VOA慢速英語：美國宇航局宣布私營企業(yè)競標(biāo)下次登月任務(wù)

NASA: Private Companies to Make Next Moon Landing

美國宇航局宣布私營企業(yè)競標(biāo)下次登月任務(wù)

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, has announced that private companies will make America's next moon landing.

美國宇航局宣布私營公司將完成美國的下一次登月。

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said Thursday that nine American companies will compete to carry experiments to the surface of the moon.

美國宇航局局長吉姆·布里登斯汀(Jim Bridenstine)周四表示，9家美國公司將競標(biāo)來執(zhí)行月球表面的實(shí)驗(yàn)任務(wù)。

"(The) announcement marks tangible progress in America's return to the Moon's surface to stay," Bridenstine said.

布里登斯汀表示：“這標(biāo)志著美國重返月球表面的實(shí)質(zhì)性進(jìn)展。”

The space agency said in a statement the goal is to bring many science and technology experiments to the moon as soon as possible. The first such flight could come as early as next year.

美國宇航局在聲明中表示，其目標(biāo)是盡快將眾多科技實(shí)驗(yàn)帶到月球上，最早可能會(huì)在明年啟動(dòng)這樣的航天飛行任務(wù)。

In 2019, NASA and people across the United States will mark the 50th anniversary of the first manned landing on the moon. The last time humans visited the moon was in 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission.

2019年，美國宇航局和美國人民將會(huì)迎來首次載人登月50周年。人類最后一次登月是1972年美國宇航局的阿波羅17號任務(wù)期間。

NASA officials say the goal of the planned spaceflight is to transport equipment for performing experiments and collecting information about the moon. Some of the companies are expected to develop small launch vehicles or robotic rovers to explore its surface.

美國宇航局官員表示，計(jì)劃中的航天飛行的目標(biāo)是運(yùn)送實(shí)驗(yàn)設(shè)備并收集有關(guān)月球的信息。預(yù)計(jì)一些公司將會(huì)開發(fā)小型運(yùn)載火箭或機(jī)器人漫游車以探索月球表面。

The research is meant to help get astronauts back to the moon more quickly and keep them safer once they arrive.

這項(xiàng)研究旨在幫助宇航員更快重返月球，并確保他們登月后更加安全。

Thomas Zurbuchen is head of NASA's science mission directorate, which leads the new flight efforts. "We're going at high speed," he said.

托馬斯·左布臣( Thomas Zurbuchen)是美國宇航局科學(xué)任務(wù)理事會(huì)的負(fù)責(zé)人，該部門負(fù)責(zé)這次新的飛行任務(wù)。他說：“我們進(jìn)展神速。”

The space agency says it will award a total of $2.6 billion to private businesses for the moon effort over the next 10 years. Bridenstine said that NASA wants a lot of companies involved to strengthen competition. He also said he expects to have people regularly working on the moon within 10 years.

美國宇航局稱將在未來10年內(nèi)為私營企業(yè)合計(jì)撥款26億美元用于這次月球任務(wù)。布里登斯汀表示，美國宇航局希望眾多公司參與以強(qiáng)化競爭。他還表示，期待10年內(nèi)讓人們在月球上常規(guī)工作。

The new partnership is modeled after another NASA program that uses private companies to transport supplies to the International Space Station, or ISS. SpaceX and Northrop Grumman have made ISS shipments since 2012. SpaceX and Boeing are planning to start transporting astronauts to the space station sometime next year.

這一新的伙伴關(guān)系是仿照美國宇航局向國際空間站運(yùn)送物資的項(xiàng)目。SpaceX公司和諾斯洛普格魯曼公司自2012年以來已經(jīng)開始為國際空間站運(yùn)送物資。SpaceX公司和波音公司計(jì)劃在明年某個(gè)時(shí)候開始將宇航員送到國際空間站。

NASA has said it expects work on a new space station laboratory to start as soon as 2022. The new space station would orbit the moon. But it is also expected to serve as a launching point for missions to other parts of the solar system, including the planet Mars.

美國宇航局表示，預(yù)計(jì)最早將在2022年啟動(dòng)新空間站實(shí)驗(yàn)室的工作。新的空間站將會(huì)圍繞月球運(yùn)行，但它也有望成為包括火星在內(nèi)的太陽系其它星球任務(wù)的發(fā)射點(diǎn)。

The announcement on future moon flights came just three days after NASA successfully landed its InSight spacecraft on Mars. The InSight lander was built by Lockheed Martin, a private U.S. company. The lander is designed to explore under the surface, studying the geology of the planet and seeking signs of Martian earthquakes.

美國宇航局在洞察號宇宙飛船成功登陸火星僅僅三天之后就宣布了未來的月球飛行任務(wù)。洞察號著陸器由美國私營企業(yè)洛克希德馬丁公司建造。該著陸器旨在探索火星地下，研究火星地質(zhì)并尋找火星地震的跡象。

I'm Bryan Lynn.

布萊恩·林恩報(bào)道。