坐热气球太空观光?
If you're trying to avoid airborne viruses, heading to a near vacuum might not be the worst idea.
如果你想躲避空气传播的病毒,那达到一个接近真空的地方也许是个不错的主意。
A Florida company is planning to fly passengers to the edge of space in a high-tech version of a hot air balloon, with a pilot and up to eight travelers riding in a pressurized capsule suspended from an enormous blimp.
美国佛罗里达州的一家公司计划用高科技的热气球将乘客送往太空边缘,热气球上悬挂着一个巨大的飞艇,上面有一名飞行员和多达八名乘客可以乘坐的加压舱。
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Human space flight company Space Perspective is now taking reservations on its Spaceship Neptune for flights in early 2024, with tickets priced firmly in the once-in-a-lifetime bracket at $125,000 per person.
人类太空飞行公司——太空视角公司正在接受2024年初的海王星飞船的预约,票价定在每人12.5万美元,这是一生一次的难得体验。
The refundable reservation deposits are tiered, with higher down payments needed for Year One flights and decreasing for later bookings.
可退还的预订定金是分级的,第一年的航班需要更高的首付,之后的预订费用则逐渐降低。
The inaugural test flight took off on June 18 from the Space Coast Spaceport in Titusville, Florida.
首次试飞于6月18日从佛罗里达州泰特斯维尔的太空海岸航天港起飞。
The six hour and 39-minute flight was uncrewed, but cameras on board captured a stunning image of the Earth at sunrise.
这次飞行历时6小时39分钟,没有任何机组人员,但机上的照相机捕捉到了地球日出时的惊人画面。
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Space Perspective says the test flight is a crucial milestone on its way to taking space tourists on leisurely sightseeing jaunts, with a refreshment bar and social media capabilities to hand.
太空视角公司表示,这次试飞是其带领太空游客进行休闲观光短途旅行的过程中的一个重要里程碑,同时还提供小吃店和社交媒体功能。
"We're committed to fundamentally changing the way people have access to space -- both to perform much-needed research to benefit life on Earth and to affect how we view and connect with our planet," said Space Perspective founder and co-CEO Jane Poynter last year..
“我们致力于从根本上改变人们进入太空的方式——既要进行有利于地球上生命的急需的研究,也要影响我们看待地球的方式和与地球的联系,”太空视角公司的创始人兼联合首席执行官简·波因特去年表示。
While Space Perspective's first flights will take off from Florida, the company is planning additional launch sites around the world.
虽然“太空视角”公司的第一次飞行将从佛罗里达起飞,但该公司正在计划在世界各地增加发射地点。
The six-hour trips will involve a two-hour gentle ascent above 99% of the Earth's atmosphere to 100,000 feet.
6小时的旅程将包括两个小时的缓慢上升,从地球大气层的99%高度上升到10万英尺。
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There'll then be another leisurely two hours for passengers to enjoy the 360-degree views from the cabin before the spaceship makes its two-hour descent to the ocean, where it will splash down safely.
之后,乘客们还将有另外两个小时的时间来享受机舱内360度的视野,然后飞船将在两个小时内降落到海洋中,并在那里安全进行海上降落。
Voyage to shore will be completed by ship.
然后再乘船到达岸边。
The spaceship was designed in collaboration with UK design studio PriestmanGoode.
这艘飞船是与英国设计工作室PriestmanGoode合作设计的。
"We looked at all the different elements that would make the experience not just memorable, but truly comfortable as well," Nigel Goode, designer and cofounder of PriestmanGoode said last year.
PriestmanGoode的设计师兼联合创始人奈杰尔·古德去年说:“我们考虑了所有不同的元素,使体验不仅令人难忘,而且真正舒适。”
"We wanted to make sure that passengers would be able to get 360-degree unobstructed views and that we created an efficient space that would enable them to move around during the journey."
“我们想确保乘客能够获得360度无障碍的视野,我们创造了一个高效的空间,使他们能够在旅途中移动。”
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The capsule is five meters in diameter, while the polyethylene balloon above has a 100-meter diameter when fully inflated, about the length of a football field.
座舱的直径为5米,而上面的聚乙烯气球完全充气后直径为100米,大约相当于一个足球场的长度。
Space Perspective claims that the process will be simple as boarding an airplane and that the pressurized capsule offers what it describes as a "shirt-sleeves environment" (although with its plans to host weddings and other events, it could also be black-tie).
太空视角公司称,整个过程就像登机一样简单,加压太空舱提供的是一种“可以穿衬衫的环境”(不过它还计划举办婚礼和其他活动,也可以穿正装)。
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The lavatory, it claims, is "the loo with the best view in the known universe," and is located in the center of the capsule in the splashdown cone.
该公司称,座舱里的厕所位于下坠的太空舱的中心,是“已知宇宙中视野最好的厕所”。
Space Perspective's co-founders Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum previously designed the air, food and water systems for the Biosphere 2 space base, in which they lived for two years.
太空视角公司的联合创始人简·波因特和泰伯·麦克卡拉姆之前为生物圈2号空间基地设计了空气、食物和水系统,他们在那里生活了两年。
"Our advanced space-balloon is designed to operate in the near vacuum found at the edge of space," says Space Perspective's website.
太空透视的网站上说:“我们先进的太空气球是为了在太空边缘的近真空环境中工作而设计的。”
"NASA has used similar balloons for decades for flying large research telescopes."
“几十年来,美国航空航天局一直使用类似的气球来发射大型研究望远镜。”
As helium is in limited supply and needed for critical medical applications, Spaceship Neptune uses hydrogen.
由于氦的供应有限,而且重要的医疗应用需要氦,所以海王星飞船使用了氢气。
"The lift gas inside the balloon is lighter than air and allows Neptune to float on top of the Earth's atmosphere like an ice cube on water," says Space Perspective.
“气球内的升力气体比空气轻,可以让海王星号漂浮在地球大气层的顶部,就像水上的冰块一样,”太空视角公司说道。
The world's first space tourist was US millionaire Dennis Tito, who arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) via a Russian Soyuz rocket back in April 2001.
世界上第一位太空游客是美国百万富翁丹尼斯·蒂托,他于2001年4月搭乘俄罗斯联盟号火箭抵达国际空间站。
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Only a handful have followed in his footsteps in the 20 years since, but companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX,
Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic are still banking on space tourism finally going interstellar.
此后的20年里,只有少数几家公司追随他的脚步,但像埃隆·马斯克的太空探测公司,杰夫·贝佐斯的蓝色起源公司和理查德·布兰森的维珍银河公司仍指望着太空旅游最终能进入星际。
Bezos plans to jet off next month to suborbital space on board Blue Origin's inaugural crewed mission, while SpaceX's proposal is that those with a few score million dollars to spare might spend days orbiting the Earth, or even stay aboard the International Space Station.
贝佐斯计划下个月搭乘蓝色起源的首次载人任务飞往亚轨道空间,而太空探测公司的提议是,那些有几百万美元闲钱的人可能会在绕地球轨道飞行数天,甚至在国际空间站上呆上几天。
Virgin Galactic, meanwhile, made its first test flight to the edge of space at the end of May, giving stocks in the company a massive 20% boost.
与此同时,维珍银河在5月底进行了首次太空边缘试飞,使该公司股价大幅上涨20%。
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