经济学人科技 || SpaceX制造的“星际飞船

Move fast and build things 高速发展，敢于创新 英文部分选自经济学人191005science and technology版块  Space travel 太空旅行 Move fast and build things 高速发展，敢于创新 SpaceX’s Starship is a new kind of rocket, in every sense 从某种意义上来说，SpaceX制造的“星际飞船”是一种新型的火箭 It looked for all the world like something that might have graced the cover of a 1950s comic book. On September 28th, on a warm Texas evening, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a rocketry firm, unveiled his company’s newest machine, Starship Mk1. It stands 50 metres tall and is made from shiny plates of stainless steel. Despite its name, it is not in fact an interstellar spacecraft. But it is a prototype of an interplanetary one. Mr Musk hopes, one day, to use its successors to ferry passengers to the Moon or to Mars—or perhaps even, according to one piece of SpaceX concept art, all the way to Saturn. 在所有人看来，它的外形看上去像是20世纪50年代漫画书的封面。9月28日一个温暖夜晚，美国太空探索技术公司（SpaceX）的老板伊隆·马斯克在德克萨斯州展示了公司最新的机器，“星际飞船”Mk1。它有50米高，由银光闪闪的不锈钢板制成。尽管叫它“星际飞船”，它却并不是事实上的空间飞船，实际上只是行星际飞船的雏形。马斯克希望在未来用MK1的继代产品，将人类带到月球或者火星，甚至，根据SpaceX的概念图，将人们送到土星。 注：“星际飞船” Interstellar指在恒星间、星系间穿梭的飞船 Interplanetary指行星际飞船，范围远小于Interstellar In the 17 years since its founding, SpaceX’s cheap, reusable machines have revolutionised the rocket business. The firm’s ultra-low prices have seen it grab a dominant share of the commercial satellite-launching market. Along with Boeing, an American aerospace giant, SpaceX is responsible for ferrying supplies to the International Space Station. It may soon fly astronauts there as well. But all of this commercial success is merely a necessary first step in Mr Musk’s bigger plan, which is to make humanity into a “multiplanetary species” by establishing colonies elsewhere in the solar system. SpaceX成立17年来，以其廉价、可循环利用的机器设备掀起了火箭行业的一场革命。它以超低的价格夺取了商业卫星发射市场的主要份额。与美国航空巨头波音公司一样，SpaceX公司也负责向国际空间站运送物资，并且可能很快会肩负起运送宇航员的职责。然而在马斯克先生看来，商业上的成功无非是迈向在太阳系中建立殖民地，使人类进入“多行星物种”时代这一宏伟目标的第一步。 That is where the Starship comes in. The prototype on display in Texas is only one half of an enormous rocket stack designed with planetary colonisation in mind. When paired with a Falcon Super Heavy booster, which is also being developed, the result should be capable of lifting around 150 tonnes into orbit. That would make it the most powerful rocket ever built, squeaking ahead of the Saturn V, which propelled astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. And unlike the Saturn, whose three stages were abandoned to the sea or to space as their fuel was used up, the Starship and its booster will be reusable, which should keep costs down. “星际飞船”MK1因此孕育而生。在德克萨斯州展示的飞船雏形只是预想中的行星殖民用大型火箭堆的一半。当这一火箭堆加装上正在研发的猎鹰超重助推器，便可将150吨的重物送进轨道。这将是迄今为止动力最强的火箭，略高于在二十世纪六七十年代将宇航员送上月球的土星5号。与土星5号在燃料用尽后会将三级火箭遗弃至海中或太空中不同，“星际飞船”及助推器可以重复利用，理论上可以降低成本。 注： Squeak：to pass, succeed, or win by a narrow margin（以毫厘之差胜出，原意为尖叫） It is a bold plan. Mr Musk’s shorter-term plans are bold too. Besides designing a new spaceship and booster, SpaceX’s engineers are busy working on a new, more efficient engine to power them. Called Raptor, it is designed to burn super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company’s current Merlin engines. The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37. The result will be a plumber’s nightmare. 这是个大胆的计划。马斯克的短期规划同样野心十足。除了设计新的宇宙飞船和助推器，SpaceX的工程师们还在研发更高效的新式发动机以提供动力。这种新式发动机被命名为“猛禽”(Raptor)，燃料采用超低温甲烷取代煤油，而煤油正是该公司目前使用的默林(Merlin)发动机的动力来源。一艘“星际飞船”将搭载六个“猛禽”发动机，但是每个超重助推器将需要大约24到37个发动机。这对于维修工来说简直是噩梦。 Mr Musk has said, perhaps optimistically, that a Starship prototype might be ready for a test flight all the way to orbit (albeit without its booster stage) within six months. That would be of a piece with its frenetic development schedule. The rocket-building industry is used to generous government contracts that are about job creation as much as rocket creation. SpaceX has brought a different sensibility, closer to the rapid-fire development practices of the software industry. 马斯克曾表示，如果进展顺利，“星际飞船”原型机会在6个月内进行一次绕轨道试飞（不带助推器）。这是他激进的研发计划的一部分。火箭制造行业过去一直同政府密切合作，合作内容不仅包括火箭制造，还包括创造就业机会。SpaceX与传统的火箭行业不同，它更类似于发展迅速的软件行业。 The Starship prototype, for instance, was welded together in a matter of months. It was built out in the open, rather than in a carefully controlled factory environment. The firm has two teams competing against each other to produce the best design. 例如，“星际飞船”原型机只用了几个月的时间就完成了总体焊接。它的生产制造并非在严格控制的工厂进行，而是在户外完成。为了精益求精，SpaceX有两个相互竞争的设计团队