首位踏足月球的美国宇航员——尼尔·阿姆斯特朗9月6日在一个全球论坛上表示，一项搭载人类登陆火星的任务至少在20年内不会发生。但他同时表示，这一任务和1969年将他送上月球的任务相比，可能要简单一些。

    据美联社9月6日报道，阿姆斯特朗表示，在完成登陆火星的载人飞行之前，科学家们必须研发出更好的机载太空船技术以及更强的阻挡有害太空辐射的防护装置。他说：“这一任务的实施确实需要20年或者更长的时间。”

    阿姆斯特朗还说：“这项任务将造价高昂，它需要人们花费很多精力同时还需要一架复杂的太空船。但我认为，即使存在着各种各样的问题和困难，这仍然不能和1961年我们开始阿波罗太空计划时遇到的困难相比。”

    报道说，阿姆斯特朗现年75岁，作为美国的老牌宇航员他现在已经很少出现在公共典礼上，而且也很少接受采访。1969年的美国宇航局“阿波罗11号”登月任务中，他曾作为船长首先走出舱门，踏上月球。1971年时，阿姆斯特朗离开了太空计划，来到美国俄亥俄州的辛辛那提大学教授航空工程学。

    当前，美国宇航局初步设想让宇航员在15年内重返月球，在此之后发射载人飞行器登陆火星。而这一初步设想需要花费大约数千亿美元。

    Neil Armstrong said Tuesday that a manned mission to Mars will not happen for at least 20 years — but the effort might be easier than what it took to send him to the moon in 1969.

    The first man to walk on the moon noted that scientists must develop better onboard spacecraft technology and stronger protection shields from harmful space radiation before a manned flight to the Red Planet can be accomplished.

    "It will certainly be 20 years or more before that happens," Armstrong said during a global leadership forum.

    "It will be expensive, it will take a lot of energy and a complex spacecraft. But I suspect that even though the various questions are difficult and many, they are not as difficult and many as those we faced when we started the Apollo (space program) in 1961."

    Armstrong, 75, who seldom appears at public functions or grants interviews, commanded NASA's Apollo 11 mission in 1969. He left the space program in 1971 to teach aeronautical engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

    The current U.S. space initiative envisions returning astronauts to the moon within 15 years and then launching manned flights to Mars and beyond at an unspecified date. The initiative will cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

    Armstrong said setting foot on the moon was "a wonderful feeling," especially because he believed there was only a 50 percent chance of a successful lunar landing.

    "I was elated, ecstatic and extremely surprised that we were successful," Armstrong said, responding to an audience member's question about how he and fellow astronaut Buzz Aldrin felt during their first moments on the moon.

    "We would have loved the opportunity to take some time to enjoy it, but we had the inevitable checklist and experiments that had to go on. So it was back to business, back to work as soon as we congratulated each other."