The role of the astronaut is in flux
The role of the astronaut is in flux
宇航员的角色正在发生变化
When the four astronauts on board NASA’s Artemis II swung around the moon earlier this year, they set a new record for the farthest humans have ever ventured from Earth, surpassing the distance set by Apollo 13 in 1972 by some 4,000 miles. 今年早些时候，当美国国家航空航天局（NASA）“阿尔忒弥斯2号”（Artemis II）上的四名宇航员绕月飞行时，他们创下了人类远离地球的最远纪录，比1972年“阿波罗13号”创下的纪录又远了约4000英里。
While no space mission can live up to the historic touchdown of Apollo 11—a spectacle that 20% of the world population watched live—Artemis II still attracted massive public interest. It drew tens of millions of viewers and inspired outpourings of “moon joy,” a term coined spontaneously during the mission that became a viral sensation. 虽然没有任何太空任务能与“阿波罗11号”的历史性着陆相提并论——那场盛况曾吸引了全球20%的人口观看直播——但“阿尔忒弥斯2号”依然引起了公众的极大兴趣。它吸引了数千万观众，并激发了人们对“月球之乐”（moon joy）的热情，这个在任务期间自发创造的词汇迅速走红。
The expedition is only the first in a planned series of ambitious missions. The Artemis program aims to establish a human base on the south pole of the moon, operated by the US and its international and commercial partners, during the 2030s. China and Russia have teamed up to build their own crewed lunar base in the same region and on a similar timeline. 这次探险只是计划中一系列雄心勃勃的任务的第一步。“阿尔忒弥斯”计划旨在2030年代在月球南极建立一个由美国及其国际和商业合作伙伴运营的人类基地。中国和俄罗斯也已联手，计划在同一地区、相近的时间表内建立自己的载人月球基地。
Meanwhile, companies like Blue Origin and SpaceX hope to lock down the burgeoning extraterrestrial tourism market by flying civilian astronauts on private missions, with the long-term dream of taking them to the moon—or even Mars. 与此同时，蓝色起源（Blue Origin）和SpaceX等公司希望通过私人任务搭载平民宇航员，以锁定新兴的太空旅游市场，其长期梦想是将他们送往月球，甚至火星。
But some overarching questions about this new era of space exploration linger, including perhaps the most existential one of all: What’s the point? Launching humans into space is dangerous and expensive, and it’s unclear whether it can deliver a better return on investment than we’d get if we were to send robots in our stead to make scientific discoveries or to conduct commercial activities, such as mining. 然而，关于这个太空探索新时代，一些根本性的问题依然存在，其中或许最核心的问题是：意义何在？将人类送入太空既危险又昂贵，而且尚不清楚与派遣机器人代替人类进行科学发现或开展采矿等商业活动相比，载人航天能否带来更好的投资回报。
Since the dawn of human spaceflight, this line of questioning has been met with countless answers. We go to space for geopolitical prestige, manifest destiny, spiritual fulfillment, scientific curiosity, and, increasingly, business opportunities. 自人类航天事业诞生以来，这类质疑得到了无数的回答。我们进入太空是为了地缘政治声望、天命论、精神满足、科学好奇心，以及日益增长的商业机会。
In the wake of Artemis II, a slew of new books suggest that these justifications are subsumed by one unifying fact: Humans have itchy feet, and we are simply wired to roam. No matter the merits of any single rationale for sending people to space, they are all downstream of the basic evolutionary instinct to expand and adapt, which may not require much rational explanation at all. 在“阿尔忒弥斯2号”任务之后，一系列新书指出，这些理由都可以归结为一个统一的事实：人类天生好动，我们注定要四处漫游。无论将人类送入太空的任何单一理由有何价值，它们都源于人类扩张和适应的基本进化本能，而这种本能或许根本不需要太多的理性解释。
Indeed, in her new book, The Ultraview Effect, the space anthropologist Deana L. Weibel frames human space exploration as an extension of our ancient compulsion to embark on pilgrimages, often facing perilous obstacles, in order to experience revelations about our universe. 事实上，太空人类学家迪娜·L·韦贝尔（Deana L. Weibel）在她的新书《超视效应》（The Ultraview Effect）中，将人类太空探索描述为我们古老朝圣冲动的延伸——为了体验关于宇宙的启示，我们往往不惜面对危险的障碍。
Eiman Jahangir, who recounts his journey to space with Blue Origin in A Heart for Space, is one of a growing number of these new-age civilian space pilgrims. And in his memoir Dinner with an Astronaut, coauthored with writer Victoria Bruce, former NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao concludes that people simply “need to know what’s on the other side.” 艾曼·贾汉吉尔（Eiman Jahangir）在《太空之心》（A Heart for Space）一书中讲述了他随蓝色起源公司进入太空的旅程，他是越来越多这类新时代平民太空朝圣者中的一员。而在前NASA宇航员焦立中（Leroy Chiao）与作家维多利亚·布鲁斯（Victoria Bruce）合著的回忆录《与宇航员共进晚餐》（Dinner with an Astronaut）中，焦立中总结道，人类只是“需要知道另一边有什么”。
