Name: 美國政府為何要在天上打入 4.8 億根針？震撼原因曝光！ (Why The US Government Put 480 Million Needles Into the Sky)
Uploaded: 2026-02-15T22:07:34.000Z
Duration: 7 min 51 s

Wright Construction Company built the Seattle Space Needlean iconic feat of engineering with, let's admit it, limited practical use.

Wright Construction Company 建造了西雅圖太空針塔，這是一項標誌性的工程壯舉，但說實話，實用性有限。

情態副詞

But if you're into iconic, impressively engineered space needles with limited practical use, this isn't really the number one.

但如果你喜歡有標誌性、工程設計令人印象深刻、實用性有限的太空針塔，這座並不是第一名。

Arguably, it's number 480 million and one.

嚴格來說，它是第 480,000,001 名。

That's because of something called Project Westforward, an endeavor by the United States to create a new form of long distance communication by.

這是因為一個叫做 Project Westforward 的計畫，這是美國為了創造一種新的長距離通訊方式所做的努力。

And I'm looking at my notes this is true.

我看了一下我的筆記，這是真的。

Launching 480 million copper needles into space.

向太空發射了 480,000,000 根銅針。

Project Westford, named after the nearby town of Westford, Massachusetts, but

Project Westford，這個計畫的名字來自麻薩諸塞州的韋斯特福德鎮，

with a little bit of space added, was a Cold War thing.

但加了一點「太空」的意味，是冷戰時期的一個計畫。

That is a deeply ambitious, sorta weird undertaking that only really happened because the US and USSR had this will they, won't they total annihilation thing going.

這是一個非常宏大、有點奇怪的計畫，之所以會發生，全是因為美國和蘇聯之間那種「要不要同歸於盡」的緊張關係。

And the tensions expressed itself in unorthodox ways like digging really deep holes or filling space with needles.

而這種緊張情緒就透過一些非傳統的方式表現出來，像是挖很深的洞，或是把太空填滿銅針。

The needles, of course, course, were not purely decorative.

The point was to create an artificial ionosphere to allow for reliable long distance chat.

目的是要創造一個人造電離層，以便進行可靠的長距離通訊。

Mind you, this was before, and I mean right before the dawn of communication satellites.

請注意，這是在通訊衛星出現之前，我說的是就在通訊衛星出現之前。

So the primary means of long distance communication the US was using were one, undersea cables and two, over the horizon radio communication, which is all well and good, except that undersea cables are pretty vulnerable to attack.

所以美國主要的長距離通訊方式有兩種：第一是海底電纜，第二是地平線以上無線電通訊。這兩種都很好，但海底電纜很容易受到攻擊。

And over the horizon radar, especially back then, could be finicky.

而地平線以上雷達，尤其是在當時，可能不太穩定。

That's because oth radar works by sending signals through the ionosphere, a layer of charged particles between 100 and 300 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

這是因為地平線以上雷達是透過電離層發送訊號，電離層是地球表面上方 100 到 300 公里之間的一層帶電粒子。

We're not going to get into all the science of why, but

我們就不深入探討其中的科學原理了，

basically, if you send a signal with the right frequency into the ionosphere, it can bounce around in there and come down and be perceived by an antenna thousands of kilometers away.

但基本上，如果你用正確的頻率將訊號發送到電離層，它可以在裡面彈跳，然後下來被數千公里外的天線接收到。

There are two things you need to know about the ionosphere.

關於電離層，有兩件事你需要知道。

The first is that the E layer of the ionosphere is where the cats in cats get to go if they win the pageant.

第一是電離層的 E 層，是貓咪們贏得選美比賽後可以去的地方。

It changes a lot, especially due to solar flares.

它變化很大，尤其受到太陽耀斑的影響。

And back in the 50s and 60s, people were worried that new nuclear tests might mess with it too.

而在 50 年代和 60 年代，人們擔心新的核子試驗也會影響它。

Because of all that, oth radio got disrupted kind of a lot.

因為這樣，oth 無線電通訊常常會受到幹擾。

And the concern was that if there was a solar storm and the USSR snipped one of the US Undersea cables.

大家擔心的是，如果發生太陽風暴，而蘇聯又切斷了美國的海底電纜。

The whole long range communications system would be down.

那麼整個遠程通訊系統就會中斷。

這時候，太空針塔就派上用場了。

The idea was to create a ring of copper wires orbiting the Earth that could do the job of the ionosphere more consistently.

