Steve Jurvetson: The joy of rockets

譯者: yuanyuan liang 審譯者: kane tan

By day, I'm a venture capitalist.

平時，我是一個風險投資家。週末，我喜歡玩火箭。

On weekends, I love rockets.

我熱愛攝影，我熱愛火箭，

I love photography, I love rockets.

I'm going to talk about a hobby that can scale

我今天要跟大家聊聊這個可大可小的嗜好，

而且還要展示一下這些年來拍的照片，

and show you photos I've taken over the years

都是和這些孩子們一起拍的，希望他們長大了也熱愛火箭技術，

with kids like these, that hopefully will grow up to love rocketry

說不定最後成為第二個Richard Branson （英國傳奇富翁，維珍品牌創始人）或者Diamandis （Peter H. Diamandis ，創立X PRIZE Foundation鼓勵民間航空產業）

and eventually become a Richard Branson or Diamandis.

My son designed a rocket that became stable, a golf ball rocket.

我兒子設計了一個火箭，最後是這個樣子——

一個高爾夫球火箭，我覺得這是個非常有意思的實驗，

I thought it was quite an interesting experiment

依照火箭科學的原理，

in the principles of rocket science.

飛得像箭一樣直。

And it flies straight as an arrow.

Baking soda and vinegar.

這裡用的是烤麵包的蘇打和醋。

Night shots are beautiful,

夜景照片非常漂亮，

piercing the Big Dipper and the Milky Way.

劃過北斗七星和銀河。

2-stage rockets with video cameras on them,

兩段式火箭，搭載攝影機的火箭

機載電腦記錄著飛行過程。

onboard computers logging their flights, rocket gliders that fly back to Earth.

火箭滑翔機返回地面。

I use RockSim to simulate flights before they go

在發射前我用RockSim（火箭模型設計和仿真軟件）模擬飛行過程，

看看它們是否能突破音速，

to see if they'll break supersonic,

then fly them with onboard computers to verify performance.

然後才發射並用機載電腦確認其性能。

To launch the big stuff, you go to the middle of nowhere:

但是要想發射真正的大傢伙，就要去到這種不毛之地——

黑岩沙漠，那兒常發生一些危險的事情。

Black Rock Desert, where dangerous things happen.

隨著男生們的年紀變大，火箭也跟著變大。

The boys and the rockets get bigger.

他們使用發動機，

They use motors used on cruise-missile boosters.

使用貨真價實的巡航導彈推進器。

They rumble the belly and leave even photographers in awe,

火箭在隆隆巨響中發射升空，讓攝影師目瞪口呆地

watching the spectacle.

看著這壯觀的景象。

These rockets use experimental motors like nitrous oxide.

這些火箭使用的是試驗性的發動機，如一氧化二氮。

They use solid propellant most frequently.

他們最常使用的是固體推進劑。

It's a strange kind of love.

這是一種奇怪的愛好。

RocketMavericks.com with my photos, if you want to learn about this,

我們有一個網站：Rocketmavericks.com ，上面有我的照片，

如果你想瞭解更多，——加入我們，做個觀眾。

participate, be a spectator.

We had to call it Rocket Mavericks.

無政府主義份子。我們叫這個是火箭無政府主義份子。

This one was great, went to 100,000 feet -- but didn't quite.

這個傢伙很厲害。它飛了10萬英尺。

但其實不夠10萬——事實上，它向地下推進了11英尺，

Actually, it went 11 feet into solid clay and became a bunker-buster.

成了個地堡炸彈。

鑽進地裡去了——我們不得不把它挖出來。

It had to be dug out.

Rockets often spiral out of control if you put too much propellant in them.

如果放了過多的推進劑，火箭經常會失控進入螺旋狀態。

就像短程加速賽車。

Here was a drag race.

在晚上就能看見一秒內發生了什麽，

At night you can see what happened in a second;

白天我們叫這個是陸地鯊魚。

in daytime, we call them land sharks.

Sometimes they just explode before your eyes or come down supersonic.

有時就在你眼前爆炸了，或者以超音速直衝下來。

（笑聲）

(Laughter)

To take this shot, I did what I often do, which is go way beyond the pads,

爲了拍到這張照片，我採用我的一貫做法，

走到離發射台很遠很遠的地方，除我以外沒別人了。

where none of the spectators are.

我們可以播放一段影片，就可以給你們看看

And if we can run the video, I'll show you what it took

這個夢工廠大片是怎麼拍出來的了。

to get this DreamWorks shot.

(Video) Voices: Woo-hoo! Yeah. Nice.

影片聲音：耶！太棒了。

Steve Jurvetson: They realize the computer failed, they're yelling "Deploy!"

Steve Jurvetson：這種情況很少見。這裡他們發現電腦出錯了。

他們大喊著堅持下去。影片聲音：啊，完蛋了！

(Video) Man: Oh, shit.

SJ: This is when they realize everything's gone haywire.

Steve Jurvetson: 這裡他們發現整個火箭都出問題了。

影片聲音：要撞擊了。。。唉，糟糕！

(Video) Man: It's going ballistic.

Steve Jurvetson: 我就啥都不說了。

影片聲音：不要！！

SJ: I'll just be quiet.

(Video) Woman: No!

Come on, come on, come on.

向上，向上，向上。

SJ: And that's me over there, taking photos the whole way.

Steve Jurvetson: 那邊那個就是我，正在拍下這整個過程。

Things often go wrong.

錯誤經常發生。

Some people watch this because of a NASCAR-like fascination

有人喜歡看這些因為這就像是全美普通汽車拉力賽。

with things bumping and grinding.

爆炸啊，肢解啊，降落傘邊燒邊掉下來啊——

Burning the parachute as it fell. That was last weekend.

這是上個週末的事。

這個傢伙發射升空，超越音速，尾艙脫離了，

This guy went up, went supersonic, ripped the fin can off.

所有的東西在空中散開來，

The art sale in the sky.

最後一大片金屬燃燒著回到地面。

A burning metal hunk coming back.

These things dropped down from above all through the weekend

整個發射火箭的週末，就是這些東西，

發射，掉下來，發射，掉下來。

of rocket launch after rocket launch.

你都想不到這是多麼有節奏。

It's a cadence you can't quite imagine.

我試圖用很多方式捕捉小事故——

I try to capture the mishaps; it's a challenge in photography

這是對攝影技術的挑戰，因為一切這些都發生在

when these things take place in a fraction of a second.

幾分之一秒。

Why do it? For things like this:

為什麼他們要這麼做？一切都是為了：

Gene from Alabama drives out there

來自阿拉巴馬的吉恩千里迢迢驅車到此，

with this rocket he's built with X-ray sensors, video cameras,

帶著他製造的火箭，上面有X光感應器，攝影機，

festooned with electronics.

被各種電子設備打扮得花枝招展，然後他成功升到十萬英尺，

He succeeds getting to 100,000 feet,

leaving the atmosphere, seeing a thin blue line of space.

脫離了大氣層，瞥見了這一抹蔚藍的太空。

正是這種令人屏息的景象——

It is this breathtaking image -- success, of course -- that motivates us

當然還有成就感——成為我們的動力。

and motivates kids to follow and understand rocket science,

同時是推動孩子們去探索並理解火箭學，

understand the importance of physics and math

理解物理和數學的重要性，

and, in many ways, to have that awe at exploration

並且在很多方面保持某程度上的敬畏之心，

當他們在未知世界的邊緣探險時。

of the frontiers of the unknown.

Thank you.

謝謝大家。

(Applause)

（掌聲）