以后出门不坐飞机坐火箭？以后智能手机不仅会有飞行模式，还有火箭模式？“钢铁侠”马斯克：我有个新想法。
从纽约到北京只需39分钟是种怎样的体验？
译者：康馨迪
校对：刘 蕊
策划：唐可可
本文选自
The Atlantic
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What Would Flying From New York to Shanghai in 39 Minutes Feel Like?
从纽约到北京只需39分钟是种怎样的体验？
It’s just after sunrise in New York City. The sky is bathed in pinks and orange as people walk along a long dock toward a white ship. They board the vessel and it sails out to a launchpad further out in the water, where a spaceship strapped to a giant rocket awaits. After they pile in, the rocket blasts off into the atmosphere. About 39 minutes later, they land halfway around the world, in Shanghai.
纽约城刚刚日出，天空沐浴在粉红与橙黄之中，许多人沿着长长的码头走向一艘白色的船。在乘客登船后，它载着这些人驶向水域深处的发射台，在那里一艘宇宙飞船正矗立在一个巨型火箭上等待发射。待乘客鱼贯而入，火箭便载着他们直冲云霄。在大约39分钟后，他们飞越了半个地球来到上海。
This is the scenario imagined by SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who discussed the futurist transport system in a speech in Australia last week about the company’s long-term ambitions. The not-yet-built system—which Musk nicknamed BFR, for “big fucking rocket”—would, someday, ferry passengers from one major city to another. Long-distance trips from Bangkok to Dubai, or from Honolulu to Tokyo, for example, would take about 30 minutes and cost about as much as an economy airline ticket.
Space X的创始人埃隆•马斯克（Elon Musk）上周在澳大利亚做的关于公司长期计划演讲中公布了未来运输系统计划，并描述了这样一幅场景。马斯克将这个仍在构想中的计划称为BFR（big fucking rocket）。将来BFR会把乘客从一个大城市送到另一个城市。从曼谷（Bangkok)到迪拜（Dubai)，从檀香山（Honolulu)到东京（Tokyo)，这种长距离旅行都只要花大约30分钟，而且费用和飞机的经济舱价格相近。
(The BFR would also
subsume
the duties of SpaceX’s current fleet of rockets and spacecraft, like the Falcon 9 and Dragon capsule, by launching satellites into orbit, transporting astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station, and even bringing humans to the moon and Mars.)
同时，BTR 将取代Space X现在的火箭和宇宙飞船（如猎鹰9号和龙飞船）。它不仅可以将卫星送入轨道，将宇航员和货物送进国际空间站，甚至还可以将人类带到月球和火星。
subsume
： v [səb'sʊm] :to include sth in a particular group and not consider it separately 将…归入(或纳入)
The news of the Earth transport system was thrilling for Musk’s fans, for whom a speech from the entrepreneur about space exploration is akin to an Apple launch event. The future is really here, or at least quickly approaching! Imagine setting your smartphone to rocket mode instead of airplane mode. Rocket travel, an animated video of this future seemed to suggest, would be a
breeze
.
这一关于地球运输系统的新闻让马斯克的粉丝们热血沸腾，对他们来说马斯克关于太空探索计划的演讲就像苹果的发布会一样让人兴奋。火箭时代已经到来，或者至少已经近在咫尺。想象一下你拿出手机不是要调成飞行模式，而是火箭模式。而该公司发布的相关动画视频似乎在告诉人们火箭旅行轻而易举。
breeze
n [briz] a thing that is
easy to do
轻而易举的事
Well, not necessarily. To make a half-hour trip, the BFR would have to travel thousands of miles per hour, with a maximum speed of about 16,700 miles per hour, according to SpaceX. The flight would expose passengers to sensations they don’t usually encounter while traveling, like intense gravitational forces and weightlessness. The spaceship would definitely need to stock barf bags.
