How humanity can reach the stars | Philip Lubin

Prevoditelj: Gordan Prakiš Recezent: Sanda Liker

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

Nalazimo se na Kalifornijskom sveučilištu u Santa Barbari

to discuss a dream of humanity:

kako bismo raspravili o snu čovječanstva:

the ability to exit our solar system

mogućnosti da napustimo naš Sunčev sustav

and enter another solar system.

i uđemo u sustav druge zvijezde.

And the solution is literally before your eyes.

I rješenje se nalazi doslovno pred vašim očima.

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

Kod sebe imam dvije stvari koje imate i vi: imam sat

and I have a flashlight,

i imam svjetiljku koju

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

ako nemate, imate na svojem telefonu.

So the watch keeps time,

Sat bilježi vrijeme,

and my flashlight just illuminates my environment.

a svjetiljka jednostavno osvjetljava moje okruženje.

So like art, to me, science is illuminating.

Za mene je znanost, kao i umjetnost, prosvjetljujuća.

I want to see reality in a different way.

Želim vidjeti stvarnost na drugi način.

When I turn on the flashlight,

Kada upalim svjetiljku,

suddenly the dark becomes bright, and I suddenly see.

tama odjednom postaje svjetlost i odjednom vidim.

The flashlight and its light,

Svjetiljka i njena svjetlost,

which you can see coming out --

koju možete vidjeti kako izvire,

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

ta svjetlost na mojoj ruci ne samo da osvjetljava

moju ruku nego je i poguruje.

it's actually pushing on my hand.

Light carries energy and momentum.

Svjetlost nosi energiju i zamah.

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

Tako da odgovor nije da napravimo svemirski brod od svjetiljke,

by having the exhaust come out this way

da ispuh izlazi ovim putem

and the spacecraft goes that way --

i letjelica ide ovim putem -

that's what we do today with chemistry.

to danas radimo pomoću kemije.

The answer is this:

Odgovor glasi:

Take the flashlight and put it somewhere on the Earth,

Uzmite svjetiljku i stavite je negdje na Zemlju,

u orbitu ili na Mjesec,

in orbit or on the Moon,

and then shine it on a reflector,

i tada osvjetlite reflektor,

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

što će pogurati reflektor prema brzinama koje mogu doseći brzinu svjetlosti.

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

Kako napraviti svjetiljku koja je dovoljno velika?

Ovo nam neće pomoći,

This isn't going to do it,

moja ruka ne djeluje kao da ide igdje.

my hand doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

I to je stoga što je sila jako, jako mala.

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

Način na koji možete riješiti ovaj problem

So the way that you can solve this problem

je uzeti mnogo svjetiljki, koje su ustvari laseri,

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

and synchronizing them in time,

i vremenski ih sinkronizirati,

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

i kad ih uparite zajedno u jedan gigantski niz,

which we call a phased array,

koji nazivamo "fazni niz",

you then have a sufficiently powerful system,

tada imate dovoljno jak sustav,

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

koji, ako ga napravite u veličini jednog grada,

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

može pomaknuti letjelicu koja je veličine vaše ruke

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

na brzine koje su ugrubo 25 posto brzine svjetlosti.

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

To bi nam omogućilo da dođemo do naše najbliže zvijezde, Proxima Centauri,

which is a little over four light years away,

koja je udaljena malo više od 4 svjetlosne godine,

in less than 20 years.

za manje od 20 godina.

Initial probes would be roughly the size of your hand,

Inicijalne sonde bi bile ugrubo veličine vaše ruke,

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

dok bi veličina reflektora koje biste koristili

is going to be roughly human size,

morala biti ugrubo veličine čovjeka,

so not a whole lot larger than myself,

dakle ne mnogo veći od mene,

but a few meters in size.

tek nekoliko metara ukupno.

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

Koriste samo refleksiju svjetla iz tih vrlo velikih laserskih zraka

to propel the spacecraft.

kako bi pogonili letjelicu.

So let's talk about this.

Dakle popričajmo o tome.

This is a lot like sailing on the ocean.

To je u mnogo čemu kao jedrenje oceanom.

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

Kada jedrite oceanom, poguruje vas vjetar.

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

Vjetar tada upravlja jedrom naprijed kroz more.

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

U našem slučaju, stvaramo umjetni vjetar u svemiru

from this laser array,

iz tih laserskih zraka,

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

osim što su "vjetar" zapravo fotoni iz samog lasera,

the light from the laser becomes the wind

svjetlost iz lasera postaje vjetar

upon which we sail.

na kojem mi plovimo.

It is a very directed light --

To je vrlo usmjerena svjetlost -

it's often called directed energy.

često se naziva usmjerena energija.

