NASA或将取消登月计划-英语点津

Even as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is set to receive billions of dollars in additional funding for technology in the latest White House budget, the agency has yet to chart a detailed course for future manned space flight once the space shuttle is retired in 2011.

就在美国宇航局认为白宫在最新预算中会再拨给它数十亿美元科研经费之际，它却尚未能拿出一份详细的计划，以说明一旦航天飞机在2011年退役，美国未来将如何开展载人航天飞行。

That could erode congressional and public support for NASA, according to some industry officials and lawmakers.

据一些业界高管和国会议员说，这有可能削弱国会和美国公众对NASA的支持。

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden predicted that the proposed $19 billion fiscal-2011 budget, an increase of 2% from the previous year, would be "good for NASA." He added that a plan to rely on private companies to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station would be "great for the American work force."

NASA的负责人查尔斯·博尔登预测说，在该机构2011年财政年度预算中，政府将向NASA拨款190亿美元，比上一财年增加2%，这对NASA来说是个好消息。他还说，拟依赖民间企业向国际空间站运送宇航员的计划，对美国就业市场“很有利”。

But the budget, which created an element of uncertainty about NASA's priorities, is likely to further stoke fierce congressional opposition.

但NASA的预算安排预计会在国会进一步激起反对声音。这一预算给NASA未来的优先任务蒙上了一丝不确定性。

Drastic shifts envisioned in NASA's fiscal-2011 budget include killing Constellation, the current program intended to send astronauts back to the moon, and replacing it with initiatives to stimulate various commercial space projects and create a new generation of heavy-lift rockets able to penetrate deeper into space. The spending package also seeks greater international cooperation, even on the highest-priority manned projects, along with ambitious new efforts to develop in-orbit construction and refueling capabilities.

根据NASA 2011财年预算的构想，该机构工作重点的一个巨大转变将是取消派宇航员重返月球的“星际计划”，取代它的将是以促进各种各样商业太空项目以及开发新一代大推力火箭为目的的一系列计划。这些火箭将能把航天器送入更深的太空。NASA新的支出计划还将寻求扩大国际合作，具体领域甚至包括被视为NASA最优先工作的载人航天项目，以及旨在开发在轨建造和燃料补充能力的新项目。

Despite the request for an increase in funding, the budget package doesn't lay out detailed timetables or destinations for future manned exploration. Instead, it seeks to save money in the short term by turning over to private enterprise the job of transporting astronauts to the International Space Station.

尽管NASA在预算计划中要求政府增加拨款，但它却并未列出未来载人航天探索行动的具体时间表或明确目的地。相反，为了在短期内实现节省资金的目的，NASA打算将向国际空间站运送宇航员的任务交给私人企业去完成。

When it comes to substantially longer, more complex missions envisioned for coming decades, the spending plan simply puts in place technology-development efforts NASA would nurture until those decisions are made.

至于那些未来几十年才能完成的历时更长、更复杂的任务，NASA在预算计划中只是说，只有当这些任务明确下来后，才能确定NASA需要为此开发哪些技术。

Lori Garver, the agency's No. 2 official, told reporters Monday that the aim is to "unleash the economic potential of space" by letting private enterprise bid on contracts intended to "take us further and faster and more affordably" to landings on the moon, asteroids and eventually Mars. A joint NASA-White House statement released along with the budget blueprint suggests that unmanned missions will grow in prominence for at least the next decade, though it stopped short of detailing how.

NASA的第二号人物罗莉·贾维尔周一对记者们说，新预算计划的目的是，通过让私人企业竞标那些可让美国更远、更快、更经济地登陆月球、小行星甚至火星的合同，来释放太空的经济潜力。NASA和白宫随该机构预算计划一同发布的声明称，至少在未来十年中，无人太空项目将获得重视，不过声明没有详细予以论述。