Name: How humanity can reach the stars | Philip Lubin
Uploaded: 2020-10-23T23:30:38.000Z
Duration: 8 min 32 s

We're here at the University of California, Santa Barbara

現在，我們在加利福尼亞大學 聖塔芭芭拉分校

發展出足以讓我們從太陽系出發，

And the solution is literally before your eyes.

並進入到另外一個太陽系的能力。

So I have two things on me that you have -- I have a watch,

而其解決方案其實就近在你的眼前。

我身上有兩樣你也有的東西—— 我有一支手錶，

which, if it's not on you, it's on your phone.

如果這些都不在你身上的話， 你的手機裡也能找到這些功能。

and my flashlight just illuminates my environment.

So like art, to me, science is illuminating.

而我的手電筒就負責 照亮我的環境周遭。

I want to see reality in a different way.

所以，就像藝術，對我來說， 科學就像是一支照亮黑暗的手電筒。

我想要以不同的角度發現真實。

suddenly the dark becomes bright, and I suddenly see.

黑暗瞬間變成光明，我突然看得見了。

the light on my hand is not only illuminating my hand,

So the answer is not to make a spacecraft out of a flashlight,

所以答案並不是要用手電筒 來製造一艘太空船，

而太空船就朝著另一端前進——

這是目前我們以化學進行的方法。

Take the flashlight and put it somewhere on the Earth,

which propels the reflector to speeds which can approach the speed of light.

Well, how do you make a flashlight that's big enough?

手電筒便推進反光器加速， 達到接近光速的速度。

那你要怎麼製造出 一個夠大的手電筒呢？

my hand doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

And that's because the force is very, very low.

So the way that you can solve this problem

那是因為這個推進力非常、非常的弱。

is taking many, many flashlights, which are actually lasers,

是將很多、很多個的手電筒 ──其實它們就是雷射光──

and when you gang them all together into a gigantic array,

而當你將它們都聚集成 一個巨大的陣列時，

you then have a sufficiently powerful system,

——我們稱作它為「相位陣列」——

which, if you make it roughly the size of a city,

你便有了一個足夠強大的系統，

it can push a spacecraft, which is roughly the size of your hand,

如果你把它變成大約 相當於一個城市的尺寸，

to speeds which are roughly 25 percent the speed of light.

它便能推動一艘大概 相當於手掌大小的太空船，

That would enable us to get to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri,

並且它能達到 約光速的四分之一的速度。

which is a little over four light years away,

這艘船可以抵達最近的恆星， 也就是半人馬座的比鄰星，

Initial probes would be roughly the size of your hand,

花不到 20 年的時間就可以抵達。

and the size of the reflector that you're going to use

最初使用的探測器 大概相當於你的手掌的大小，

大概會相當於一個人身體的大小，

It only uses the reflection of light from this very large laser array

它只利用從這個巨大的雷射陣列 所發出的光的反射

When you sail on the ocean, you're pushed by the wind.

And the wind then drives the sail forward through the water.

當你在海上航行時，你被風推著前進，

In our case, we're creating an artificial wind in space

就我們的情況而言， 我們正是用這個雷射光陣列

except the wind is actually the photons from the laser itself,

the light from the laser becomes the wind

來自於雷射光的光子 其實就相當於推進帆船的風，

雷射發出的光線變成相當於風的作用，

why can we talk about going to the stars today,

所以，為什麼這答案 在今天是可行的呢？

為什麼今日我們可以談論航向星際，

people would have said, "That's not possible"?

Well, the reason it's possible today has a lot to do with the consumer,

大家會說「這是不可能的」呢？

and the very fact that you're watching me.

今日這得以實現的理由， 與消費者有很大的關係，

You're watching me over a high-speed internet,

以及你現在正在看著我演講也有關。

which is dominated by the photonics of sending data over fiber optics.

你正在透過高速的網路看我演講，

Photonics essentially allow the internet to exist

而高速網路是由透過光纖傳送資料的 光子學技術來主導的。

The ability to send vast amounts of data very quickly

is the same technology that we're going to use

這個能夠快速地傳送 大量的資料的能力，

to send spacecraft very quickly to the stars.

和我們今日打算用來 將太空船快速地航向星際

You effectively have an infinite supply of propellent,

你其實可以擁有無限的推進燃料供給，

You do not leave the laser array that produces the light on

在航程中，你不需要將 產生出光線的雷射陣列

For small spacecraft, it's only on for a few minutes,

對於一個小型太空船而言， 你只要將光線打開幾分鐘，

You have a projectile which just moves ballistically.

然後，就像是用槍 發射出一顆子彈一樣，

Even if we, as humans, are not on the spacecraft,

at least we have the ability to send out such spacecraft.

即便我們人類不坐在太空船上，

至少我們有能力 將這種太空船送到宇宙中。

or have remote imaging and remote sensing,

或使用遠端遙控成像與感測技術，

所以，舉個例子，當我們前往木星，

而我們基本上是在遠端遙控探索。

And all of the current missions that are beyond the Moon

就跟你正在看著我是同一回事。

而且目前比月球還遙遠的所有任務，

What would we hope to find if we visited an exoplanet?

那如果我們造訪一顆系外行星， 我們希望能找到什麼呢？

and we would be able to see evidence of life,

或許在那顆系外行星上 會有生命的存在，

字幕列表影片播放

How humanity can reach the stars | Philip Lubin

literally

extraordinary

inevitable

profound