移民火星真人秀 Keeping up with the Martians

Thomas Mann believed in the power of perambulation: “Thoughts come clearly while one walks.” Not for three men and three women who, until this week, were incarcerated in a dome erected on a dormant volcano in Hawaii.

托马斯•曼(Thomas Mann)相信慢走的力量：“一个人走路时，思维变得清晰。”然而，对于直到近期一直置身于夏威夷一座休眠火山上的圆顶基地里的三男三女来说，情况并非如此。

During eight months of voluntary confinement on the slopes of Mauna Loa, a walk outside meant donning spacesuits and grappling with airlocks — hardly a recipe for mental clarity but, instead, preparation for what life might be like in the first human settlement on Mars. The isolation experiment, which finished on Saturday and was funded by Nasa, was designed to examine the psychological challenges for strangers brought inescapably together in a hostile Martian environment, where venturing out unprotected in the carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere would lead to suffocation within three minutes.

在莫纳罗亚山斜坡上八个月的自愿“监禁”期间，外出散步意味着要穿上宇航服、忍受气闸仓气压变化——这可不是保持头脑清醒的良方，而是为人类在火星上的首个定居点生活做准备。此次由美国国家航空航天局(NASA)资助的隔离实验6月13日结束，其目的是为了观察一群陌生人在被集体带到危险的火星环境中且无法逃脱的情况下遭遇的心理挑战。在没有防护的情况下冒险外出并暴露在火星富含二氧化碳的环境中，会导致一个人在三分钟内窒息而亡。

The vista from the dome’s single porthole was not the garland-strewn paradise of honeymooners but a barren, silent landscape of lava fields and mountains. The group, led by Canadian engineer Martha Lenio, reported missing the sun and wind on their skin, a varied diet, long showers and seeing the world through visorless eyes. Dr Lenio staved off boRedom by knitting, improving her French and learning the ukulele, writing in her blog: “It may actually be really weird to see other people again.” Disappointingly, the sextet still seem to be on jovial terms and have been enjoying the more familiar delights of Hawaii.

从圆顶基地唯一的舷窗看到的景象不是度蜜月的情侣们洒满花环的天堂，而是一片贫瘠、寂静的火山熔岩和山脉。由加拿大工程师玛莎•莱尼奥(Martha Lenio)率领的小组，报告了他们如何想念皮肤感受到阳光和风的感觉，想念各式各样的美食、长时间的淋浴和不用带着面罩看世界。莱尼奥博士通过织毛衣、提升自己的法语和学弹尤克里里琴来打发无聊的时光，她在博客中写道：“再次见到其他人时可能会真的感到非常奇怪。”令人失望的是，这个六人小组看起来仍很开心，一直享受着夏威夷那些更让人熟悉的欢乐之处。

The Red Planet is seen as humankind’s next cosmic destination: an obvious frontier as we seek out new worlds, not only for the pure thrill of exploration but also as an insurance policy should we screw things up on our own planet. Dr Lenio’s project forms part of a Nasa effort to send people to an asteroid in 2025 and to Mars in the 2030s; both missions are intended as return trips and will thus depend heavily on technological developments such as improved propulsion and sustainable living. Engineers can build rockets to travel the 225m km there; equipping them with the technology and propellant to bring travellers back is virtually impossible.

火星被视为人类在宇宙中的下一个目的地——我们探索新世界时显而易见的前沿阵地，不仅是为了探险的纯粹刺激，而且是作为一份万一我们在地球上生存不下去时的保险单。莱尼奥博士的项目是NASA努力的一部分，后者计划在2025年和本世纪30年代分别将人类送上一颗小行星和火星；两项任务都包括返程，因此，将严重依赖推进和维生等技术的进步。工程师能够建造飞行2.25亿公里到达火星的火箭；但靠现有的技术和推进燃料，要将宇航员带回地球几乎不可能。

Nasa, though, faces competition from Mars One, a controversial mission [WHO IS BEHIND THIS?]that has looked to private investors and crowdfunding rather than the public purse. Mars One, brainchild of Dutch entrepreneur Bas Lansdorp, is a faster and dirtier affair, open to all comers — and offers no ticket back. More than 200,000 applicants relished the idea of leaving Earth for good, with 100 surviving the selection process so far. The plan is that, in 2025 if funds suffice, some of them will emigrate to live permanently on Mars — or at least die trying. There is great scepticism about whether the mission will actually get off the ground.

不过，NASA面临着来自“火星一号”(Mars One)的竞争，后者是一项有争议的计划，主要面向私人投资者和众筹，不花费公帑。荷兰企业家巴斯•朗斯多普(Bas Lansdorp)提出的火星一号计划，是一项更快但也更邪门的计划，它对所有人开放，但没有返程票。超过20万申请者喜欢这个永久离开地球的想法，到目前为止共有100人通过了遴选过程。根据该计划，到2025年如果资金足够的话，他们中的一些人将永久移民到火星上居住——或者至少死在尝试的过程中。对于这项计划能否真正实施，存在很大的疑问。

Still, its selling proposition has chutzpah: this is not so much about going anywhere boldly as about reality television. Those behind Mars One plan to sell TV rights and strike sponsorship deals associated with arguably the biggest world event since the first Moon landing: the colonisation of another planet.

而且，其推销说辞十分厚颜无耻，实际上，与其说该计划是探索某地的大胆尝试，不如说是一场电视真人秀。那些火星一号背后的人，计划就堪称自人类首次登月以来最大的世界性事件——殖民另一个星球——出售电视转播权、签订赞助协议。

Mars certainly has box office potential. This autumn The Martian will be released — a Ridley Scott film about an astronaut left to survive on the planet after his crew mistakenly believes he died in a storm and return to Earth without him. Watching fellow humans trying to establish a settlement on Mars, for real, would be a curious televisual mix of the high-minded and the lowbrow — the grandness of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos blended with the coarser, voyeuristic appeal of Big Brother and Survivor.

火星当然拥有票房潜力。今年秋天，里德利•斯科特(Ridley Scott)导演的电影《火星》(The Martian)将上映，影片讲述了一名宇航员在被同伴误认为死于一场风暴而被单独留在火星上生存下来的故事。观看人类同胞真实地尝试在火星上建立定居点，将是一种令人好奇的电视体验，这种电视节目会是雅俗共赏——既有《卡尔•萨根的宇宙》(Carl Sagan’s Cosmos)的宏伟，又有《老大哥》(Big Brother)和《幸存者》(Survivor)较为粗俗和满足偷窥欲的吸引力。

Amid such cliffhangers as whether the publicity-craving pioneers will coax their edible plants to grow, or finish knitting their hazmat suits, lies the promise of a darker cinematic hinterland: death by solar radiation, the prospect of dwindling supplies and slow starvation (cannibalism?), and psychological meltdown as a Mars One astronaut regrets his irreversible decision. Perfect 21st-century viewing, I fear.

会有很多悬念，例如，那些渴望成名的先驱者是否会照看可食植物的生长，或编织好自己的防护服，在这些悬念之中，必定存在更为黑暗的电影般的危险：死于太阳辐射，可能发生补给品减少和缓慢的饥饿（会吃人？），以及当一名火星一号宇航员后悔自己做出不可逆转的决定时心理崩溃。恐怕这就是21世纪完美的电视节目。