????丹麥兩名業余火箭愛好者，也是“哥本哈根亞軌道組織”（Copenhagen Suborbitals）的創辦人用手工制造出了一枚所謂“開源、靠捐款資助的、非營利性的火箭”。他們的目標是要把人送進太空，而且他們將于今年夏天進行試射（不載人）。此外還有另一種聽起來不那么令人嘖嘖稱奇、但意義卻更深遠的低軌道設備。這是一種只有手掌大小的標準化人造衛星，名叫“立方星”（CubSat）。自從2003年以來，以及有50多顆立方星搭著“順風車”隨火箭進入太空。它們造價便宜（只有10萬美元左右），易于制造，而且最重要的是，它們留下了失敗的空間，因此可以讓科學家盡情發揮創造性。它既是一個盒子，又能讓你跳出盒子之外去思考。就連加州州立理工大學（California Polytechnic，“立方星”項目背后的學校之一）的一個本科生都可以在畢業前設計、制造和發射一枚衛星進入太空。

????一旦進入空軌道，這些小方塊能做些什么呢？到目前為止，還做不了什么革命性的事（大部分都只是去拍照的）。但它拉近了太空與普通人的距離，這意味著太空將不再是那些最有錢的人和那些拿著巨額政府合同的人的后花園。太空與普通人的距離越近，像互聯網那樣的重大創新就越有可能發生。馬斯科對未來的推測比他自己意識到的還要正確。

????譯者：樸成奎

????In Denmark, two amateur rocketeers behind Copenhagen Suborbitals have hand-built what they call an "open source, donation funded, non-profit rocket." The goal is to send a man into space, and they are test launching the craft (without humans) this summer. A more game-changing -- though perhaps less immediately impressive -- low-orbit device is a standardized satellite that fits in the palm of your hand. Called a CubSat, 50 have reached space as stowaways on rockets since 2003. They are cheap (at $100,000 a comparative bargain), easy to build, and—most important of all—leave room for failure, which allows for creativity. It's a box that allows thinking outside, well, the box. An ambitious undergrad at California Polytechnic (one of the universities behind CubeSats) could design, build, and launch a satellite into space by the time she graduates.

????What will these little cubes do once in orbit? So far, nothing revolutionary (taking photos, mostly) but the more accessible space becomes for everyone, not just those with the deepest pockets or largest government contracts, the greater to possibility for radical innovation on the order of the Internet. Maybe Musk was more right than he realized.