SpaceX首次执行星际飞船任务的目标

SpaceX is scouting for prime real estate to populate Mars, according to a database of NASA spacecraft photography.

美国宇航局太空船摄影数据库显示，SpaceX正在寻找适宜居住火星的黄金地段。

The database entries suggest the rocket company, founded by the tech mogul Elon Musk, is looking for relatively flat, warm, and hazard-free places to set down its coming launch vehicle, called Starship.

数据库条目显示，这家由科技大亨埃隆·马斯克(elon musk)创建的火箭公司正在寻找相对平坦、温暖、无危险的地方，以安放即将发射的名为“星际飞船”的运载火箭。

A scientist at the University of Arizona later confirmed the existence of SpaceX's landing site-scouting project.

亚利桑那大学的一位科学家后来证实了SpaceX的着陆点侦察项目的存在。

SpaceX is developing Starship – a towering two-stage rocket ship – to land 150 tons and up to 100 people at a time on Mars, with the first missions starting in the mid-2020s.

SpaceX公司正在开发一艘两级火箭飞船——一艘高耸的飞船，每次能在火星上着陆150吨，最多可搭载100人，首批任务将于本世纪20年代中期开始。

Each candidate landing site is a place where frozen water may be buried under just a bit of red dirt and thus accessible to robots and people. That ice could, in theory, be mined, melted, and turned into precious supplies such as water, air, and rocket fuel.

每一个候选着陆点都是一个在一点点红土下掩埋了冰冻水的地方，因此机器和人都可以进入。理论上，这些冰可以被开采、融化，并转化为宝贵的资源，如水、空气和火箭燃料。

(NASA/USGS/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum) via Google Earth Pro; Business Insider)

The space-history writer Robert Zimmerman first posted about the images on his site, Beyond the Black, after perusing a fresh batch of data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Zimmerman noticed several photos with titles that included the words "Candidate Landing Site for SpaceX Starship".

太空历史作家罗伯特齐默尔曼(robert zimmerman)在阅读了美国宇航局(nasa)火星勘测轨道器的一批最新数据后，第一次在他的网站上发布了这些照片。齐默曼注意到几张照片的标题包括“SpaceX星际飞船的候选着陆地点”。

"To put it mildly, it is most intriguing to discover that SpaceX is beginning to research a place where it can land Starship on Mars," Zimmerman wrote, adding that each site was a probable location to find buried ice.

齐默尔曼写道:“委婉地说，最令人感兴趣的发现是，SpaceX开始研究一个能让星际飞船在火星着陆的地方。”他补充说，每个地点都可能是发现埋藏冰的地点。

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. However, the images are authentic requests from the company made through a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

SpaceX没有立即回复Business Insider的置评请求。然而，这些图片是该公司通过美国宇航局喷气推进实验室的科学家提出的真实要求。