Mae Jemison: The astronaut plotting a journey to other stars 梅·杰米森：策劃奔往其他星球的宇航員

張明江

梅·杰米森是第一位進入太空的黑人女航天員，也是一位富有傳奇色彩的偉大女性。在她的職業(yè)生涯中，她曾經(jīng)從事過工程師、醫(yī)生、科學(xué)大使等多種職業(yè)。如今，她又有新的努力方向，作為“百年星艦”計劃的領(lǐng)頭人，她努力推動星際旅行，使之在下一個世紀(jì)成為可能。

Best known as the first black woman to go into space， Mae Jemison has done much more in her remarkable career as an engineer， doctor and science ambassador. Now， she is leading the 100 Year Starship project， an effort to drive forward the capability for interstellar（星際的） travel within the next century.

Jemison grew up in Chicago in the 1960s. She always had a keen interest in science， but also wanted to be a professional dancer. She enrolled （入學(xué)） at Stanford University in California at the

age of 16 and graduated in chemical engineering， then faced a difficult choice to study medicine or become a dancer. “My mother said you can always dance if youre a doctor but you cant necessarily doctor if youre a dancer，” she said in an interview on StarTalk Radio.

After gaining her medical degree， she worked as a general practitioner （普通醫(yī)師）， then joined the Peace Corps as a medical officer and worked in Sierra Leone and Liberia. In 1987， she applied for NASAs astronaut programme and was one of 15 candidates selected from 2，000 applicants.

Jemison got to space in 1992， on the 50th space shuttle flight， and orbited the Earth 126 times. “I was really excited when I joined the astronaut programme because when I was a little girl， I figured by the time I was old enough to be an astronaut， I would be hanging out at least on Mars，” she said on StarTalk Radio.

She believes the lack of progress is not down to engineering limitations， but a lack of public commitment to space exploration. “Thats why we have to bring so many people in and include them in things. People didnt see why it made a difference，” she said.

With her current project， she is determined to change that by including people with a broader range of backgrounds and skills， and showing that pushing the frontiers in space can get benefits for life on Earth. The Dorothy Jemison Foundation for Excellence， which she established in honor of her mother， was awarded a grant from the US government agency DARPA to pursue the radical leaps in our capabilities needed to achieve interstellar flight.

“The challenges relate not just to technology， but to human health， psychology， sustainability， economics and a host of other disciplines. A motto of the project is‘space isnt just for rocket scientists and billionaires’，” she says.

[背景知識]

梅·杰米森于1956年出生于亞拉巴馬州，在芝加哥長大，隨后學(xué)習(xí)舞蹈，但她對科學(xué)很著迷。1977年，杰米森畢業(yè)于斯坦福大學(xué)，獲得化學(xué)工程學(xué)位，4年后獲康奈爾醫(yī)學(xué)院醫(yī)學(xué)學(xué)位。但她并沒有長時間從事醫(yī)療工作，而是報名參軍，后來被NASA宇航員培訓(xùn)計劃選中。1992年9月12日，杰米森成為“奮進”號航天飛機成員中第一位進入太空的黑人女性。