第1535期:Women in space

There's no doubt that one of the greatest achievements by humankind is the exploration of space. Ever since cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to journey into space in 1961, scientists have been exploring it and pushing the boundaries to try and go further and discover things that are yet to be discovered. But probably the only thing that's certain about this exploration into the unknown so far, is it's been dominated by men.

毫无疑问，人类最伟大的成就之一就是对太空的探索。自从 1961 年宇航员尤里·加加林成为第一个进入太空的人以来，科学家们一直在探索它并突破界限，试图走得更远，发现尚未被发现的事物。但到目前为止，对于这种对未知的探索，唯一可以确定的是，它一直由男性主导。

Of course, in the past, women haven't been excluded from space projects. Women have been involved on the ground at mission control – and behind the scenes women have worked as seamstresses, stitching vital spaceflight components. In fact, many of NASA's key missions would never have left the ground without them. And it was a group of black female mathematicians, recently depicted in a Hollywood movie called Hidden Figures, who helped NASA launch an American into space.

当然，在过去，女性并没有被排除在太空项目之外。女性参与了任务控制的地面工作——在幕后，女性担任裁缝，缝合重要的航天部件。事实上，如果没有它们，NASA 的许多关键任务永远不会离开地面。这是一群黑人女数学家，最近在一部名为 Hidden Figures 的好莱坞电影中被描绘出来，他们帮助美国宇航局将一名美国人送入太空。

But this hasn't been women's only contribution. Back in 1963, Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to blast off into space. However, after that, space flight programmes were slow to employ women.  In the USA, NASA didn't accept applications from women to become astronauts until 1978, and as missions to the Moon had ended by then, it meant Neil Armstrong's arrival on the Moon in 1969 was 'a giant step for mankind' – and also an important step for a man.

但这并不是女性的唯一贡献。早在 1963 年，苏联宇航员瓦伦蒂娜·捷列什科娃就成为第一个进入太空的女性。然而，在那之后，太空飞行计划雇用女性的速度很慢。在美国，美国宇航局直到 1978 年才接受女性成为宇航员的申请，而当时登月任务已经结束，这意味着尼尔·阿姆斯特朗在 1969 年登上月球是“人类迈出的一大步”——而且一个男人的重要一步。

But attitudes have moved on and leading engineers at NASA have said that the first person to set foot on Mars should be a woman. The space agency aims to have a gender-balanced workforce but can only achieve that if equal numbers of men and women train for science and technology careers. As Allison McIntryre, Chief of the NASA Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility, told the BBC: "My director is a women, my former division chief is a woman. We have female astronauts. We haven't put a woman on the Moon yet. And I think that perhaps the first person to step on Mars should be a woman."

但态度已经改变，美国宇航局的主要工程师表示，第一个踏上火星的人应该是女性。该航天局的目标是拥有一支性别平衡的劳动力队伍，但只有在接受科学和技术职业培训的男性和女性人数相等时才能实现这一目标。正如美国宇航局太空飞行器模型设施负责人艾莉森·麦金特里 (Allison McIntryre) 告诉 BBC 的那样：“我的主管是女性，我的前任部门主管是女性。我们有女宇航员。我们还没有将女性送上月球.而且我认为第一个踏上火星的人应该是女性。”

A woman landing on Mars would be an incredible achievement for being a first for womankind and would, for some, be out of this world! It would certainly inspire a younger female generation by showing what is possible. For them, the thought of other planets being a men-only destination, would be an alien concept.

一个女人登陆火星将是一个令人难以置信的成就，因为它是女性的第一个，对于某些人来说，会离开这个世界！它肯定会通过展示什么是可能的来激励年轻的女性一代。对他们来说，认为其他星球是仅限男性的目的地，将是一个陌生的概念。

词汇表

humankind 人类
exploration 探索
cosmonaut（前苏联的）宇航员
push the boundaries      挑战极限，突破极限
mission control 航天地面指挥中心
spaceflight components 航天组件
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) 美国国家航空航天局
mission（航天）任务
mathematician 数学家
blast off（太空飞船等）发射
astronaut 宇航员
the Moon 月球
set foot 踏上（某地）
Mars 火星
gender-balanced 性别平衡的
NASA Space Vehicle Mock-up Facility 美国航天局飞行器模拟中心
out of this world 极好的
an alien concept 一个陌生的概念