這個想法是打造一個環繞地球的銅線環，能更穩定地扮演電離層的角色。

Each one would be 1.8 cm long and serve as a dipole antenna for 8 GHz signals sent from the Earth.

每條銅線長 1.8 公分，作為地球發送的 8 吉赫茲訊號的偶極天線。

If all went to plan, the US could send one of those signals into the sky.

如果一切順利，美國就能將其中一個訊號發送到空中。

It would refract through all those little antennae and come back down to Earth somewhere far, far away.

訊號會透過這些小天線折射，然後回到遙遠的地球某處。

But first there was the matter of getting hundreds of millions of copper wires into the sky.

但首先，得想辦法把數億條銅線送上太空。

To do that, the Project Westford folks built a dispersal machine.

為了達成這個目標，Project Westforward 的團隊打造了一臺分散機。

Though this is just a prototype, the real ones are still in space.

雖然這只是個原型機，但真正的機器還在太空中。

It's about the length and width of a standard wiener dog and would carry a canister full of copper needles encased in a naphthalene gel, which the spring would slowly push out once it reached space.

它們的長度和寬度大約跟標準的臘腸狗差不多，會攜帶一個裝滿銅針的容器，銅針被包裹在萘丸凝膠裡，到達太空後，彈簧會緩慢地將其推出。

When the gel met sunlight, it would slowly melt during orbit, scattering needles around the planet and completing a space needle ring in a matter of weeks.

當凝膠接觸到陽光，它會在軌道上緩慢融化，將銅針散播到行星周圍，幾週內就能完成一個太空針環。

The first attempt of this was in October of 1961, and

it didn't really work because of a malfunctioning release mechanism.

但因為釋放機制故障，所以沒有真正成功。

They tried again in May of 1963, and it worked.

他們在 1963 年 5 月又試了一次，這次成功了。

The belt formed in a polar orbit over the course of about 40 days.

這些銅針在約 40 天內形成了一個極軌道帶。

And while it didn't include the full number of needles they needed, it was cool enough to make a partial belt and test the system.

雖然沒有包含他們需要的全部銅針數量，但這個部分銅針帶已經夠酷了，足以測試這個系統。

Voice transmissions between Massachusetts and California were successful.

在麻薩諸塞州和加州之間的語音傳輸也成功了。

So why didn't we ever send up the rest of the needles or really end up using the ones that were there?

那我們為什麼沒有發射剩下的銅針，或者真正使用已經發射的那些呢？

One of the big concerns was the precedent the United States was setting by filling Earth's orbit with needles sans anyone else's consent.

其中一個很大的擔憂是，美國在未經他人同意的情況下，將地球軌道填滿了銅針，這開創了一個先例。

In the astronomy world, people were worried that a belt of conductive material in Earth's orbit could distort or otherwise harm tools trying to take measurements or images of outer space.

在天文學界，大家擔心地球軌道上的一條導電材料帶，可能會扭曲或損害用於測量或拍攝外太空的工具。

And beyond astronomers, other countries were miffed that the United States military, citing the existential threat of nuclear war with the ussr, was unilaterally deciding what to put in everyone's sky.

而且，除了天文學家之外，其他國家也對美國軍方以與蘇聯核戰的生存威脅為由，單方面決定要在大家的頭頂上放什麼感到不滿。

And while studies and additional launches proved that these needles didn't cause problems for anyone's astronomy instruments or the general aesthetics of the sky, the world was rightful uncomfortable with how it all went down.

雖然研究和後續的發射證明瞭這些銅針沒有對任何人的天文儀器或天空的美觀造成問題，但全世界對於整個過程的處理方式感到不適，這也是理所當然的。

或者說，是對於它們「上去」的方式感到不適。

So when the Outer space treaty of 1967 was drafted, Article 9 included language stating that whatever you get up into space, you must give due regard to the corresponding interests of all other states parties to the treaty.

所以，在 1967 年起草《外層空間條約》時，第九條就包含了一項規定，聲明無論你將什麼東西送入太空，都必須充分考慮條約其他締約國的相應利益。

Which is to say if we went needle mode again, we'd need other countries to agree instead of just throwing 480 million of the things up there and saying, see, it didn't bother anybody.

也就是說，如果我們再次採用銅針模式，就需要其他國家的同意，而不是隨便發射 4.8 億個銅針，然後說「看，沒人受到影響」。

But since they didn't actually bother anybody, why didn't we use what we'd already sent up?

但既然它們實際上沒有影響到任何人，為什麼我們沒有使用已經發射的那些呢？

Well, Project Needles, as it was first known, was started in 1958 with the successful dispersal of needles and the subsequent successful communications tests not happening until 1963.

