100 years after Robert Goddard's 1st liquid-fueled rocket launch, NASA is using the technology to send astronauts back to the moon

百年之后：NASA用液体燃料火箭技术重返月球

100 years ago, a liquid-fueled rocket flew into the sky for the very first time. The unlikely contraption was designed by Clark University physics professor Robbert Goddard, and launched from a cabbage field in Auburn, Massachusetts on March 16, 1926.

100年前，一枚液体燃料火箭首次飞向天空。这一看似不起眼的装置由克拉克大学物理学教授罗伯特·戈达德设计，并于1926年3月16日在马萨诸塞州奥本的一片卷心菜地里发射升空。

Goddard's design climbed a short 40 feet into the air that day, but launched the world into an era of modern rocketry that would lead to the first moon landing less than 50 years later. After his initial success, Goddard continued developing increasingly sophisticated systems and breakthroughs that paved the way for the technological foundation upon which nearly every major rocket, from early missiles and military vehicles to orbital launch vehicles, has been based. And, within only a few decades, would carry humanity's first satellites and eventually astronauts into space.

那一天，戈达德设计的火箭仅仅升空了40英尺，但却开启了现代火箭技术的时代，并在不到50年后推动人类实现了首次登月。初次成功之后，戈达德不断研发日益复杂的系统并取得关键突破，为几乎所有重大火箭技术奠定了基础——从早期导弹和军用飞行器到轨道运载火箭，无不建立在他的成果之上。仅仅几十年间，这些技术便将人类的第一颗卫星送入太空，并最终把宇航员送上太空。

Now, on the 100th anniversary of that first flight, humanity is poised for a lunar return as the first crewed mission of NASA's Artemis program nears its launch date on a vehicle 30 times larger than Goddard's rocket.

如今，在那次首次飞行100周年之际，随着美国国家航空航天局“阿耳忒弥斯”计划的首次载人任务临近发射，人类正蓄势待发，准备重返月球——所使用的运载火箭规模是戈达德当年火箭的30倍之大。

Today, Goddard is regarded as the father of modern rocketry, and is the namesake for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Much of the technologies introduced in his designs are still central to the function of today's launch vehicles, including turbopumps, gimbaling engines and gyroscopic guidance.

如今，戈达德被誉为现代火箭之父，美国国家航空航天局位于马里兰州格林贝尔特的戈达德太空飞行中心也以他的名字命名。他在设计中引入的许多技术，至今仍是现代运载火箭运行的核心，包括涡轮泵、发动机摆动控制以及陀螺仪制导等。

Those technologies evolved to support NASA's missions during the space race of the 1960s, carrying astronauts to orbit as part of the agency's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, and, as the decades continued, the space shuttle.

这些技术不断发展完善，在20世纪60年代的太空竞赛中支撑了美国国家航空航天局的各项任务，使宇航员得以通过“水星”“双子座”和“阿波罗”计划进入轨道；此后数十年间，这些技术又继续应用于航天飞机项目。

Now, Goddard's fundamentals are being put back to work as a part of NASA's Artemis program to return humanity to the moon.

如今，戈达德奠定的基础技术正被重新应用于美国国家航空航天局的“阿耳忒弥斯”计划中，助力人类重返月球。

Standing only 10 feet (3 meters) tall, Goddard's rocket burned liquid oxygen and gasoline — a revolutionary idea at a time when rockets relied almost entirely on solid propellants. Solid rocket boosters, like the kind designed to help lift NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) for Artemis through Earth's atmosphere, are still in use today. Solid boosters, though, come with some disadvantages. Once they're lit, they're lit. There's no extinguishing solid propellants after ignition. They will burn completely through at a consistent thrust until spent.

戈达德的火箭仅高10英尺（约3米），使用液氧和汽油作为推进剂——在当时，这一理念具有革命性意义，因为彼时的火箭几乎完全依赖固体推进剂。如今，固体火箭助推器仍在使用，例如用于帮助美国国家航空航天局“太空发射系统”（SLS）在“阿耳忒弥斯”任务中突破地球大气层的助推器。不过，固体助推器也存在一些缺点。一旦点火，就无法关闭；固体推进剂在点燃后无法熄灭，只能以相对稳定的推力持续燃烧，直至燃料耗尽。

Liquid propellants, on the other hand, allow engineers to throttle that raw power into a precisely controlled thrust, and offer far more power than their solid predecessors. The concept is simple: liquid fuel and oxidizer are pumped into a chamber where they are ignited to create an explosion of superheated gas that's channeled and expelled from an engine nozzle at tremendous speed, propelling a rocket upward, or in whichever direction it happens to be pointing.

