俄罗斯联邦航天署1亿美元推出月球14日游

　　Russia's federal space agency took a giant leap in the field of cosmic tourism yesterday with the announcement it will offer a $100m (?57m) trip to the moon.

　　Roskosmos leaked details of the project as Nasa's space shuttle Discovery prepared for launch from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. A source at the Russian agency confirmed to the Guardian that the technology was in place for a flight to be launched within 18 months of a down payment.

　　The fortnight-long trip would include a week at the International Space Station (ISS) before blasting off to the moon and completing a full orbit 100 miles above its surface.

　　The only two space tourists so far, American Dennis Tito and South African Mark Shuttleworth, got no further than the ISS for $20m each and no Russian cosmonaut has ever orbited the moon.

　　A single tourist accompanied by one astronaut could go on each trip in a modified Soyuz-TMA capsule to be launched from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

　　"The tourist would go up in that capsule and spend the first week on the ISS," said the Roskosmos source. "Then a powerful booster like Proton would be launched from Earth with an accelerator block to dock with the craft at the space station."

　　That accelerator block - basically, an engine with fuel tanks - would then be used to propel the spacecraft towards the moon.

　　The Soviet Union sent the first unmanned probe to land on the moon in 1959. It came close to launching a manned flight to the moon but dropped its programme when the Americans got there first a decade later.

　　Space tourists will not land on its surface but will circle its dark side and orbit close enough to examine its cratered lunar crust. They would live in two cramped modules about three metres across and eat biscuits and food in tubes.

　　Any candidate for the expedition would have to undergo several months of intensive training at Star City near Moscow.

　　在美国“发现”号航天飞机重新燃起全球宇宙热潮之时，俄罗斯联邦航天署日前不失时机地推出“月球之旅”：谁能掏出1亿美元，就可以带他前往月球观光。

　　据英国《卫报》7月27日报道，俄罗斯联邦航天署26日透露了“月球之旅”的详细内容：在预付定金后的18个月内，每名“月球之旅”的观光客在一名宇航员的陪同下，单独搭乘俄罗斯的“联盟”号飞船从哈萨克斯坦的拜克努尔基地升空，在国际空间站上逗留一周，再乘坐“联盟”号飞船前往月球，大约1周后返回地球。

　　与宇航员真正登陆月球不同的是，“月球之旅”的观光客将不在月球表面着陆，而是只对月球进行近距离参观。观光客将居住在3米宽的飞船舱内，吃饭喝水都用管子。在每趟为期14天的旅行开始前，观光客将到莫斯科附近的宇航员培训基地接受数月的强化训练。

　　参加“月球之旅”的观光客需要支付的1亿美元中，包括月球旅游的成本费9000万美元和用于支付飞船船长的费用350万美元。

　　到目前为止，全世界只有两人完成了私人的太空之旅。第一位是美国富翁丹尼斯·蒂托，第二位是南非富翁马克·沙特尔沃斯，但二人的游览范围都仅限于国际空间站内，且耗资都为2000万美元。