“I’ll buy 10 of those”—NASA science chief yearns for mass-produced satellites

“我要买10个”——NASA科学主管渴望量产卫星

There are more opportunities to access space than ever, thanks to a bevy of commercial rockets, some with reusable boosters, led by SpaceX’s workhorse Falcon 9. So why is NASA launching fewer telescopes and planetary science missions than it did a quarter-century ago? The answer is complex. It is not necessarily the money. The space agency’s science budget this year is $7.25 billion, roughly the same as it was in 2000, adjusted for inflation. 得益于以SpaceX主力火箭“猎鹰9号”为首的一系列商业火箭（其中一些配备了可重复使用的助推器），人类进入太空的机会比以往任何时候都多。那么，为什么NASA发射的望远镜和行星科学任务反而比25年前少了呢？答案很复杂。这并不一定是因为缺钱。NASA今年的科学预算为72.5亿美元，经通胀调整后，与2000年的水平大致相当。

In the early months of his tenure, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman’s focus has been on human spaceflight and the Moon. This isn’t terribly surprising given NASA’s wildly successful Artemis II mission carrying four astronauts around the Moon last month. Since taking office in December, Isaacman has announced an overhaul of the Artemis program, canceling a space station to be built in orbit around the Moon in favor of construction of a base on the lunar surface. 在任职的最初几个月里，NASA局长贾里德·艾萨克曼（Jared Isaacman）的工作重点一直放在载人航天和月球上。考虑到上个月NASA成功执行了搭载四名宇航员绕月飞行的“阿尔忒弥斯2号”（Artemis II）任务，这一点并不令人意外。自12月上任以来，艾萨克曼宣布对“阿尔忒弥斯”计划进行全面改革，取消了在月球轨道上建造空间站的计划，转而支持在月球表面建立基地。

On the robotic front, Isaacman is pushing for NASA to launch a first-of-its-kind nuclear-powered spacecraft in 2028 to deliver a trio of drone rotorcraft to explore Mars. Isaacman has not said as much about concrete changes to NASA’s science program. He has defended the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to NASA’s science budget—as would be expected of him as a Trump political appointee—but the budget proposals come from the White House, not from NASA headquarters. 在机器人探测方面，艾萨克曼正推动NASA在2028年发射首个核动力航天器，用于运送三架无人机旋翼机探索火星。艾萨克曼尚未就NASA科学项目的具体变革发表太多言论。作为特朗普任命的政治官员，他理所当然地为特朗普政府削减NASA科学预算的提议进行了辩护，但这些预算提案来自白宫，而非NASA总部。

“Mr. Isaacman is very keen on us doing things quicker and for less,” said Nicky Fox, associate administrator for NASA’s science mission directorate. “More shots on goal is one of his favorite phrases. And I think, for us, it’s looking at the right-sized mission for the problem. Not everything has to be $1 billion or more. There are ways you can do fantastic science. His challenge is he wants 10 $100 million missions to be flying.” “艾萨克曼先生非常希望我们能以更快的速度、更低的成本完成任务，”NASA科学任务理事会副局长尼基·福克斯（Nicky Fox）表示。“‘增加射门次数’是他最喜欢的短语之一。我认为，对我们来说，关键在于针对问题选择规模合适的任务。并非所有任务都必须耗资10亿美元或更多。有很多方法可以做出出色的科学成果。他提出的挑战是，他希望看到10个价值1亿美元的任务同时在运行。”

How to get there? A future with numerous robotic probes spread throughout the Solar System sounds thrilling to space scientists and space enthusiasts, but you can’t get there with flat budgets and billion-dollar missions that take a decade to get off the ground. Many of NASA’s robotic science missions use purpose-built satellites and instruments, usually manufactured by large contractors like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, university labs, or NASA itself. Unlike SpaceX’s hangars full of reusable rockets, there’s no building with cameras, spectrometers, telescopes, and spacecraft buses—the core chassis of a satellite platform—lying around waiting to launch. 如何实现这一目标？对于空间科学家和太空爱好者来说，未来太阳系中遍布大量机器人探测器的前景令人振奋，但如果预算停滞不前，且耗资十亿、研发周期长达十年的任务占据主导，就无法实现这一目标。NASA的许多机器人科学任务使用定制的卫星和仪器，通常由洛克希德·马丁、诺斯罗普·格鲁曼等大型承包商、大学实验室或NASA自身制造。与SpaceX堆满可重复使用火箭的机库不同，这里没有现成的相机、光谱仪、望远镜和卫星总线（卫星平台的核心底盘）等待发射。

“Instead of having a bespoke bus that does absolutely everything, and makes the tea and brings you toast, what can you do with an off-the-shelf bus?” Fox told Ars. “And maybe you have to change a few things. Maybe you fly fewer instruments, but maybe you fly three [spacecraft] together. How do we really pick up the pace? Because it is difficult when you have long gaps between the missions. It’s certainly not what anyone wants to see.” “与其使用一个什么都能做、甚至能帮你泡茶烤面包的定制总线，为什么不试试现成的总线呢？”福克斯告诉Ars。“也许你需要做一些改动。也许你搭载的仪器少了，但你可以同时发射三颗（航天器）。我们该如何真正加快步伐？因为任务之间间隔太长是很困难的。这绝对不是任何人想看到的。”

