Would You Hop On A Train To The Moon? US Department Of Defense Wants To Build 'Lunar Railroad'
Would You Hop On A Train To The Moon? US Department Of Defense Wants To Build 'Lunar Railroad'
The U.S. Defense Department's secretive advanced research agency wants to figure out how to transport people to the moon via train.
美國國防部祕密的高級研究機構想弄清楚如何通過火車將人們運送到月球。
What To Know: DARPA, or the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the research and development agency of the Department of Defense, selected Northrop Grumman Corp (NYSE:NOC) on Tuesday to further develop the concept of building a moon-based railway.
須知：國防部研發機構DARPA或國防高級研究計劃局週二選擇了諾斯羅普·格魯曼公司（紐約證券交易所代碼：NOC）來進一步制定建造月球鐵路的概念。
The new developments are part of DARPA's 10-year Lunar Architecture Capability Study, which aims to establish an analytical framework for lunar infrastructure that provides commercial services in the future, while minimizing lunar footprint.
這些新進展是DARPA爲期十年的月球架構能力研究的一部分，該研究旨在爲月球基礎設施建立分析框架，在未來提供商業服務，同時最大限度地減少月球足跡。
"The envisioned lunar railroad network could transport humans, supplies and resources for commercial ventures across the lunar surface — contributing to a space economy for the United States and international partners," Northrop Grumman said in a statement on Tuesday.
諾斯羅普·格魯曼在週二的一份聲明中說：“設想的月球鐵路網絡可以爲商業企業運送人力、物資和資源穿越月球表面，爲美國和國際合作夥伴的太空經濟做出貢獻。”
The defense contractor will study the resources required to build a lunar railway, establish a list of costs and risks, identify prototypes and analyses of a fully operating lunar rail system concept and explore other concepts for constructing and operating the system with robotics.
國防承包商將研究修建月球鐵路所需的資源，制定成本和風險清單，確定原型並分析全面運行的月球軌道系統概念，並探索使用機器人建造和運營該系統的其他概念。
Why It Matters: Humans have not set foot on the moon in more than 50 years. The last crewed mission to the moon was Apollo 17 in 1972, but public interest is rising after Intuitive Machines Inc (NASDAQ:LUNR) successfully launched a lunar lander onto the moon's surface last month, making Intuitive Machines the first company to land a private spacecraft on the moon.
它爲何重要：人類已經有50多年沒有踏上月球了。上一次載人登月任務是1972年的阿波羅17號，但在Intuitive Machines Inc（納斯達克股票代碼：LUNR）上個月成功將月球着陸器發射到月球表面，這使Intuitive Machines成爲第一家將私人航天器降落在月球上的公司之後，公衆的興趣正在上升。
Other companies like SpaceX and Rocket Lab USA Inc (NASDAQ:RKLB) continue to further space exploration efforts and multiple companies have hit new space tourism milestones in recent years including Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:SPCE) and Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
SpaceX和美國火箭實驗室公司（納斯達克股票代碼：RKLB）等其他公司繼續進一步開展太空探索工作，近年來，包括維珍銀河控股公司（納斯達克股票代碼：SPCE）和亞馬遜公司（納斯達克股票代碼：AMZN）創始人傑夫·貝佐斯的《藍色起源》在內的多家公司都達到了新的太空旅遊里程碑。
According to DARPA strategic technology program manager Michael Nayak, a "large paradigm shift" is coming in the next 10 years for the lunar economy. This DARPA project will help to accelerate key technologies that may be used by the government and commercial space industry to get to a "turning point" in space more quickly.
根據DARPA戰略技術項目經理邁克爾·納亞克的說法，未來10年月球經濟將發生 “大規模的模式轉變”。該DARPA項目將有助於加快政府和商業航天業可能使用的關鍵技術，從而更快地到達太空 “轉折點”。
Photo: JB from Pixabay.
照片：來自 Pixabay 的 JB。
譯文內容由第三人軟體翻譯。