So why is this possible today,

Zašto je ovo moguće danas,

why can we talk about going to the stars today,

zašto danas možemo pričati o posjetu zvijezdama,

when 60 years ago,

kada prije 60 godina,

when the space program began in earnest,

dok je svemirski program ozbiljnije počinjao,

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

ljudi bi rekli: "To nije moguće"?

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

Zapravo razlog zašto je to moguće danas ima velike veze s potrošačem

and the very fact that you're watching me.

i činjenicom da me gledate.

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

Gledate me preko brzinskog interneta

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

kojim dominira fotonika slanja podataka putem optičkih kablova.

Photonics essentially allow the internet to exist

Fotonika u biti omogućava postojanje interneta

in the way it does today.

na način na koji postoji danas.

The ability to send vast amounts of data very quickly

Mogućnost da prenesemo velike količine podataka vrlo brzo

is the same technology that we're going to use

je ustvari ista ta tehnologija koju ćemo koristiti

to send spacecraft very quickly to the stars.

kako bismo poslali svemirsku letjelicu vrlo brzo prema zvijezdama.

You effectively have an infinite supply of propellent,

Efektivno na raspolaganju imate beskonačni pogon

you can turn it on and off as needed.

koji možete uključiti i isključiti po potrebi.

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

Ne ostavljate uključenu lasersku zraku koja producira svjetlost

for the entire journey.

tijekom cijelog putovanja.

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

Za manje letjelice upaljena je samo nekoliko minuta

and then it's like shooting a gun.

i to je kao pucanj iz pištolja.

You have a projectile which just moves ballistically.

Imate projektil koji se kreće balistički.

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

Čak i ako se mi ljudi ne nalazimo na letjelici,

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

ipak imamo mogućnost poslati takvu letjelicu.

You want to remotely view,

Želite vidjeti na daljinu

or have remote imaging and remote sensing,

ili imati sliku na daljinu i daljinski osjet

of an object.

objekta.

So when we go to Jupiter, for example,

Kada, primjerice, odemo na Jupiter

with a flyby mission,

u misiji preleta,

we are taking pictures of Jupiter,

mi slikamo Jupiter,

we're measuring the magnetic field,

mjerimo magnetsko polje,

the particle density,

gustoću čestica

and we're basically exploring remotely.

i u biti istražujemo na daljinu.

The same way that you are looking at me.

Na isti način na koji me upravo gledate.

And all of the current missions that are beyond the Moon

I sve trenutne misije koje se nalaze iza Mjeseca

are remote-sensing missions.

su osjetilne misije na daljinu.

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

Što se nadamo pronaći ako posjetimo egzoplanet?

Perhaps there's life on an exoplanet,

Možda postoji život na tom planetu

and we would be able to see evidence of life,

i bili bismo u mogućnosti vidjeti dokaze o životu,

either through atmospheric biosignatures

bilo preko atmosferskih naznaka života,

or through, you know, a dramatic picture,

bilo preko dramatične slike,

we would be able to see something actually on the surface.

bili bismo u mogućnosti vidjeti nešto na samoj površini.

We don't know if there's life elsewhere in the universe.

Ne znamo postoji li život negdje drugdje u svemiru.

Perhaps on the missions that we send out, we will find evidence for life,

Možda ćemo kroz misiju koju bismo poslali moći pronaći dokaze o životu,

perhaps we will not.

a možda i nećemo.

And while economics may seem like an inappropriate thing

I iako se možda ekonomija čini neprikladnom

to bring into a talk on interstellar capability,

da u razgovor uvedemo međuzvjezdane mogućnosti,

it is in fact one of the driving issues in achieving interstellar capability.

ustvari je ona jedan od vodećih čimbenika za ostvarenje međuzvjezdanog potencijala.

You have to get things to the point where they're economically affordable

Morate stvari dovesti do točke gdje su ekonomski isplative

to do what we want to do.

da učinite ono što namjeravate.

So currently,

Trenutno

we have systems in the lab

imamo laboratorijske sustave

which have achieved the ability to synchronize over very large scales,

koji su ostvarili mogućnost sinkronizacije na velikoj skali

out to about 10 kilometers or roughly six miles.

do skoro 10 kilometara (ugrubo 6 milja).

We've been able to achieve synchronization of laser systems,

Uspjeli smo ostvariti sinkronizaciju laserskih sustava

and it's worked beautifully.

i radilo je savršeno.

We've known how to build lasers for many decades,

Već mnogo desetljeća znamo kako napraviti lasere

but it's only now that the technology has gotten inexpensive enough,

ali tek je sada ta tehnologija postala dovoljno jeftina

and become mature enough

i dovoljno zrela

that we can imagine having huge arrays, literally,

kako bismo mogli zamisliti da imamo ogromne zrake, doslovce

kilometer-scale arrays, much like solar farms,

kilometarski velike zrake, kao solarne farme,

but instead of receiving light, they transmit light.

ali umjesto da primaju svjetlost, one je emitiraju.

