NASA takes steps toward building Moon Base, including discussing a “perimeter”

NASA 迈向月球基地建设：探讨设立“边界”

NASA officials announced contract awards for the initial elements of a lunar base on Tuesday, including two rovers that will provide mobility to astronauts. With the series of announcements, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman sought to maintain momentum around a Moon Base initiative revealed two months ago as part of the space agency’s return to the Moon. “For those waiting patiently, the grand return is close at hand, and we will not slow down,” he said.

周二，NASA 官员宣布了月球基地初步建设项目的合同授予情况，其中包括两辆将为宇航员提供机动能力的月球车。通过这一系列公告，NASA 局长贾里德·艾萨克曼（Jared Isaacman）旨在保持两个月前公布的月球基地计划的势头，该计划是该航天局重返月球任务的一部分。“对于那些耐心等待的人来说，伟大的回归已近在咫尺，我们不会放慢脚步，”他说。

The manager for the lunar base, Carlos Garcia-Galan, said the space agency had selected two companies, Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, to build approximately one-ton rovers that would be ready for delivery to the Moon in 2028. Astrolab will receive $219 million for its “CLV-1” rover, and Lunar Outpost $220 million for its “Pegasus” rover, building upon initial contracts awarded two years ago. Each rover is expected to have a range of 200 km and be capable of driving autonomously, with guidance from operators on Earth, in addition to being driven by astronauts.

月球基地项目经理卡洛斯·加西亚-加兰（Carlos Garcia-Galan）表示，航天局已选中 Astrolab 和 Lunar Outpost 两家公司，负责制造重量约为一吨的月球车，预计将于 2028 年交付至月球。Astrolab 将获得 2.19 亿美元用于研发其“CLV-1”月球车，Lunar Outpost 将获得 2.2 亿美元用于研发“Pegasus”月球车，这些合同是在两年前授予的初步合同基础上进行的。每辆月球车的续航里程预计为 200 公里，除了由宇航员驾驶外，还能够在地球操作员的引导下实现自动驾驶。

Garcia-Galan also announced that Blue Origin, with its Blue Moon Mark 1 lander, would deliver each of the rovers separately to the lunar surface. These two delivery contract awards were worth $280.4 million. The awards increase Blue Origin’s centrality to NASA’s Moon plans, both by flying large amounts of cargo, with a Mark 1 lander previously contracted to deliver the Viper vehicle to the lunar surface, and by supporting the company’s larger Mark 2 lander for eventual human missions.

加西亚-加兰还宣布，蓝色起源（Blue Origin）公司将利用其“蓝月亮 Mark 1”（Blue Moon Mark 1）着陆器，分别将这两辆月球车运送到月球表面。这两份交付合同总价值为 2.804 亿美元。这些合同进一步提升了蓝色起源在 NASA 月球计划中的核心地位，不仅因为其能够运输大量货物（此前 Mark 1 着陆器已被签约用于运送 Viper 月球车），还因为它正在支持该公司更大的 Mark 2 着陆器，以用于未来的载人任务。

Need to learn more about the lunar surface

需要进一步了解月球表面

One theme of Tuesday’s news conference was the reality that, decades after humanity’s first visits to the Moon, there remains much we do not know about conditions on the lunar surface. “What we are embarking upon is extremely challenging,” Isaacman said. “We know so little from what is a combined 80 hours of lunar astronaut EVA time across the Apollo missions, and that was more than a half century ago.”

周二新闻发布会的一个主题是：在人类首次登月几十年后的今天，我们对月球表面的状况仍知之甚少。“我们正在着手进行的事情极具挑战性，”艾萨克曼说。“阿波罗任务中宇航员在月球表面总共只有 80 小时的舱外活动时间，我们从中了解到的信息非常有限，而且那已经是半个多世纪前的事了。”

To that end, one of the central elements of the early Moon Base program is the development of the MoonFall program, which will entail three or four drones each about 1 meter tall, with a mass of 225 kg, including propellant. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is leading development of the MoonFall drones, and these will be delivered to the lunar surface by Firefly Aerospace, Garcia-Galan said. The goal is to get these spacecraft to the Moon before the Artemis IV lunar landing mission, scheduled for no earlier than 2028, to provide high-resolution imagery of the lunar surface. For most of the Moon, the current imagery resolution is 1 meter, and NASA wants to improve it to 1 cm, Garcia-Galan said.

