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His mission first commandment was simple: Thou shalt not screw up. Gemini 10 had been a practice run for Apollo, a local thing, but now the world’s eyes were on the Moon and on them.
他的任務的第一要務簡單明了：不能搞砸。雙子星10號飛行計劃是阿波羅登月計劃的演練，受到的關注很少，但如今的登月計劃聚焦了全世界的目光。
The commemorative stamps were already printed, the medals struck; he had sketched the patch-image himself, an American bald eagle with olive branches in its claws.
人們早就印好紀念郵票、制作好獎章。科林斯自己繪制了徽章圖像，上面畫著美國國鳥白頭海雕，爪子里抓著橄欖枝。
Columbia carried a plaque to be left on the Moon, “We came in peace for all mankind”. The weight of expectation could not have been heavier.
哥倫比亞號在月球上留了一塊牌子，寫著——“為全人類和平相處”——這份期望的重要性可見一斑。
Yet it came from a planet that seemed to weigh nothing at all. If he stretched out his arm to the window of Columbia, Earth was covered by his thumbnail. It floated in a black void, blue with seas, white with clouds, a tiny gem sparkling and shining. The word that kept surprising him was “fragile”.
然而這份期望來自一個看起來好像無足輕重的星球。如果科林斯將手臂伸向哥倫比亞號的窗戶，就會發現地球被他的大拇指指甲蓋遮住了。這顆星球漂浮在黑暗的太空中，藍色的海洋與白色的云層交織在一起，仿佛一顆耀眼的小寶石，脆弱如它，連科林斯自己都頗感驚訝。
He had known Earth all his life as solid, heavy, terrifyingly hard as he fell towards it once when his f-86 was on fire. Now he wanted to take care of it. He wished its bickering politicians could see it from that distance. What would their arguments matter then?
一直以來，科林斯認為地球是厚實、笨重、堅如磐石，尤其是當他駕駛著f86戰斗機著火摔向地球時，這種感覺尤為強烈。現在他只想要悉心呵護這個星球。他多么希望那些爭得面紅耳赤的政客能從遠處看看地球，只有這樣才會恍然大悟那些爭論毫無意義。
Ever since some gruesome dental work in childhood, he had been able to detach his mind from his body when he needed to. At the dentist’s, he hovered near the ceiling. As a test pilot, he found secret spaces in cumulus clouds. In later life, if he needed solace, he would relive what he had seen from Columbia. That was his last space trip; being an astronaut took him away from family too much.
兒時可怕的看牙經歷讓科林斯學會了在需要的時候將思想從軀體中抽離出來。在牙科診所，他盯著天花板發呆。當試飛員時，他在積云中發現了秘密空間。在日后的生活中，他會重溫在哥倫比亞號中看到的場景——這是他最后一次太空旅行——借此來尋求慰藉。
He liked to recall how the Moon had looked close-to, shockingly spherical, and compared it with the shining dinner-plate he saw from his paddleboat when he was out night-fishing. He did not look often, though; been there, done that. It was the beauty of Earth he most remembered, and now campaigned to save. That first. Then on to Mars.
身為宇航員，他長時間不著家。夜晚外出垂釣時，他最愛的事情就是在劃艇上望著那輪明月，回憶當年近距離觀賞這個令人震驚的球體，并將兩種月亮進行對比。不過，這種行為他并不常做，也不會身陷回憶無法自拔。這是他畢生難忘的地球之美，此后他為保護地球的運動而奔走。保護好地球是首要任務，然后登陸火星。
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