"Qian Xuesen's vision: human beings have no astronauts, and the future may still be non-- redefining the space age"Stop misreferring to foreign astronauts as astronauts.
According to Qian Xuesen's definition, human beings currently only have astronauts, and there are no astronauts. The two are not the same, and this misrepresentation needs to be corrected urgently.
When China's aerospace industry was just starting, there was actually no word "aerospace". At that time, we called human activities outside the atmosphere "astronautics" and simply "astronautics". This is where the word "astronaut" originated.
On September 11, 1967, Qian Xuesen proposed the new term "aerospace" for the first time at the opening ceremony of China's returnable satellite demonstration meeting. Why create new words?The reason is very simple, Qian Xuesen believes that since human beings will only be limited to activities in the solar system for a long time in the future, it is too exaggerated to call it "space travel".
The diameter of the solar system reaches about 1 light-year, or about 946 trillion kilometers. By comparison, the entire observable universe has a diameter of 93 billion light-years, which translates to about 8.7 billion trillion kilometers. It's so big that our brains can't imagine it.
For example, the Voyager 1 and 2 probes, launched by humans in 1977, flew for more than 40 years and only completed 0002 light years of journey. They haven't even left the edge of the solar system yet, and it will take another 30,000 years to fly before they can actually fly out of the solar system. Such a distance really does not deserve the title of "astronautics".
Recently, in December 2023, Voyager 1 sent back some problems, its internal malfunction has failed, and now it can only send some meaningless 0101 garbled characters, and can no longer collect any valuable data.
In order to more accurately describe human flight activities, Qian Xuesen made the following definition: flight activities in the earth's atmosphere are called "aviation";Flight activity outside the atmosphere and within the solar system is called "astronautics";The flight activity of flying out of the solar system and exploring the entire vast universe is called "astronautics".
According to this definition, whether it is the United States, Russia, Europe, or Japan, and no matter what language it is translated, their flight activities outside the solar system should be translated as "spaceflight". Similarly, the people who work in these places are also called "astronauts". Only when humans actually fly out of the solar system will they be eligible to be called "astronauts".
May 4, 1982 was an important moment in Chinese history. On that day, the 23 rd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress made a far-reaching decision: the "Seventh Ministry of Machinery Industry" was renamed the "Ministry of Aerospace Industry." This decision marks that the word "aerospace" has been officially recognized by the highest legislative organ of the state and has a legally rigorous significance.
However, due to the little knowledge of most people in China about the aerospace field at that time, coupled with the influence of Western ** and culture, American science fiction blockbusters such as "Peerless Apocalypse" and "Gravity" mistakenly translated astronauts as "astronauts". This misuse has been widely circulated and has had a profound impact.
Fortunately, with the rapid development of China's manned space industry in recent years, the successful construction of the space station and the long-term residence of personnel, the frequency of use of the word "astronaut" has increased significantly. This also gradually corrects the wrong usage of the past.
Imagine that the brilliant achievements of China's aerospace industry and the inheritance of Chinese culture complement each other. Another example is the accurate translation of the name NASA. Many people have mistakenly translated it as "NASA" in the past, but in reality, since NASA's research field is not limited to space vehicles, but also includes aircraft in the atmosphere, etc., a more accurate translation is "NASA".
Behind this linguistic precision lies a profound meaning of technological and cultural autonomy. If we rely too much on Western definitions of terms, we may lose our way in the development of technology and culture. As an ideogram, Chinese characters have unique advantages. It only takes a few clever combinations of words to accurately describe something new, and people can understand its meaning at a glance. In contrast, phonetic scripts like English require the creation of new vocabulary, which is difficult to memorize and can sometimes lead to ambiguity.
Taking the word "missile" as an example, it is Mr. Qian Xuesen's creative work. In Taiwan, "missiles" are called "missiles," but bullets and rockets can also fly, which makes the name "missile" inaccurate. Mr. Qian Xuesen's clever use of the word "guide" highlights the characteristics of missiles that can "guide the direction" and makes the word "missile" more professional and accurate.
Mr. Qian Xuesen also foresightily put forward the concept of "interstellar navigation" and wrote the book "Introduction to Interstellar Navigation". Many of the terms in the book were decades ahead of their time. His pioneering contributions have laid a solid foundation for China's space industry.
Looking to the future, if we succeed in developing a stellar spacecraft in a few hundred years, truly achieving the feat of flying out of the solar system, then the word "astronautics" will qualify as a new icon of the times. At that time, mankind will enter a new "space age", and the development of language will also usher in a new milestone. After thousands of years of accumulation, Chinese characters will still maintain their strong vitality and forward-looking. This linguistic advantage is innate and is a precious asset for every Chinese. No matter how fast technology develops, culture is always the foundation and soul.