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.

托馬斯•曼(Thomas Mann)相信慢走的力量：“一個人走路時，思維變得清晰。”然而，對於直到近期一直置身於夏威夷一座休眠火山上的圓頂基地裏的三男三女來說，情況並非如此。

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.

在莫納羅亞山斜坡上八個月的自願“監禁”期間，外出散步意味着要穿上宇航服、忍受氣閘倉氣壓變化——這可不是保持頭腦清醒的良方，而是爲人類在火星上的首個定居點生活做準備。此次由美國國家航空航天局(NASA)資助的隔離實驗6月13日結束，其目的是爲了觀察一羣陌生人在被集體帶到危險的火星環境中且無法逃脫的情況下遭遇的心理挑戰。在沒有防護的情況下冒險外出並暴露在火星富含二氧化碳的環境中，會導致一個人在三分鐘內窒息而亡。

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.

從圓頂基地唯一的舷窗看到的景象不是度蜜月的情侶們灑滿花環的天堂，而是一片貧瘠、寂靜的火山熔岩和山脈。由加拿大工程師瑪莎•萊尼奧(Martha Lenio)率領的小組，報告了他們如何想念皮膚感受到陽光和風的感覺，想念各式各樣的美食、長時間的淋浴和不用帶着面罩看世界。萊尼奧博士通過織毛衣、提升自己的法語和學彈尤克裏裏琴來打發無聊的時光，她在博客中寫道：“再次見到其他人時可能會真的感到非常奇怪。”令人失望的是，這個六人小組看起來仍很開心，一直享受着夏威夷那些更讓人熟悉的歡樂之處。

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.

火星被視爲人類在宇宙中的下一個目的地——我們探索新世界時顯而易見的前沿陣地，不僅是爲了探險的純粹刺激，而且是作爲一份萬一我們在地球上生存不下去時的保險單。萊尼奧博士的項目是NASA努力的一部分，後者計劃在2025年和本世紀30年代分別將人類送上一顆小行星和火星；兩項任務都包括返程，因此，將嚴重依賴推進和維生等技術的進步。工程師能夠建造飛行2.25億公里到達火星的火箭；但靠現有的技術和推進燃料，要將宇航員帶回地球幾乎不可能。

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.

不過，NASA面臨着來自“火星一號”(Mars One)的競爭，後者是一項有爭議的計劃，主要面向私人投資者和衆籌，不花費公帑。荷蘭企業家巴斯•朗斯多普(Bas Lansdorp)提出的火星一號計劃，是一項更快但也更邪門的計劃，它對所有人開放，但沒有返程票。超過20萬申請者喜歡這個永久離開地球的想法，到目前爲止共有100人通過了遴選過程。根據該計劃，到2025年如果資金足夠的話，他們中的一些人將永久移民到火星上居住——或者至少死在嘗試的過程中。對於這項計劃能否真正實施，存在很大的疑問。

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，其推銷說辭十分厚顏無恥，實際上，與其說該計劃是探索某地的大膽嘗試，不如說是一場電視真人秀。那些火星一號背後的人，計劃就堪稱自人類首次登月以來最大的世界性事件——殖民另一個星球——出售電視轉播權、簽訂贊助協議。

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.

火星當然擁有票房潛力。今年秋天，裏德利•斯科特(Ridley Scott)導演的電影《火星》(The Martian)將上映，影片講述了一名宇航員在被同伴誤認爲死於一場風暴而被單獨留在火星上生存下來的故事。觀看人類同胞真實地嘗試在火星上建立定居點，將是一種令人好奇的電視體驗，這種電視節目會是雅俗共賞——既有《卡爾•薩根的宇宙》(Carl Sagan’s Cosmos)的宏偉，又有《老大哥》(Big Brother)和《倖存者》(Survivor)較爲粗俗和滿足偷窺欲的吸引力。

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.

會有很多懸念，例如，那些渴望成名的先驅者是否會照看可食植物的生長，或編織好自己的防護服，在這些懸念之中，必定存在更爲黑暗的電影般的危險：死於太陽輻射，可能發生補給品減少和緩慢的飢餓（會吃人？），以及當一名火星一號宇航員後悔自己做出不可逆轉的決定時心理崩潰。恐怕這就是21世紀完美的電視節目。