但，这可未必。SpaceX表示为了半小时就到达目的地，BFR的速度要达到每小时几千英里，最大速度会达到每小时16700英里。乘客将会有不同一般的感觉，如巨大的重力和强烈的失重感。所以飞船必须配备大量的呕吐袋。
Musk explained in a tweet that travelers would experience g-forces between 2 and 3, which means twice or three times their body weight. “Will feel like a mild to moderate amusement park ride on
ascent
and then smooth, peaceful, and silent in zero gravity for most of the trip until landing,” he said.
马斯克在推特上说乘客将承受2到3倍重力（也就是2到3倍的体重加在自己身上）。这就像在体验一种温和而不致过度刺激的游乐项目，先是上升，然后趋于平缓，最后静悄悄地进入失重状态，随后大部分旅程都将处于这种状态，直至平安落地。
ascent
：n [ə'sɛnt] the act of climbing or moving up; an upward journey 上升
“That may not be a very comfortable way to travel,” said Ge-Cheng Zha, a mechanical and aerospace professor at the University of Miami who studies supersonic flight. “Not everyone can take it.”
迈阿密大学（University of Miami ）研究超音速飞行的机械与航天教授查葛成（Ge-Cheng Zha）说：“这种旅行方式可能并不舒服，不是所有人都受得了。”
The ride will be most intense during landing and takeoff. The rapid acceleration and deceleration could lead to
motion sickness
. So could a quick peek out the window during a particularly twisty maneuver. “There’s a disconnect between the g-force and what the person sees, which can lead to severe motion sickness,” said Andy Feinberg, a geneticist at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland who studies astronaut health (and applied to be an astronaut himself in 1979).
落地和起飞是旅行中感受最强烈的时候。快速的加速和减速会导致晕动症。此外，如果乘客在飞船进行复杂变向时向窗外瞥一眼都会导致眩晕感。马里兰州约翰霍普金斯大学（Johns Hopkins University）研究宇航员健康的遗传学家安迪•费因伯格（Andy Feinberg）说人所受到的重力和人所看到的景象不一致会导致严重的晕动症。费因伯格在1979年曾申请成为宇航员。
motion sickness
:the unpleasant
feeling that you are going to vomit , that some people have when they are
moving, especially in a vehicle
晕动病
(
尤指晕车
)
Feinberg has flown aboard NASA’s now-retired zero-gravity plane, which simulates weightlessness by taking a series of dives. The speed of the aircraft matches the speed of the passengers as they fall, which creates the experience of free-falling. Feinberg remembers not everyone on board could handle the shifts.“The NASA people, the astronauts, and I were having the time of our lives,” he said. Everyone else around them was throwing up.
费因伯格搭乘过美国航空航天局（NASA）现已退役的零重力飞机（该飞机通过一系列的俯冲来模拟出失重感）。当下降时，飞机与乘客保持同一速度，这会让人体验到自由落体的感觉。费因伯格记得不是所有的乘客都能适应这种快速变化。他说：“美国航空航天局工作人员，宇航员还有我十分享受，而其他人正在呕吐。”(译者注：零重力飞机在大约2万4千英尺的高度做倾斜45度爬升，飞机向上飞行时人们会感受到两倍的自身重量。在达到3万4千英尺左右时，飞机发动机功率骤降做弧度滑翔，此时人们可以体验到长达22-30秒的失重感觉。在这半分钟的时间里，人们将体验到脱离地球引力的奇妙感受。自由落体即为完全失重）
Aside from the flight experience and the discomfort it may bring, there’s a host of other factors Musk and his engineers will need to consider before the BFR becomes reality. While the actual trip may indeed take about a half-hour, preparing and unloading the passengers could take hours. The nature of the travel could increase the time required for security checks, luggage checks, and whatever new safety procedures flight attendants may have to present. (At least some flight attendants, for what it’s worth, seem game for the BFR. While it’s too soon to give a “definitive opinion” on rocket travel, Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA International, said flight attendants have the “flexibility to adapt to new conditions.”)
