Mae Jemison: The astronaut plotting a journey to other stars 梅·杰米森：策划奔往其他星球的宇航员

张明江

梅·杰米森是第一位进入太空的黑人女航天员，也是一位富有传奇色彩的伟大女性。在她的职业生涯中，她曾经从事过工程师、医生、科学大使等多种职业。如今，她又有新的努力方向，作为“百年星舰”计划的领头人，她努力推动星际旅行，使之在下一个世纪成为可能。

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（星际的） 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 （入学） 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 （普通醫师）， 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.

[背景知识]

梅·杰米森于1956年出生于亚拉巴马州，在芝加哥长大，随后学习舞蹈，但她对科学很着迷。1977年，杰米森毕业于斯坦福大学，获得化学工程学位，4年后获康奈尔医学院医学学位。但她并没有长时间从事医疗工作，而是报名参军，后来被NASA宇航员培训计划选中。1992年9月12日，杰米森成为“奋进”号航天飞机成员中第一位进入太空的黑人女性。