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Space Odyssey
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第1段
The Moon is likely to become the industrial hub of the Solar System, supplying the rocket fuels for its ships, easily obtainable from the lunar rocks in the form of liquid oxygen. The reason lies in its gravity. Because the Moon has only an eightieth of the Earth's mass, it requires 97 per cent less energy to travel the quarter of a million miles from the Moon to Earth-orbit than the 200 mile-journey from Earth's surface into orbit!
月球有成为太阳系工业中心的可能。 从月岩中很容易提炼出液态氧，可用作航天飞船的燃料。原因在于月球的引力。 因为月球的质量仅为地球的1/80。因此，从月球到地球轨道的25万英里距离所消耗的能量，要比从地球表面进入地球轨道的200英里距离所消耗的能量要少 97%！
第2段
This may sound fantastic, but it is easily calculated. To escape from the Earth in a rocket, one must travel at seven miles per second. The comparable speed from the Moon is only 1.5 miles per second. Because the gravity on the Moon's surface is only a sixth of Earth's remember how easily the Apollo astronauts bounded along, it takes much less energy to accelerate to that 1.5 miles per second than it does on Earth. Moon-dwellers will be able to fly in space at only three per cent of the cost of similar journeys by their terrestrial cousins.
可能这个听起来太过美好，但可以很容易计算出来。火箭飞离地球的逃逸速度至少是7英里/秒。而从月球出发的相应速度仅为 1.5英里/秒。由于月球表面的引力仅是地球表面的1/6（还记得阿波罗号飞船的宇航员在月球上是多么轻松地往前跳跃吗），在月球上加速到 1.5英里/秒比在地球上所用的能源要少得多。 月球居民未来在太空遨游的费用，与地球上的朋友相比，仅为其3%。
第3段
Arthur C. Clark once suggested a revolutionary idea passes through three phases: 1."It's impossible—don't waste my time." 2."It's possible, but not worth doing." 3."I said it was a good idea all along."
亚瑟·C·克拉克曾提过，一个革命性的想法需要经历以下3个阶段： 1.“这不可能，别浪费我的时间。” 2.“可能，但不值得采纳。” 3.“我一直说这是个好想法。”
第4段
The idea of colonising Mars—a world 160 times more distant than the Moon—will move decisively from the second phase to the third, when a significant number of people are living permanently in space. Mars has an extraordinary fascination for would-be voyagers. America, Russia and Europe are filled with enthusiasts—many of them serious and senior scientists—who dream of sending people to it. Their aim is understandable. It is the one world in the Solar System that is most like the Earth. It is a world of red sandy deserts hence its name—the Red Planet, cloudless skies, savage sandstorms, chasms wider than the Grand Canyon and at least one mountain more than twice as tall as Everest. It seems ideal for settlement.
如果有相当数量的人永久性地住在太空中，殖民火星——比月球还要远160倍的星球——的想法就可以明确地从第2阶段进入第 3阶段。火星对未来的星际旅客来说有着特殊的魅力。美国、俄罗斯和欧洲都有许多热心于此项事业的人——其中有不少是严谨的资深科学家，他们一直梦想着将人类送上火星。他们的目标很好理解。火星是太阳系里与地球最相似的行星。这是一个红色沙漠的世界（因而得名：红色行星），无云的天空，凶猛的沙暴，比大峡谷还宽的裂缝，至少有一座山，有珠穆朗玛峰的两倍多那么高。看起来，它很适合（人类）移居。
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译文与解析据吴应时整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第149—152页，2022年2月第2版。