美国再次登月计划或面临流产

CNN-- American astronauts will not return to the moon as planned if Congress passes President Obama's proposed budget.

美国有线新闻网：如果国会通过奥巴马总统的预算提案的话，美国将不会按照原计划再次进行载人登月（1969年美国航天员曾成功登月）。


Obama's budget -- which aims to tighten the nation's purse strings in certain areas while increasing money used to create jobs -- would cancel NASA's Constellation Program, which had sought to send astronauts back to the moon by 2020.

奥巴马的此项预算旨在缩减某些领域的开支，加大对增加就业岗位工作的投入。而如此便会使美国宇航局的星座计划（2020年之前重返月球）面临搁浅。


Constellation also intended to study the idea of establishing a moon colony. The program was set to follow the U.S. space agency's shuttle missions, which are due to end in September.

星座计划还包括另一项任务-研究在月球上建立殖民地的可行性。该计划原本安排在美国航天局的航天飞机任务完成之后展开。



On its Web site, the White House Budget Office says the program to send astronauts to the moon is behind schedule, over budget and overall less important than other space investments.

美国白宫预算办公室在网站上说，此次登月计划进度落后于原定计划，耗资超出预算开支，并且从全局的角度来看，没有其他的空间计划重要。


"Using a broad range of criteria, an independent review panel determined that even if fully funded, NASA's program to repeat many of the achievements of the Apollo era, 50 years later, was the least attractive approach to space exploration as compared to potential alternatives," the site says.

一个独立核查小组通过分析各个指标，得出了这样的论断：就算资金充足，美宇航局的这次计划也只不过是在重复50多年前的阿波罗计划所取得的成果。和其他的潜在选择来比较，这项宇宙探索计划是最没有吸引力的。


"Furthermore, NASA's attempts to pursue its moon goals, while inadequate to that task, had drawn funding away from other NASA programs, including robotic space exploration, science, and Earth observations."

“而且，美宇航局为了这个目前尚处准备阶段的计划，已经从其他的太空计划（诸如机器人太空探索，宇宙空间科学，地球太空观测等）拨走了大量资金。


Overall, Obama's proposed budget increases the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's budget by $6 billion over the next five years. The president's budget would give NASA a $19 billion budget in 2011, compared to its $18.3 billion budget this year.

从整体上来讲，奥巴马的预算提案在未来的5年里，将会给国家航空和航天局增加60亿美元的财政预算。今年，美国政府给美宇航局的财政预算为183亿美元，而到2011年，这个预算将会达到190亿美元。