How Curiosity got us to Mars - Bobak Ferdowsi

好奇號如何帶領我們前進火星 - Bobak Ferdowsi

Transcriber: Andrea McDonough Reviewer: Bedirhan Cinar

譯者: Jephian Lin 審譯者: Coco Shen

About 100 days ago,

大概在 100 天前，

我們將一臺兩噸的 SUV （譯註：Sport Utility Vehecle：多功能越野車。）

we landed a two-ton SUV on the surface of another planet,

降落在另一顆星球的表面上，

on the surface of Mars.

在火星的表面上。

This is one of the first pictures we took there with our rover,

這是探測車照的首批照片其中之一。

looking out at Mount Sharp.

它正遠望著夏普山（Mount Sharp）。

I kind of cry a little bit,

對我來說，在我看到這照片的時候，

choke up, when I see this picture.

我有點哽咽、快哭出來了。

Why Mars and why do we look at these other planets?

為什麼我們要看看其它星球呢？ 為什麼是火星呢？

Part of it is to understand our own planet --

一部份是想了解我們自己的星球，

我們周遭的環境是怎樣的？

what's the context for us?

我們居住在一個很奇妙的星球上，

We live on this amazing planet, but Mars is a lot like Earth.

而火星和地球有許多相像。

大小差不多。

It's similar in size.

During the daytime, it can get up to 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

白天的時候，

大約是 70 度， 嗯，華氏。

So, it's so like Earth, but at the same time,

所以，它跟地球很像， 但同時地，

這也是個荒蕪的景象，

this is a barren landscape.

You don't see any trees, you don't see any cactuses growing,

你看不到任何樹木、

你也看不到任何仙人掌、

或是任何類似的東西。

anything like that.

所以，今天我是要告訴你

Today I'm going to tell you about how we got from Earth to Mars

我們是怎麼從地球到火星的，

and why it's so cool.

還有它為什麼很酷。

So one of the things we start with is a blank sheet of paper.

一開始我們從

一張白紙著手。

我們從 2004 年的任務，

We knew from the previous missions in 2004, Spirit and Opportunity,

也就是精神號（Spirit）和機會號（Opportunity），

得知火星上曾經有水，

there was water on Mars in the past.

但，下一步該怎麼做呢？

But what's the next step?

We're looking for an even more fundamental level of,

我們在尋找讓生物存活的

what does it take to have life survive?

基礎的條件是什麼？

要得到這樣的

And so, to have that kind of knowledge and understanding,

知識與認知，

we have to carry a mass amount of instruments.

我們必須帶著許多儀器。

就像地球上要用上

We have to carry the kind of labs

that people have whole rooms devoted to on Earth

一整個實驗室的儀器

全塞進一臺小車裡。

inside of, essentially, a small car.

And we shrunk it all down

我們所做的是把它們全變小，

to something that weighs about as much as I do,

小到差不多跟我一樣重，

接著把它放到這臺探測車上，

and then put it inside of this rover that weighs as much as your car does.

它跟你的車一樣重。

而現在這探測車 已經在火星上了，

And that rover is now on the surface of Mars,

but it's so heavy,

但是它真的很重，

and so it kind of takes a special challenge for us

所以我們在想辦法 組裝它

to make it all work and come together.

讓它正常運作時， 面臨一種特別的挑戰。

So we look at our tool of, what do we have to land stuff on Mars?

我們看著我們的工具，

想著：「有什麼東西可以讓它在火星著陸呢？」

其中一個選項是氣囊。

And one of the options is airbags.

We've done it before.

我們曾經這麼做過。

Airbags are pretty cool, they bounce around a lot.

氣囊很酷，

它們時常到處跳躍。

You could never put a human inside of an airbag,

你不可能把一個人 放在氣囊裡，

因為他們會被壓扁。

because they would get squashed.

But the problem with airbags is, the airbags you see here,

但是，氣囊的問題在於：

你這裡看到的氣囊，

which landed the smaller rover -- it's like 400 pounds, the entire rover --

它是用來幫較小的探測車著陸的。

而這整部車，大約 400 磅，

were about the size of this room.

大約跟這個房間一樣大。

So you can imagine the size of airbags it would take

所以你可以想像 如果要幫

兩噸的探測車在火星著陸， 這氣囊要多大。

to land a two-ton rover on Mars.