相比之下，液体推进剂使工程师能够将这种强大的动力调节为精确可控的推力，而且其性能也远超早期的固体推进剂。其原理并不复杂：液体燃料和氧化剂被泵入燃烧室后点燃，产生高温高压气体，这些气体经由发动机喷管以极高速度喷出，从而推动火箭向上飞行，或朝其所指的方向运动。

Just like its earliest predecessor, SLS relies on the introduction of a spark to a mixture of pressurized liquid fuel and liquid oxygen to power the massive 322-foot tall (98 meters) rocket into orbit. Atop that rocket when it launches no earlier than April 1, an Orion spacecraft will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen on a 10-day mission around the moon and back to Earth.

与其最早的前身一样，“太空发射系统”（SLS）同样依靠将火花引入加压的液体燃料与液氧混合物中点火，从而为这枚高达322英尺（约98米）的巨型火箭提供动力，使其进入轨道。按计划最早不早于4月1日发射时，火箭顶部搭载的“猎户座”飞船将载有美国国家航空航天局宇航员里德·怀斯曼、维克托·格洛弗、克里斯蒂娜·科赫，以及加拿大航天局宇航员杰里米·汉森，执行一次为期10天的绕月飞行任务，并返回地球。

Their mission, Artemis 2, is the first crewed flight of NASA's new lunar program, which aims to eventually establish a permanent human presence on the surface of the moon. While the astronauts of Artemis 2 won't be landing on the moon themselves, their mission is an important stepping stone toward NASA's ultimate goal.

他们此次任务——“阿耳忒弥斯2号”，是美国国家航空航天局新一轮登月计划中的首次载人飞行任务，该计划的最终目标是在月球表面建立人类的长期驻留。尽管“阿耳忒弥斯2号”的宇航员此次不会登陆月球，但这次任务是实现美国国家航空航天局终极目标的重要一步。

Ultimately, Artemis 2 is meant as a crewed shakedown flight for Orion. Similar to the progression of the spaceflight missions of the 1960s, NASA has shaped each flight of the Artemis program to build on its predecessor.

从根本上说，“阿耳忒弥斯2号”旨在作为“猎户座”飞船的一次载人试飞任务。与20世纪60年代航天任务的发展路径类似，美国国家航空航天局对“阿耳忒弥斯”计划的每一次飞行都进行了系统设计，使其在前一次任务的基础上不断推进。

After a successful demonstration of Orion's life support systems around the moon on Artemis 2, Artemis 3 will launch to Earth orbit to practice rendezvous and docking maneuvers with the program's lunar landers. NASA is planning to launch Artemis 3 at some point during 2027, with Artemis 4 reserved as the program's first crewed lunar landing scheduled for 2028.

在“阿耳忒弥斯2号”成功完成围绕月球对“猎户座”飞船生命保障系统的验证之后，“阿耳忒弥斯3号”将发射进入地球轨道，开展与该计划月球着陆器的交会对接演练。美国国家航空航天局计划在2027年某个时间发射“阿耳忒弥斯3号”，而“阿耳忒弥斯4号”则被安排为该计划的首次载人登月任务，预计于2028年实施。

Artemis 2 is expected to launch much sooner. That mission is potentially just weeks away from liftoff. The Artemis 2 SLS is currently scheduled to roll out from the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to the pad at Launch Complex-39B on March 19. Once there, NASA hopes to prepare the rocket and ground systems for a launch window that lasts from April 1-6.

“阿耳忒弥斯2号”的发射时间则要近得多，这项任务距离发射可能仅有数周之遥。目前，这枚用于执行“阿耳忒弥斯2号”任务的“太空发射系统”（SLS）火箭计划于3月19日从美国国家航空航天局位于佛罗里达州肯尼迪航天中心的飞行器总装大楼运往39B发射复合体发射台。抵达后，美国国家航空航天局将对火箭及地面系统进行准备，力争在4月1日至6日的发射窗口期内完成发射。

What began as a small experimental flight in that Massachusetts field ultimately sparked a century of exploration that continues to carry us into the stars today. In the hundred years since Goddard's first launch, rockets have grown from experimental machines to the backbone of space exploration, and enabled humanity's reach of exploration to extend to every planet in our solar system and beyond. And, as NASA prepares to return humanity to the moon with Artemis, the legacy of that first liquid-fueled rocket remains visible in every mission.

始于马萨诸塞州那片田地里的一次小型试验飞行，最终点燃了持续百年的探索历程，并将人类不断推向星辰大海。在戈达德首次发射后的一个世纪里，火箭已从实验性装置发展为太空探索的中坚力量，使人类的探索足迹遍及太阳系各大行星乃至更遥远的宇宙。而如今，随着美国国家航空航天局通过“阿耳忒弥斯”计划准备重返月球，那枚最初的液体燃料火箭所留下的遗产，依然在每一次任务中清晰可见。