The beauty of this type of technology is it enables many applications,

Ljepota ove vrste tehnologije je ta što omogućuje mnoge primjene,

not just relativistic flight for small spacecraft,

ne samo relativističke letove manjih letjelica,

but enables high-speed spacecraft,

već omogućuje brzinske letjelice,

high-speed flight in our solar system,

brzinski let našim Sunčevim sustavom,

it enables planetary defense,

omogućuje planetarnu obranu,

it enables space debris removal,

omogućuje otklanjanje svemirskog otpada,

it enables powering of distant assets that we may want to send power to,

omogućuje upravljanje udaljenom imovinom gdje želimo poslati energiju,

such as spacecraft or bases on the Moon or other places.

kao primjerice letjelice ili baze na Mjesecu ili drugim planetima.

It's an extremely versatile technology,

To je vrlo svestrana tehnologija

it's something that humanity would want to develop

i nešto što bi ljudska rasa trebala željeti razviti

even if they didn't want to send spacecraft to the stars,

iako nužno ne žele poslati letjelicu prema zvjezdama,

because that technology allows so many applications

zato što ta tehnologija ima toliko mogućih primjena

that are currently not feasible.

koje trenutno nisu izvedive.

And therefore, I feel it's an inevitable technology,

I stoga smatram da je to neizbježna vrsta tehnologije

because we have the ability,

zato što imamo tu mogućnost,

we just need to fine-tune the technology

samo je potrebno fino je podesiti

and in a sense, wait for economics to catch up with us

i u stvari čekati da ekonomija uhvati korak s nama

so that it becomes cheap enough to build the large systems.

tako da kada postane dovoljno jeftino izgradimo velike sustave.

The smaller systems are affordable now.

Manji sustavi su već sada isplativi.

And we've already started building prototype systems in our lab.

I već smo počeli graditi prototipne sustave u laboratoriju.

So while it's not going to happen tomorrow,

Iako se to sve neće dogoditi sutra,

we've already begun the process,

već smo započeli proces

and so far, it's looking good.

i, za sada, izgleda dobro.

This is both a revolutionary program,

Ovo je i revolucionarni program,

in terms of being a transformative technology,

u smislu toga da je to transformativna tehnologija,

but it's also an evolutionary program.

ali ujedno i evolucijski program.

So personally, I do not expect to be around

Osobno ne očekujem da ću biti živ

when the first relativistic flight happens.

kada se dogode prvi relativistički letovi.

I think that's probably 30-plus years off before we get to that point,

Mislim da nas dijeli još 30+ godina prije nego dođemo do te točke,

and perhaps more.

možda i više.

But what inspires me

Ali ono što me inspirira

is to look at the ability to achieve the final goal.

je pogledati mogućnost ostvarivanja konačnog cilja.

Even if it does not happen in my lifetime,

Iako se to ne dogodi tijekom mojega života,

it can happen in the lifetime of the next generation

može se dogoditi tijekom života sljedeće generacije

or the generation beyond that.

ili generacije koja slijedi nakon nje.

The consequences are so transformative

Posljedice su toliko transformativne

that we literally, in my opinion, must go down this path,

da, po mojem mišljenju, moramo doslovce krenuti tim putem

and must explore what the limitations are,

i moramo istražiti koja su ograničenja

and then how do we overcome the limitations.

i kako ih nadvladati.

The search for life on other planets

Potraga za životom na drugim planetima

would be one of humanity's foremost explorations,

bila bi jedna od najistaknutijih istraživanja čovječanstva

and if we're able to do so,

i ako bismo to zbilja uspjeli

and actually find life on another planet,

i zbilja pronašli život na drugom planetu,

it would change humanity forever.

to bi promijenilo čovječanstvo zauvijek.

Everything is profound in life.

Sve u životu ima smisao

If you look deep enough,

i ako zavirite dovoljno duboko

you'll find something incredibly complex and interesting and beautiful in life.

pronaći ćete nešto nevjerojatno složeno, zanimljivo i prelijepo u životu.

And the same is true with the lowly photon

I isto vrijedi za ponizni foton

that we use to see every day.

koji gledamo svaki dan.

But when we look outside and we imagine something vastly greater,

Ali kada pogledamo izvana i zamislimo nešto mnogo veće,

an array of lasers that are synchronized,

kao zrake lasera koje su sinkronizirane,

we could imagine things which are just extraordinary in life.

možemo zamisliti stvari koje su jednostavno nevjerojatne u životu.

And the ability to go to another star

I mogućnost da posjetimo drugu zvijezdu

is one of those extraordinary capabilities.

je jedna od tih nevjerojatnih mogućnosti.

(Birds chirping)

(Cvrkut ptica)