One way to make this future real is with mass-produced, high-power satellites. Small CubeSats, just the size of a suitcase, are great for missions close to home, but they won’t cut it for missions to more distant destinations, such as another planet or a unique orbit far from Earth. NASA is making use of other ways to collect scientific data in space, such as placing instruments on the International Space Station or on commercial communications satellites. But those solutions won’t work if you want to travel to another world. Sometimes it just costs a lot of money to do the near-impossible. 实现这一未来的途径之一是使用量产的高功率卫星。像手提箱大小的小型立方星（CubeSats）非常适合近地任务，但对于前往更遥远目的地（如其他行星或远离地球的特殊轨道）的任务来说，它们还不够用。NASA正在利用其他方式在太空中收集科学数据，例如将仪器放置在国际空间站或商业通信卫星上。但如果你想前往另一个世界，这些方案就行不通了。有时，完成近乎不可能的任务确实需要巨额资金。

“For $100 million, you can’t buy a bus from somewhere and put four instruments on it and send it to flight to Enceladus to look under the ice there,” Fox said. “No, that’s a big, ambitious mission. We want to fly an interstellar-type probe. As the Voyagers are getting older, we want to study interstellar space. These things are hard, and they’re tough, and it will take a lot of effort to do that. We also talked about actually flying a mission to Uranus.” “你不可能花1亿美元买个总线，装上四个仪器，然后把它发射到土卫二（Enceladus）去探测冰层下方，”福克斯说。“不，那是一个宏大且雄心勃勃的任务。我们想要发射星际探测器。随着‘旅行者号’逐渐老化，我们希望研究星际空间。这些任务非常艰巨，需要付出巨大的努力。我们还讨论过执行一项前往天王星的任务。”

But what about spacecraft flying on more well-trodden paths to the Moon, Mars, Venus, or the asteroid belt? “What can we do with these commercial off-the-shelf buses? I would love to walk in and say, ‘I’ll buy 10 of those,’” Fox said. NASA is looking at “block buys” for the next series of commercial missions to the Moon. These privately owned landers and orbiters, part of the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, carry NASA-owned payloads. They are precursors for future human exploration. After the Moon, Mars is the next destination that could use the CLPS model. 但对于那些前往月球、火星、金星或小行星带等更成熟路径的航天器呢？“我们能用这些现成的商业总线做什么？我真想走进去说：‘我要买10个，’”福克斯说。NASA正在考虑为下一系列商业月球任务进行“批量采购”。这些属于“商业月球有效载荷服务”（CLPS）计划的私有着陆器和轨道器，携带的是NASA的有效载荷。它们是未来人类探索的先驱。继月球之后，火星是下一个可以使用CLPS模式的目的地。

“Mars is sort of an obvious next one,” Fox said. “Why can’t I do that with a mission going somewhere else, and say, ‘Hey, who wants to take these instruments here?’ I’m actually really excited about the possibilities that the commercial sector open up to us.” “火星是下一个显而易见的目标，”福克斯说。“为什么我不能在前往其他地方的任务中也这样做，然后说：‘嘿，谁想把这些仪器带到那里去？’我实际上对商业领域为我们带来的可能性感到非常兴奋。”

Blue Origin is assembling and testing its first Blue Ring spacecraft. Credit: Blue Origin 蓝色起源公司（Blue Origin）正在组装和测试其首个“蓝环”（Blue Ring）航天器。图片来源：Blue Origin

NASA’s roster of CLPS lander companies includes Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic, and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, which is also working on a larger human-rated lunar lander for NASA, along with SpaceX. Some of the same companies, along with K2 Space, Rocket Lab, Apex Space, Blue Canyon, Millennium Space Systems, and now Vast, are working on mass-produced satellite platforms for use in Earth orbit or deep space. The manufacturers see their primary demand signals in the US military and commercial markets, but NASA could benefit from the same designs. Blue Origin bills its Blue Ring design, now preparing for its first test flight, as an “all-in-one, high-powered hybrid solar electric and chemical propelled spacecraft” that can maneuv… NASA的CLPS着陆器公司名单包括萤火虫航天（Firefly Aerospace）、直觉机器（Intuitive Machines）、航天机器人技术公司（Astrobotic）以及杰夫·贝索斯的蓝色起源（Blue Origin）。蓝色起源正与SpaceX一起，为NASA研发更大的载人月球着陆器。其中一些公司，以及K2 Space、火箭实验室（Rocket Lab）、Apex Space、Blue Canyon、Millennium Space Systems以及现在的Vast，都在致力于研发用于地球轨道或深空的量产卫星平台。制造商们认为其主要需求信号来自美国军方和商业市场，但NASA也可以从这些设计中受益。蓝色起源将其正在准备首次试飞的“蓝环”设计标榜为一种“一体化、高功率的太阳能电力与化学推进混合动力航天器”，能够进行机动……