太空旅行的未来是否只属于超级富豪?

太空旅行的未来是否只属于超级富豪?

A space revolution is upon us — so says the new wave of tech entrepreneurs pledging to colonize the cosmos.

一场太空革命正在向我们袭来——新一波发誓要殖民宇宙的科技企业家如是说。

Several billionaires and their rocket companies say the tiny roster of humans — 573, by the count of space expert Jonathan McDowell — who have flown to space is about to get much longer. They promise that more Average Joes can have experiences like highly trained astronauts.

几位亿万富翁和他们的火箭公司表示，据太空专家乔纳森·麦克道尔统计，已经飞上太空的人类人数只有573人，他们的时间将会更长。他们承诺，更多的普通人可以拥有像训练有素的宇航员的经历。

But the galactically curious should take heed: Space travel will probably remain prohibitively expensive for anyone outside the 1% for a long, long time.

但是好奇银河系的人应该注意了:太空旅行对于1%以外的人来说，在很长很长一段时间内，可能仍然是非常昂贵的。

A stay on the International Space Station costs tens of millions of dollars. A group called Space Adventures has offered wealthy individuals the opportunity to fly to the station aboard Russian-built rockets, and so far seven clients have made the trek. Most recently, Cirque Du Soleil billionaire Guy Laliberte paid $35 million to spend a couple weeks in space.

在国际空间站停留要花费数千万美元。一个名为“太空探险”(Space Adventures)的组织为富有的个人提供了乘坐俄罗斯制造的火箭飞往空间站的机会，到目前为止已有七名客户进行了这次长途旅行。最近，太阳马戏团的亿万富翁盖伊·拉利伯特花了3500万美元在太空呆了几周。

SpaceX is also planning to charge an undisclosed amount of money to a Japanese billionaire for a moon mission slated for next decade.

SpaceX还计划向一位日本亿万富翁收取一笔金额不详的资金，用于未来10年的探月任务。

On the cheapest end of the spectrum is Virgin Galactic. The company set up by Richard Branson plans to offer 90-minute flights into the upper atmosphere for about $200,000 to $250,000 each. That's roughly the median home price in the United States.

维珍银河(Virgin Galactic)的成本最低。理查德·布兰森(Richard Branson)创办的这家公司计划提供90分钟的高空飞行服务，每次飞行约20万至25万美元。这大概是美国房价的中值。

The far-out future

非常遥远的未来

Space vacations may remain out-of-reach for most of us in the foreseeable future, but many space enthusiasts insist that one day humans will be zipping around the solar system to work on other planets or orbiting habitats.

在可预见的未来，太空旅行对我们大多数人来说可能仍然遥不可及，但许多太空爱好者坚持认为，总有一天，人类将环绕太阳系飞行，到其他行星或轨道上的栖息地工作。

Today, the most well-known space visionaries are three billionaires: Branson, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Blue Origin/Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. They've gained die-hard fans, as well as critics.

如今，最著名的太空梦想家是三位亿万富翁:布兰森(Branson)、SpaceX首席执行官埃隆•马斯克(Elon Musk)和Blue Origin/亚马逊(Amazon)创始人杰夫•贝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)。他们赢得了铁杆粉丝，也有批评者质疑。

"The space barons are shrewdly tapping into our respect for astronauts ," New Yorker writer Ceridwen Dovey wrote in a piece published last year. "They seem to be counting on us to be awestruck by whatever it is they do in space, and to overlook the fact that their motives are not exactly pure, nor are their methods of getting us there egalitarian."

“太空大亨们精明地利用了我们对宇航员的尊重，”《纽约客》作家塞利文·多维在去年发表的一篇文章中写道。“他们似乎指望我们对他们在太空中所做的一切感到敬畏，却忽视了这样一个事实:他们的动机并不纯粹，他们让我们到达太空的方法也不平等。”