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From the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of Apollo eleven to Israel's attempt at a lunar landing, the Moon has been in the news a lot lately!
无论是即将到来的阿波罗号15周年纪念，还是以色列的登月尝试，月球最近频繁出现在新闻中。
And one announcement that's gotten a lot of attention is NASA's new challenge from the White House:
有一项宣布获得了大量关注——美国宇航局（NASA）收到了来自美国政府的一项新挑战：
return American astronauts to the lunar surface by 2024.
在2024年之前，将美国宇航员送回月球表面。
It's a big goal, considering how much time, effort, and equipment it takes to send people to space, but last week, one company stepped up to offer some help.
这不是个小目标，毕竟将人送入太空需要投入大量的时间、精力和设备。不过，上周的时候，一家公司为这项工作提供了新的助力。
And in the process, they made their own huge announcement.
在研发的过程中，他们做出了一项重大宣布。
At a fancy press event, Blue Origin revealed that they've quietly been developing a lunar lander called Blue Moon, and they gave us our first good look at it.
在一次备受关注的新闻发布会上，这家名为蓝色起源的公司宣布，他们低调研发了一个月球着陆器，名为蓝月。在发布会上，他们首次展示了蓝月的形象。
If you've heard of Blue Origin before, it's probably because the company was founded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
如果你曾听过这家公司，那很有可能是因为这家公司是由亚马逊的杰夫·贝索斯创立的。
Or maybe you've heard about their reusable, suborbital rockets, dubbed New Shepard.
又或者你可能听说过他们可多次利用的亚轨道火箭，即新谢泼德火箭。
Either way, the company has been making big strides in the last few years.
无论你是如何得知这家公司的，这家公司在过去几年间都实现了巨大进展。
But with Blue Moon, they're venturing into new territory.
不过，有了蓝月之后，该公司进入了新时期。
Because until now, Blue Origin's most famous work has focused on suborbital launches, that is, those that go to space but don't orbit the Earth.
因为截至目前为止，蓝色起源最知名的作品关注的是亚轨道发射——进入太空但不会环绕地球运行的发射。
And none of them have been crewed. At this point, their new lander is primarily designed to deliver cargo,
目前为止，亚轨道发射还不能载人，主要是用来运送货物的。
but it can also be modified to accommodate astronauts, supposedly by 2024, which would really help out NASA.
不过，在经过调试后，可能可以在2024年之前实现载人，从而帮到NASA。
Last week, Bezos announced that their intent is to send a mission to Shackleton Crater at the Moon's south pole.
上周，贝索斯宣布他们的目标是发射飞行器到月球南极的沙克尔顿火山口。
It isn't totally clear when that will happen, but as far as destinations go, Shackleton Crater might be considered prime lunar real estate.
目前尚不确定何时会发射，不过，就目的地而言，沙克尔顿火山口可能是月球上主要的选择了。
Outside the crater, it's almost always daylight, which means that you could get the most out of any solar panels you brought along.
该火山口外，几乎都是白天。也就是说，大部分能量都能通过所配置的太阳能电池板来获得。
Meanwhile, the inside of the crater almost never sees the Sun, so we're pretty sure it's full of water ice.
与此同时，火山口内部几乎遮天蔽日，所以我们很确信里面充满了固态水。
That's great for drinking purposes, but it's also important because missions could use electricity to break the water molecules apart into oxygen and hydrogen gas.
从饮用水的角度来讲，这是个好消息。不过，还有一点很重要——由于太空任务要通过电来分解水分子为氢氧原子。
The oxygen gets you something to breathe, but together with the hydrogen, it also gives you power.
氧气是呼吸的必要条件，但有了氢，就有了能量。
Hydrogen is a great fuel source, and you can use oxygen to make it combust.
氢是很好的燃料，有了氧气，氢气就能燃烧。
Right now, the idea is that Blue Moon would take several trips to the lunar surface to prepare for the astronauts and deliver supplies, a few thousand kilograms at a time.