And they'd have to be made out of materials

所以這可能要用

現今不存在的材料 才做得出來。

that don't even exist today,

這會是某種奇異的材料，

so it'd be some kind of exotic material that we'd have to develop

我們必須開發它， 卻不知道會不會成功。

and it may or may not work.

So, what about rockets?

所以用火箭如何？

You know, you see all the rocket ships landing in old movies,

這個方法就像是，

你知道的， 你在電影或其它地方

看到所有太空船都這麼著陸，

all rockets on the bottom -- it's a cool idea.

底部佈滿火箭，

是個很棒的想法。

It works when they're pretty light still,

在它們還很輕的時候沒問題

問題是這些火箭

but the problem is, these rockets have to be pretty strong

對火星上鬆軟的土地來說，

有點太強大了。

to actually softly land you on Mars.

它們會強到

And so they would be so powerful they could dig holes into the ground

在地面打出一個洞，

and then you would just end up inside of a hole

接著你會卡在洞裡面

and not be able to drive out of it.

然後開出不來。

So, not the best design.

不是最好的設計。

But what if I could take the rockets and move them up?

但如果我把這些火箭向上移呢？

而這就差不多是我們的結論了。

And that's what we came up with.

It's a rocket-powered jet pack; we call it the Sky Crane.

這其實是一組火箭噴射飛行包，

我們把它叫作天空怪手（Sky Crane）。

Basically, this big rocket sits on top of our rover

它的運作方式基本上像這樣

這個大火箭就位在探測車的上方

and when we're ready to land, the rocket hovers in place

當我們準備著陸的時候，

火箭就在空中漂浮

我們慢慢地將探測車放在地面上。

and we slowly lower the rover to the ground.

And then we touch down, we're actually on the wheels,

接著我們著陸，

手放在方向盤上，

開始它的第一天。

we're ready to drive, day one.

But in addition to that, the scientists were like,

但除此之外，

你知道的，科學家會想：

"We actually want to go somewhere interesting."

「我們真的很想去一些有趣的地方。」

The last two missions were cool,

前面兩次任務，它們都很棒，

但它們基本上著陸於

but they basically landed in what was like landing in the plains or desert.

像是平原或是沙漠的地方，

Not very exciting.

不太吸引人。

We all know from the exciting places on Earth like the Grand Canyon,

我們都知道，一些地球上最吸引人的地方，

像是大峽谷的地方，之類的，

這些才是科學家們最感興趣的，

those are, for the scientists, the most interesting,

因為你可以看到整個地層，

because you see that whole layer,

你可以在一個地方 就看到好幾年的歷史。

you see years and years of history all in one place.

The same thing is true for where we landed.

對於我們要降落的地方來說 也是這樣。

We wanted to land somewhere that was unique,

我們想要在一些獨特、

that had this crater wall where things had been dug up for us,

有像這樣隕石坑的地方著陸，

在那裡，東西都已經挖出來了，

造山活動把一切推出地面。

where mountains were pushing things up.

但問題是， 如果你用舊的系統來著陸，

But the problem is, if you landed with the older systems,

you could've landed on the side of that mountain and just tumbled off,

你可能會登陸在

山坡的側面因而翻覆、

可能登陸在懸崖邊、

could've been the side of a cliff, the crater wall or a large boulder.

可能登陸在隕石坑側壁，

或是一塊大石頭上。

So we needed a kind of technology

所以我們需要一種科技

讓我們可以登陸在很小的區域，

to help us land in a very small area,

and that was this little guided entry from Apollo.

即是阿波羅計畫（Apollo）中的 「導引進入」技術。

We took it from the 1960s.

我們延用 1960 年代的科技。

We flew over like the manned vehicle, because they have to pick up men,

我們就像一般交通工具一樣飛，

因為它真的得載人，

不能只是想停哪就停哪，

you can't just land all over the place.

我們得準確登陸在正中心。

And then we landed, like, spot-on in the middle.

And in fact, it was so spot-on that when we did it,

而事實上，它精準到

當我們在控制時，

it was basically like a quarterback launching towards Mars --

我們基本上可以像 橄欖球的四分衛一樣

把球發到火星上，

就像是一個四分衛，

like a quarterback, though, that was in Seattle,

人站在西雅圖

throwing at a receiver that was moving here in Giants Stadium.

