù)寫(xiě)新的篇章。上周四下午，貝佐斯在華盛頓特區(qū)舉辦的新聞發(fā)布會(huì)上談到了重返月球的議題，并展示了他這家私人航空公司的登月飛行器。

貝佐斯表示：“是時(shí)候重返月球了，這次我們要留在那里。”

在發(fā)布會(huì)的展臺(tái)上，貝佐斯拉下了身后的幕布，展現(xiàn)出Blue Origin的Blue Moon飛行器。它里面配備了一個(gè)巨大的球形燃料箱，底部有4塊著陸墊。飛行器由液態(tài)氫供能，其部分原因在于它可以從月球兩極的冰水中補(bǔ)給燃料。在月球的夜間，能量來(lái)源則是氫燃料電池。

貝佐斯表示：“這款裝置令人難以置信，它將前往月球。”

貝佐斯還展示了公司新研制的BE-7發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)。這款高性能液態(tài)氫氧發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)將為飛行器持續(xù)6分鐘的降落過(guò)程提供能源。在著陸后，Blue Moon將會(huì)放出一臺(tái)小型探索裝置。貝佐斯還展示了一張可以搭載宇航員的飛行器照片，并表示希望登月計(jì)劃可以在2024年之前實(shí)現(xiàn)。

Blue Origin著手研發(fā)Blue Moon的時(shí)間最晚不超過(guò)2017年。去年10月，公司與美國(guó)國(guó)家航空航天局（NASA）簽署協(xié)議，開(kāi)發(fā)月球表面的大中型商用飛行器系統(tǒng)。為了讓NASA同意共享潛在的登月地點(diǎn)相關(guān)的技術(shù)分析和信息，Blue Origin支付了5萬(wàn)美元。

在3月的演講中，美國(guó)副總統(tǒng)邁克·彭斯呼吁在2024年之前重返月球，并表示特朗普當(dāng)局已經(jīng)指示NASA“通過(guò)任何必要手段實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)”。

貝佐斯與美國(guó)總統(tǒng)唐納德·特朗普在有關(guān)亞馬遜的許多問(wèn)題上意見(jiàn)相左。不過(guò)對(duì)于特朗普當(dāng)局重返月球的時(shí)間表，他表示：“我喜歡這個(gè)計(jì)劃。這是正確的做法?！?/p>

月球一直是貝佐斯太空航行夢(mèng)想的核心目標(biāo)，也是他以前的導(dǎo)師、已故普林斯頓大學(xué)（Princeton）的物理學(xué)家杰拉德·奧尼爾構(gòu)想中的一環(huán)。奧尼爾是一位熱愛(ài)打破陳規(guī)的人，他逝世于1992年。在他設(shè)想的未來(lái)，數(shù)百萬(wàn)人類會(huì)居住在繞軌道而行的巨大空間站內(nèi)，在其中種植農(nóng)作物并利用太陽(yáng)能。按照這位物理學(xué)家的理論，月亮有豐富的原料儲(chǔ)備，也沒(méi)有地球的大氣層和強(qiáng)大的引力束縛，可以成為建造和經(jīng)濟(jì)地發(fā)射這種棲息地的根據(jù)地。

貝佐斯著眼于月球，以此作為殖民太空的最有效途徑，這與同樣熱衷于太空探索的億萬(wàn)富翁埃隆·馬斯克有所不同。后者認(rèn)為殖民火星是人類最好的“B計(jì)劃”。但貝佐斯把這種思路稱之為“星球沙文主義”。他在宣傳登月計(jì)劃時(shí)甚至暗諷了那些以火星為目標(biāo)的人。在一張配有火星圖片的幻燈片上，他寫(xiě)道：“往返一次需要數(shù)年時(shí)間，無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)實(shí)時(shí)溝通。”

Blue Origin的吉祥物是一只烏龜，這可謂是實(shí)至名歸，公司的進(jìn)展比馬斯克的SpaceX慢得多。

SpaceX的獵鷹9號(hào)（Falcon 9）火箭已經(jīng)完成了70多項(xiàng)任務(wù)，包括將衛(wèi)星送至軌道，以及為國(guó)際空間站運(yùn)送物資。而B(niǎo)lue Origin的二級(jí)軌道火箭New Glenn還沒(méi)有在2021年之前發(fā)射的計(jì)劃。貝佐斯表示，按照設(shè)計(jì)，第一級(jí)火箭可以被重復(fù)使用25次。另一款外形更小的重復(fù)使用型火箭可供6位付費(fèi)旅客體驗(yàn)幾分鐘太空邊緣的失重狀態(tài)。他介紹道，這些任務(wù)計(jì)劃在今年晚些時(shí)候開(kāi)始推進(jìn)。