目前，他们的想法是：蓝月着陆月球表面几次，为后续的载人任务做准备，同时可以输送物资，每次可输送几千公斤的物资。
Then, humans would make the journey.
然后，就可以着手载人登月了。
But even though their announcement was super exciting, Blue Origin has a lot of work to do before they're ready to go.
不过，即便他们发布的消息让人激动，但蓝色起源在一切准备就绪前还有很多工作要做。
Like, for one, they have to test a new engine. To land Blue Moon, the company's engineers have designed what they're calling the BE-7 engine, which uses liquid hydrogen and oxygen.
比如，其中一方面就是：他们要测试新的发动机。为了让蓝月着陆，该公司的工程师们设计了BE-7发动机，该发动机的燃料是液态氢和液态氧。
Its first hotfire test is scheduled for this summer, and that's where they'll make sure all the electrical components work and the fuel explodes in a planned, controlled manner.
其第一次试射定于今年夏天。那时候，他们就可以确保所有电子设备可以正常工作，以及燃料爆炸按计划以可控的方式进行。
Still, even if that goes a hundred percent according to plan, there's no news yet about when its first test launch will be.
不过，即便完全按照计划进行，目前，我们还未得到消息，不知道其第一次试射会是什么时候。
And that's just for the lander. Blue Origin also has to build a totally new rocket, since New Shepard is only capable of reaching suborbital altitudes.
这还只是着陆器的问题。蓝色起源还必须建造一个全新的火箭，因为新谢泼德火箭只能抵达亚轨道的高度。
Their new vehicle will be called New Glenn, and although it's still in the design phase, it will supposedly enter service in 2021.
新火箭名为新格伦。虽然目前还在设计阶段，但预计会于2021年投入使用。
Assuming it works, New Glenn will serve as competition against SpaceX's Falcon Heavy and NASA's future Space Launch System, both of which could also carry people to the Moon.
假设它可正常使用，新格伦对太空探索技术公司的猎鹰重型运载火箭和美国宇航局（NASA）的太空发射系统是个冲击。这两个都可以载人登月。
So whatever gets us there, and however long it takes us, it looks like we're finally headed back to the lunar surface.
所以，无论最后采用哪种方案，无论需要花费多长时间，我们似乎终于走到登月的最后一步了。
Well, at least as far as humans go.
至少是人类历史上最远的一步。
Robots are already on the Moon, including China's lander Chang'e-4.
机器人登月已经实现，其中包括中国的着陆器嫦娥四号。
And according to a paper published this week in the journal Nature, it's helping us figure out what the Moon is made of.
《自然》杂志上本周发表了一篇论文，这篇论文帮助我们弄清了月球的组成成分。
Spoilers! It's still not cheese. Like the Earth's interior, the Moon has layers: a crust, a mantle, and a core.
前方高能剧透！月球并非由芝士组成。它跟地球的内部组成相似，也是由多层组成：地壳、地幔、内核。
Basically, when it was super young and still molten, denser material sank toward the center, and lighter stuff rose to the surface.
总体来说，月球的年龄很小，依然有许多熔岩活动，密度更大的物质会向月球的内核运动，而质量较轻的物质则会浮到表面。
So far, we know that most of the lunar crust is made of a mineral called plagioclase.
目前为止，我们知道的是，大多数月球的地壳都是由一种名为斜长石的矿物质组成的。
And based on what they've seen of the Moon's ancient lava flows, scientists think the mantle likely contains so-called mafic minerals, those rich in things like iron and magnesium.
根据科学家观测到的月球远古的熔岩流，科学家认为，地幔很有可能包含所谓的铁镁矿物，即富含铁和镁的矿物质。
Still, it's hard to be totally sure what those mafic minerals are, because, well, it's kind of hard getting to the lunar mantle.
不过，目前还很难确定这些铁镁矿物是什么，因为很难接近月球的地幔。
It doesn't start until you're tens of kilometers below the surface, and we don't have any probes on the Moon that can drill that far down.
