美國副總統彭斯于本周二宣布，2024年美國將再次送宇航員登上月球，較美國國家航天航空局（NASA）的原計劃提前了四年。

在國家太空委員會于阿拉巴馬州亨茨維爾舉行的一次會議上，彭斯表示，起初設定的目標是2028年，“還不夠快”。他回顧道，肯尼迪政府1962年就成功實現宇航員登月，當時人類進入太空時代不過12年。他說，當今時代還要等9年，實在太久。據多家媒體報道，彭斯表示，“現在我們的實力可比當時強?！?/p>

國家太空委員會成立于1989年，1993年解散。2017年6月，特朗普任總統后下達總統令將其恢復。六個月后，特朗普將登月定為美國航空業的正式政策，最早2018年就要實現。本周二彭斯表態時進一步加快計劃日程，NASA的再登月計劃只有五年時間。

NASA的局長吉姆·布里登斯廷在聲明中表示：“唐納德·特朗普總統要求NASA加快重返月球的計劃，在2024年以前將人類再次送上月球。這次我們去月球會停留一段時間，利用登月經驗實現接下來的一大飛躍——送宇航員登陸火星?！?/p>

彭斯講話中也表現出對NASA有些不耐煩。他提到了波音公司花18年開發的太空發射系統，消耗了政府幾十億美元預算，結果“被官僚的惰性和所謂的分析癱瘓嚴重困擾?！?/p>

國家太空委員會建議特朗普，強制NASA“接受新的思維，首先要大膽制定目標，然后堅定履行?！鳖愃颇繕酥槐闶亲屳d人飛行器在月球的南極附近著陸，因為科學家認為月球南極富含水冰，可以用于支持生命。

“我們一定要把緊迫當口號，”彭斯在會上說，“這不僅僅是和對手的競爭，還是跟最大的敵人，也就是自滿情緒競賽?！?span>（財富中文網）

譯者：Pessy

審校：夏林

Vice President Mike Pence announced Tuesday the U.S. is going to send astronauts back to the moon’s surface in 2024, four year earlier than NASA had been planning.

Pence, speaking at a Huntsville, Ala., meeting of the National Space Council, said the original 2028 target date was “just not good enough.” Recalling the Kennedy administration’s efforts to send astronauts to the moon in 1962, only 12 years after the dawn of the space age, Pence said nine years was too long to wait. “We’re better than that,” he said, according to various press reports.

The National Space Council was created in 1989 before being disbanded in 1993. President Trump revived the council in June 2017 through an executive order. Six months later, Trump made it official U.S. space policy to return humans to the moon by as early as 2018. Tuesday’s announcement shortens the timeline, giving NASA only five years to return Americans to the moon.

“President Donald Trump has asked NASA to accelerate our plans to return to the Moon and to land humans on the surface again by 2024,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “This time, when we go to the Moon, we will stay. And then we will use what we learn on the Moon to take the next giant leap—sending astronauts to Mars ”

Pence’s speech expressed a note of impatience toward NASA, saying that a rocket known as the Space Launch System—which Boeing has been developing for 18 years while running billions of dollars over budget—has “been plagued by bureaucratic inertia, by what some call the paralysis of analysis.”

The council will recommend that Trump force NASA to “embrace a new mindset that begins with setting bold goals and staying on schedule.” One such goal is to prepare for a crewed mission’s landing near the moon’s south pole, which scientists believe contains enough ice that can be used to support life.

“Urgency must be our watchword,” Pence said at the meeting. “It’s not just competition against our adversaries. We’re also racing against our worst enemy: complacency.”