然後朝著巨人體育場上

正在移動的接球手丟球。

That's how accurate we were. Kind of awesome.

這就是我們精準的程度，

真的很厲害。

但是，你只有一次機會，

But you only get one shot,

所以我們必須設計一個系統

and so we actually have to design a system

that we can build and test and operate,

讓我們可以架設、

測試、

以及操作，

and so it's not just about can we get it to Mars,

所以並不只是要 能帶它到火星，

but, if it's only one chance,

而是，如果我們只有一次機會，

how do you make sure that one chance goes well?

你要如何確定這一次機會 會一切順利？

So there's all these processes to make sure things are built properly.

因此我們有完整的程序，

來保證所有裝置架設妥當。

Then we go out to the desert and drive around and test it.

接著我們到外面的沙漠。

我們四處開，測試它。

We fly things in F-18s to make sure the radar systems work in high speeds.

我們在 F-18 上控制它

來保證雷達系統在高速下可以運作。

接著，最重要的，我們測試整個團隊

Then, most importantly, we test the team to make sure they know how to operate it.

來保證大家都知道要做什麼。

我們不希望因為

We don't want to miss it because we sent the wrong command

我們下了錯誤的指令 而失去這次機會，

and now it's going to be rebooting forever.

一切非得重新開始。

So, that guy Fred there, he did a lot of that.

所以這個人，Fred ， 他做了許多。

And then we launched it on this rocket to Mars.

然後我們把它用這艘火箭 發射到火星上去。

而你知道的，整套裝備，

We landed 2,000 pounds on Mars,

我們將 2,000 磅的東西 著陸在火星上，

but the entire thing was about 10,000 pounds

但我們大概帶了 10,000 磅的整套裝備

when we lifted off from Earth,

從地球出發，

這包含所有燃料 還有太陽能板

all the fuel and the solar arrays and everything else that we needed.

還有所有要用到的東西。

再一次地，我們精準到

And, again, we were so accurate

that we landed in this, like, little pin-point on Mars.

登陸在這個火星上的小點。

In the meantime, though, we had to design a landing system that worked.

同時，我們必須設計

一個可以用的登陸系統。

And I told you about the actual physics of it, but here's the catch:

而我剛談過它的物理概念，

但這裡才是大問題：

Mars is about 14 minutes away from Earth in light speed,

火星到地球用光速 大約要走十四分鐘，

which means if I try to control it with a joystick,

這表示如果我想要用搖捍控制它

I would be always controlling to 14 minutes in advance,

我總是要

提早十四分鐘來控制， 這不可行。

so it wouldn't work.

所以我們必須給它 它需要的

So we had to give it all the smarts and knowledge it needed to make it happen.

所有的智慧、以及知識

讓它成功登陸。

而我們所做的是，

So we built in all these smarts and algorithms

我們內建這所有的智能與演算法

and told it here's what you're going to have to do,

而我們告訴它 這是你將要做的事，

and it goes from basically five times the speed of a speeding bullet

接著它就從大約

五倍子彈的速度

to about a baby's crawl,

變成嬰兒爬行的速度，

all within about seven minutes,

全都在七分鐘內，

which are called the seven minutes of terror,

我們把它叫做「恐怖七分鐘」

因為我幾乎要吐了。

because I was about to throw up.

(Laughter)

But today we're on the surface of Mars, and this was one of the panoramas we took

但今天我們已經在火星表面了，

而這是登陸幾天後

其中一張我們拍的照片，

a couple days after we landed,

and it's amazing to me, because you look at this,

我想它對我來說很驚奇，

因為仔細看看你會看見大峽谷，

and can see the Grand Canyon,

you can see your own planet, you can imagine walking on the surface.

你可以看見我們的星球，

你可以想像在那表面上行走。

And so what we're going to do and continue to do

所以，我們再來要做的、

還有我們要持續做的

就是了解 是什麼讓火星如此特別，

is to understand what makes Mars so special

and what makes Earth even more special

而是什麼讓地球 更加特別

that we're all here together today.

以至於我們今天可以聚在一塊。

So we'll see where Curiosity takes us --

所以，我們將看看好奇號 會帶我們到哪，

不只是帶著我們的探測車，

not just our rover,

but our sense of exploration.

還有我們的探索精神。

謝謝各位。

Thank you.

(Applause)