地幔在月球表面数十公里以下的地方，我们的探测器还无法深入到那样深的地方。
So scientists have mostly had to make due hunting for rocks on the surface that somehow made their way up from the mantle.
因此，科学家免不了要研究月球表面的石块，从而建立与地幔之间的联系。
The ideal locations for this kind of work are large, deep impact craters, where huge collisions could have blasted up underground rock.
研究月球石块的理想地点是又大又深的陨石坑，因为这里曾经发生过的巨大撞击可能会掀起地下的石块。
And that's where Chang'e-4 comes in.
这时候就要提到嫦娥四号了。
This January, it and its rover, Yutu-2, landed in one of those craters.
今年1月，嫦娥四号及其巡视器在其中一个火山口着陆。
Specifically, Von Karman crater, which is located in the enormous South Pole-Aitken basin on the Moon's far side.
这个火山口就是冯卡曼火山口。该火山口位于月球远侧巨大的南极艾肯盆地。
For the record, that basin also contains Shackleton Crater.
该盆地内部还有一个火山口，名为沙克尔顿火山口。
Lunar orbiters had detected minerals in the basin that could have possibly come from the mantle, but we needed some kind of eyes on the ground to check if it was true.
月球附近的多个宇宙飞船探测到了盆地中的矿物质，这些矿物质很有可能来自于地幔。但我们需要进一步观测才能证实这一点。
For the last five months, Yutu-2 has been collecting the light signature of the surrounding rocks to figure out what elements they're made of, and in what abundances.
过去5个月间，玉兔2号一直在收集附近石块的光影签字，借此弄清楚其组成成分以及富含的成分。
And in this new paper, scientists confirmed that this area is rich in mafic minerals!
这篇新发表的论文中，科学家确认了一点：该区域富含铁镁矿物！
The researchers think that these minerals didn't actually come from Von Karman, though, since it was flooded a long time ago by volcanic basalt.
科学家认为，这些矿物质实际上来自于冯卡曼火山口，虽然很久以前，这里曾被火山的岩浆吞没。
Instead, they think they sprinkled down from the impact that created the Finsen crater, which is much younger and located nearby.
他们认为，这次撞击产生了芬森撞击坑，矿物质从坑里流出。芬森撞击坑产生的时间更短一些，而且就在附近。
Still, no matter which crater they came from, the minerals Yutu-2 found are a lot different than the typical stuff we see on the lunar surface.
不过，不管矿物质来自于哪个火山口，玉兔2号发现的矿物质跟我们在月球表面发现的典型矿物质迥然不同。
They're made of minerals called olivine and low-calcium (ortho) pyroxene, which scientists have assumed were in the lunar mantle for a long time.
它们由橄榄石和低钙辉石组成，而科学家认为，这两种物质已经存在于月球地幔很久了。
Unfortunately, even if the evidence is promising, it's too soon to tell if these rocks actually come from the mantle and not just the lower crust.
不幸的是，即便证据看起来有希望证实，但现在还不能下定论说这些石块来自于地幔而非地壳的下部。
But as Yutu-2 keeps working, we'll probably get an update.
不过，玉兔2号还在持续探索中，我们很有可能会得到最新消息。
Studies like this are a great reminder that we haven't learned everything there is to know about the Moon, which makes it really exciting to think about the future.
类似于这样的研究提醒着我们：我们对月球还没有全面了解，所以，在想到未来收获的时候总会十分激动。
Because if we're still learning so much from robotic missions, just imagine what we'll figure out when we send human scientists there!
激动是因为如果我们还能从机器人进行的任务中收获良多，那么人类登月后就能发现更多！
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Space News!
感谢收看本期的《太空科学秀》！
If you want to keep up with the latest news in astronomy and in the space industry, you can go to youtube.com/scishowspace and subscribe.
如果您想持续跟进天文学和太空有关的最新消息，就请订阅youtube.com/scishowspace吧。
We make a new episode like this every Friday!
我们每周五都会更新一集。