为此，早期月球基地计划的核心要素之一是开发“MoonFall”项目。该项目将涉及三到四架无人机，每架高约 1 米，质量为 225 公斤（含推进剂）。加西亚-加兰表示，NASA 喷气推进实验室（JPL）正在主导 MoonFall 无人机的开发，并将由萤火虫航天公司（Firefly Aerospace）将其运送到月球表面。其目标是在定于 2028 年之后进行的“阿尔忒弥斯 IV”（Artemis IV）登月任务之前将这些航天器送达月球，以提供月球表面的高分辨率图像。加西亚-加兰说，目前月球大部分地区的图像分辨率为 1 米，NASA 希望将其提高到 1 厘米。

Establishing a perimeter

建立边界

These drones will perform a number of functions, including scouting for water ice in permanently shadowed regions, identifying areas of scientific interest, and providing detailed information about landing sites, including soil mechanics, lighting conditions, and the terrain. At the end of their flying lifetime, the drones would then be used to set a boundary for the Moon Base. “We’re hoping to … establish a Moon Base perimeter with four or three lunar drones,” Garcia-Galan said. “We’re going to be able to basically put them at the corners of the corners of the areas where we think we have either key scientific objectives, or we want to build up the Moon Base.”

这些无人机将执行多项功能，包括在永久阴影区搜寻水冰、识别具有科学意义的区域，并提供有关着陆点的详细信息，包括土壤力学、光照条件和地形。在飞行寿命结束时，这些无人机将被用于为月球基地设定边界。“我们希望……用三到四架月球无人机建立一个月球基地边界，”加西亚-加兰说。“我们基本上可以将它们放置在我们认为拥有关键科学目标或想要建设月球基地的区域的角落。”

In these positions, he added, the retired drones could also provide a beacon with retro-reflectors, or even perhaps serve as the first lunar cell towers. The idea of a perimeter raises interesting questions about territory on the Moon. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, agreed to by all spacefaring nations, essentially says no country can claim sovereignty over territory on the Moon. Even building a base on the lunar surface does not confer ownership of that area under the treaty.

他补充说，在这些位置上，退役的无人机还可以提供带有回射器的信标，甚至可能充当第一批月球基站。关于“边界”的想法引发了关于月球领土的有趣问题。1967 年所有航天国家签署的《外层空间条约》从根本上规定，任何国家都不能对月球领土主张主权。根据该条约，即使在月球表面建立基地，也不意味着拥有该区域的所有权。

“Mindful” of the Outer Space Treaty

“谨记”《外层空间条约》

NASA and 66 other nations have, to date, signed on to the Artemis Accords as a framework for exploring and developing the lunar surface this century. This NASA-led Artemis group is in direct competition with a China-led initiative that also intends to explore the Moon’s south pole and potentially extract resources there. The Artemis Accords, while recognizing the Outer Space Treaty, allow for the possibility of creating “safety zones” that would establish areas in which “harmful interference” is not allowed.

迄今为止，NASA 和其他 66 个国家已签署《阿尔忒弥斯协定》，作为本世纪探索和开发月球表面的框架。这个由 NASA 主导的“阿尔忒弥斯”组织正与中国主导的计划展开直接竞争，后者也打算探索月球南极并可能在那里开采资源。《阿尔忒弥斯协定》在承认《外层空间条约》的同时，允许创建“安全区”，以确立禁止“有害干扰”的区域。

“A safety zone should be the area in which nominal operations of a relevant activity or an anomalous event could reasonably cause harmful interference,” the Artemis Accords state. NASA and China have not formally discussed or mutually approved the concept of safety zones, and some Chinese commentators have been critical of the idea. Establishing a perimeter would seem to be the first manifestation of a safety zone on the lunar surface, although Isaacman would not confirm this when asked directly.

《阿尔忒弥斯协定》指出：“安全区应是相关活动的正常操作或异常事件可能合理地导致有害干扰的区域。”NASA 和中国尚未正式讨论或相互批准“安全区”的概念，一些中国评论员对此持批评态度。建立边界似乎是月球表面“安全区”的首次体现，尽管艾萨克曼在被直接问及此事时并未予以确认。

“There are areas of great interest on the lunar surface, and we do want to get there and explore them,” he said. “We also obviously want to be very mindful of the Outer Space Treaty, so that we are respectful of other nations that are putting assets on the lunar surface. We would expect that to be reciprocal, but I think that’s just one objective of many that the MoonFall drones intend to accomplish.”

“月球表面有许多令人非常感兴趣的区域，我们确实想去那里进行探索，”他说。“我们显然也非常注意《外层空间条约》，以便尊重其他在月球表面部署资产的国家。我们希望这种尊重是相互的，但我认为这只是 MoonFall 无人机打算实现的众多目标之一。”