嗯，這個最初被稱為 Project Needles 的計畫，始於 1958 年，銅針成功散播，隨後的通訊測試則是在 1963 年才成功。

And by 1963, a few key things had happened.

而到了 1963 年，有幾件重要的事情發生了。

First, little Eva had released the locomotion.

So I assume the world was a bit less focused on long range communications and a little more focused on doing a brand new dance now.

所以我想當時大家對長途通訊的關注度降低了，而是更專注於跳一支全新的舞蹈。

Also, AT&T had launched Telstarthe world's first active communications satellite.

另外，AT&T 也推出了 Telstar，這是世界上第一個主動式通訊衛星。

And the United States had created the Communications Satellite Corporation, or comsat, a massive federal investment in satellite worldwide.

美國也成立了通訊衛星公司，也就是 Comsat，這是政府在衛星通訊方面的龐大投資。

So by the time we knew that needles worked, they were basically obsolete.

所以當我們知道銅針有效時，它們基本上已經過時了。

All that was left to do was collect all 480 million needles out of the sky.

剩下的就只有把天上的 4.8 億根銅針全部回收。

Since we wouldn't be needing other services.

因為我們就不需要其他服務了。

It's generally assumed that since the 60s, most of those needles did re enter the atmosphere at some point, like when some kind of solar wind came through.

一般認為，自從 60 年代以來，大部分的銅針都在某個時候重返大氣層，就像是遇到某種太陽風的時候一樣。

Meaning if you find yourself at the north or South Pole, make sure to pan through the snow a bit.

這表示如果你發現自己身處南北極，記得稍微在雪地裡搜尋一下。

There are probably quite a lot of copper needles laying around there, but

there are still a ton, or more accurately, a few kilograms.

還是有大量的，或者更精確地說，有幾公斤。

These things were pretty light of Project Westford artifacts still in orbit for one, the machines that dispersed them, and

這些 Project Westforward 的物品，有些還在軌道上，還有分散它們的機器，

for two hundreds, perhaps thousands of clumps of needles that melded together and are just whipping around the planet 24, 7.

還有數百甚至數千團纏繞在一起的銅針，它們正日夜不停地繞著地球飛。

That's because it turned out that when the needles were put in the gel, a lot of them were touching each other metal to metal.

這是因為後來發現，當銅針被放入凝膠時，很多銅針是金屬對金屬地互相接觸。

So when the gel melted and the wires met the warm sun and vacuum of space, a lot of them self welded into big clumps.

所以當凝膠融化，銅針遇到溫暖的太陽和太空的真空時，很多銅針就自己焊接成一大團了。

And while it would take a few years for a single wire to find its way out of orbit and come back down to Earth, a heavier clump of them would take many decades, decades that have not yet fully passed.

而單一銅針要花幾年才能脫離軌道回到地球，但一團較重的銅針則需要數十年，這些年還沒有完全過去。

We're aware of several dozen clumps like this that were still in orbit around 2013, but

我們知道大約在 2013 年時，還有幾十團這樣的銅針團體還在軌道上，

there could be thousands more as yet undetected at least they're not messing with telescopes.

但可能還有數千團是尚未被發現的，至少它們沒有幹擾望遠鏡。

Since Project Westford, the telescope they built in Massachusetts to prove the needle belt would work, is still there, but

自從 Project Westforward，也就是在麻薩諸塞州建造用來證明銅針帶可行的望遠鏡，它還在那裡，

was converted to do geodetic observations in 1981.

但它在 1981 年被改建成進行大地測量觀測。

And that's basically all we have to remember, this wacky idea behind a repurposed telescope, a few thousand balls of copper in the sky and a prototype dispersal machine on display in Chantilly, Virginia.

這基本上就是我們需要記住的一切了，這個被改造的望遠鏡背後的瘋狂想法，天空中幾千團銅球，以及在維吉尼亞州尚提伊展出的原型分散機。

And of course, the language of Article 9 of the Outer Space Treaty.

當然，還有《外太空條約》第九條的語言。

And of course, the friends we made along the way.

當然，還有我們一路結交的朋友。

Speaking of friends in outer space, did you know that a bunch of my friends and I started a streaming service together with an outer space Y name?

說到太空中的朋友，你知道我和我的一群朋友一起創辦了一個串流服務，名字裡有個外太空的 Y 嗎？

是的，我們創辦了，它叫做 Nebula。