Blue Origin還邀請(qǐng)了幾十個(gè)小孩參會(huì)，貝佐斯稱他們是全新的“未來(lái)俱樂(lè)部”的首批會(huì)員，希望“激勵(lì)年輕人構(gòu)建太空生活的未來(lái)”。

貝佐斯對(duì)觀眾表示：“在場(chǎng)的孩子以及他們的子孫將會(huì)建造這些殖民空間。我們這一代的任務(wù)是為他們的工作打好基礎(chǔ)。我們要修建前往太空的道路。隨后會(huì)出現(xiàn)有趣的事情。你會(huì)看到企業(yè)家的創(chuàng)造力。你會(huì)看到企業(yè)家在他們的宿舍里創(chuàng)立公司?，F(xiàn)在時(shí)機(jī)還不成熟。”（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

A little less than half a century ago, a pair of NASA astronauts packed up their geological samples after three days of roving and returned to Earth in the Apollo 17 lunar module. It was the last time that a human walked on the moon.

Now the world’s wealthiest man, Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, and the other company he founded, Blue Origin, want to chart the next chapter in humanity’s exploration of its tiny orbiting sibling. At a press conference in Washington, D.C. on last Thursday afternoon, Bezos made his case for going back to the moon and showed off his private space company’s lunar lander.

“It’s time to go back to the moon, this time to stay,” Bezos said.

On stage at the event, Bezos dropped the curtain behind him to reveal Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander. The craft features a large internal spherical fuel tank and sits atop four landing pads. It’s powered by liquid hydrogen, in part so it can be refuel from ice water on the moon’s poles. Hydrogen fuel cells will power the device through the lunar night.

“This is an incredible vehicle,” Bezos said, “and it’s going to the moon.”

Bezos also showed off a new BE-7 engine, a high-performance liquid hydrogen/liquid oxygen engine that powers the lander’s six minute descent. After it lands, Blue Moon will deploy a small rover. Bezos also displayed a photo of a version of the lander that can accommodate astronauts, and said he hopes missions can commence by 2024.

Blue Origin has been working on Blue Moon since at least 2017. Last October, the company signed an agreement with NASA to develop medium to large commercial lander systems for the lunar surface. In exchange for $50,000 payment from Blue, NASA agreed to share technical analysis and information on potential lunar landing sites.

In a March speech, Vice President Mike Pence called for a return to the moon by 2024 and said the Trump administration had directed NASA to “accomplish this goal by any means necessary.”

Bezos has been at odds with President Donald Trump over a number of issues related to Amazon. But he said of the Trump administration’s timetable to return to the moon: “I love this. It’s the right thing to do.”

The moon has always been central to Bezos’s space-faring dreams, as well as the vision of his former professor, the late Princeton physicist Gerard O’Neill. O’Neill, an iconoclast who passed away in 1992, envisioned a future with millions of humans living in space inside giant orbiting space cylinders, growing crops and harnessing the energy of the sun. The physicist theorized that the moon, a repository of raw materials and free of the atmosphere and punitive gravitational forces of the Earth, could be the staging ground to construct and economically launch such habitats.

This focus on the moon as the most effective way to start colonizing space sets Bezos apart from fellow space-faring tech billionaire Elon Musk, who sees colonizing Mars as humanity’s best “Plan B.” Bezos dubbed that kind of thinking to “planet chauvinism.” His pitch for a lunar landing even included a jab at those prefer to aim for Mars. “Round-trip on the order of years,” read one slide with an image of the red planet. “No real-time communication.”

Blue Origin’s mascot is a tortoise, and true to form, the company’s progress has been notoriously slower than at Musk’s SpaceX.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets have completed over 70 missions, sending satellites into orbit and ferrying supplies to the International Space Station. Blue’s two-stage orbital rocket, dubbed New Glenn, isn’t scheduled for launch until 2021. It’s first stage, Bezos said, is designed to be reused 25 times. A much smaller, reusable rocket, New Shepard, is designed to take six paying tourists to the edge of space for a few minutes of weightlessness. Those missions, Bezos said, are due to start later this year.

Blue Origin invited a few dozen kids, who Bezos said were inaugural members of a new “Club for the Future,” meant to “inspire young people to build the future of life in space.”

“The kids here and their kids and grandchildren will build these colonies. My generation’s job is to build the infrastructure so they will be able to. We are going to build a road to space,” Bezos told the audience. “And then amazing things will happen. Then you’ll see entrepreneurial creativity. Then you’ll see space entrepreneurs start companies in their dorm rooms. That can’t happen today.”