“We go into space because we want to explore,” Weibel told me. “We want to see what it’s like to walk on another world.” “我们进入太空是因为我们想要探索，”韦贝尔告诉我，“我们想看看在另一个世界行走是什么感觉。”
The Ultraview Effect: What We Can Learn from Astronauts About Awe, Humility, and Exploring the Unknown (Deana L. Weibel, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS, 2026) 《超视效应：从宇航员身上我们能学到关于敬畏、谦逊和探索未知的什么》（迪娜·L·韦贝尔，加州大学出版社，2026年）
A Heart for Space: An Astronaut’s Guide to Achieving the Impossible (Eiman Jahangir, FOREFRONT BOOKS, 2026) 《太空之心：宇航员实现不可能的指南》（艾曼·贾汉吉尔，Forefront Books，2026年）
Dinner with an Astronaut: Serving Space Stories: Past, Present and Future (Leroy Chiao with Victoria Bruce, HANOVER SQUARE PRESS, 2026) 《与宇航员共进晚餐：呈现太空故事：过去、现在与未来》（焦立中与维多利亚·布鲁斯，Hanover Square Press，2026年）
This simple motivation for human spaceflight is usually framed as aspirational: Explore new places, break new ground, adapt environments to suit our needs. But as our presence in space expands, we are bound to bring along the same human foibles that have stymied us on Earth. 这种人类航天的简单动机通常被描述为一种抱负：探索新地方、开辟新领域、改造环境以满足我们的需求。但随着我们在太空中的存在感不断扩大，我们必然会带去那些曾在地球上阻碍我们的人性弱点。
Frontiers like the moon and Mars will no longer be some hazy dreamlands onto which we can project our hopes, values, and favorite visions from science fiction. They will be workspaces for astronauts, places of commerce, military domains, tourist destinations, and heritage sites. How we deal with all that is, literally, up in the air. 月球和火星等前沿阵地将不再是我们投射希望、价值观和科幻小说中美好愿景的朦胧梦境。它们将成为宇航员的工作场所、商业中心、军事领域、旅游目的地和遗产地。我们如何处理这一切，目前确实还悬而未决。
At the moment, a relatively small group of players in human spaceflight have an outsize role in determining the path forward, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk standing as the most conspicuous example. But shrugging off the drive to leave Earth as an itch for exploration and domination that only nation-states and the ultrarich can scratch won’t cut it any more. 目前，少数几家载人航天领域的参与者在决定未来发展方向上发挥着巨大的作用，SpaceX首席执行官埃隆·马斯克就是最显著的例子。但如果仅仅将离开地球的动力视为只有民族国家和超级富豪才能满足的探索与统治欲望，那已经远远不够了。
Now is the time for everyone who cares about space exploration, no matter their backgrounds, to advocate for their own visions of our off-Earth future—before it is decided for them. 现在是所有关心太空探索的人，无论背景如何，都应该为我们地球之外的未来倡导自己愿景的时候了——在未来被他人决定之前。
The new space race
新的太空竞赛
During the Apollo era, the justification for blasting astronauts into space was clear-cut: brinkmanship. As Cold War tensions peaked in the 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union had every reason to demonstrate their technological prowess through human spaceflight. 在阿波罗时代，将宇航员送入太空的理由非常明确：边缘政策。随着20世纪60年代冷战紧张局势达到顶峰，美国和苏联有充分的理由通过载人航天来展示其技术实力。
To be sure, the feat of sending humans to the moon inspired millions of people, many of whom went on to work in science and engineering. Chiao credits his own career as an astronaut to the Apollo 11 landing, which he watched, riveted, as an eight-year-old child in Wichita, Kansas. Decades later, he flew three space shuttle missions and served as commander of the International Space Station. 诚然，将人类送上月球的壮举激励了数百万人，其中许多人后来投身于科学和工程领域。焦立中将自己成为宇航员的职业生涯归功于“阿波罗11号”的着陆，当时他在堪萨斯州威奇托市，作为一个八岁的孩子，被这一壮举深深吸引。几十年后，他执行了三次航天飞机任务，并担任了国际空间站的指挥官。
But while early milestones were met with giddy excitement, the space race was fundamentally animated by an implicit threat. Whichever nation proved superior in space could easily trade nuclear warheads for the astronauts it was launching on rockets that were essentially modified missiles. 然而，尽管早期的里程碑事件令人兴奋不已，但太空竞赛从根本上是由一种潜在的威胁所驱动的。无论哪个国家在太空中证明了自己的优势，都可以轻易地将运载宇航员的火箭（本质上是改装的导弹）换成核弹头。
Fortunately, we are no longer on the brink of nuclear war