[(Title)] Missions to Mars Were Possible 'Decades Ago' but Would Have Killed Astronauts, Former Space Station Commander Says

A former astronaut who spent months 250 miles above Earth says humans could have traveled to Mars  "decades ago" —but the missions would have almost certainly ended in death.

一位曾在离地球250英里远的前宇航员说，人类可能在“几十年前”就能到达火星，但是飞行任务几乎肯定会以死亡告终。

Space programs like NASA and SpaceX have the technology to send astronauts to Mars, retired International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield said.

美国航天局和空间X等航天项目拥有向火星派遣宇航员的技术，退休的国际空间站指挥官克里斯·哈德菲尔德说。

But even with the means to travel, astronauts likely would have died in transit due to the high-risk conditions of a long space outing.

但是，即使有了旅行手段，宇航员可能也会由于长期出游的高风险状况在空间旅行中死亡。

"The majority of astronauts that we send on those missions wouldn't make it,"  he told Business Insider.

“我们派来执行飞行任务的大多数宇航员不会这么做，”他告诉《商业内幕》说。

The trip to Mars, about 140 million miles from Earth, could take up to three years. Longer space flights expose astronauts to higher risks of explosion, fuel and food shortages, and cosmic radiation that could cause long-term brain damage, he said.

离地球约1.4亿英里的火星之行可能需要长达三年，长距离空间飞行使宇航员面临更大的爆炸、燃料和粮食短缺以及可能造成长期脑损伤的宇宙辐射的风险，他说。

Current spacecraft use chemical rockets to blast through Earth's atmosphere and space, a relatively inefficient mode of space travel that trades supplies and protection gear capacity for fuel stores.

目前的航天器使用化学火箭撞击地球大气层和空间，这是相对低效的空间旅行模式，用来交易燃料储存用品和保护用具能力。

Even emerging rockets like SpaceX's Big Falcon and NASA's Space Launch System burn fuel to launch into space. Hadfield compared the method to  "using a sailboat or a pedal boat to try and travel around the world.

即使是正在出现的火箭，如SpaceX的大猎鹰和美国宇航局的空间发射系统，也焚烧燃料发射到太空，Hadfield将该方法比作“使用帆船或踏板船来尝试和环游世界”。

"I don't think those are a practical way to send people to Mars because they're dangerous and it takes too long, and it therefore exposes us to a risk for a long time,"  he said.

他说：“我认为这不是送人到火星的实际方法，因为它们很危险，而且耗时太长，因此会给我们带来很长一段时间的风险。”

Former astronaut Chris Hadfield said space agencies had the technology to send man-led missions to Mars "decades ago," but astronauts likely would've died on the dangerous trip.   (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images)

前宇航员克里斯?哈德菲尔德(Chris Hadfield)表示，太空机构拥有“几十年前”载人率领的火星飞行任务，但宇航员有可能在危险的旅程中死亡。

Prolonged space travel is possible, though: NASA astronaut Scott Kelly spent 340 consecutive days at the International Space Station in 2015 through 2016, the longest stay in space by an American astronaut.

虽然可以进行长期太空旅行：美国宇航局宇航员Scott Kelly在2015年至2016年在国际空间站连续逗留了340天，这是美国宇航员在太空逗留时间最长的一次。

A Martian tour would mark the farthest interplanetary distance traveled by humans, a record currently held by the 1970 Apollo 13 mission, which ventured almost 250,000 miles from Earth—about 1/560 of the way to Mars.

火星之旅将标志着人类飞行最远的行星际距离，阿波罗13号飞行任务目前记录了1970年阿波罗13号飞行任务，该飞行任务离地球将近25万英里，距火星旅行大约1/560英里。

Scientists have already tested the limits of human life on Mars.

科学家已经测试了人类在火星上的生命限度。

In 1991, astronauts began a two-year earthbound mission inside Biosphere 2, an ecological chamber and space colony simulation that generated the air, food and water conditions found on the planet to measure the human response.

1991年，宇航员在生物圈2内开始了为期两年的地球任务，这是一个生态室和太空殖民地模拟，它产生了地球上发现的空气，食物和水条件，以测量人类的反应。

Project researchers posited that life on Mars would require a bioregenerative system in which plants, animals and microbes replenish the necessary conditions for life in an air-locked enclosure.

项目研究人员认为，火星上的生命需要一个生物再生系统，在这个系统中，植物、动物和微生物可以补充空中封闭围栏中的生命必要条件。

Travel to the Red Planet is still at least a decade away, according to NASA.

据美国航天局称，前往红色星球的旅行至少还要十年。

The agency said it plans to send man-led missions to Mars sometime in the 2030s, after President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive 1 in December 2017, which called for expanded human exploration of the solar system.

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普于2017年12月签署了《空间政策指令》(第1号指令)，其中要求扩大人类对太阳系的探索。