Jon Nguyen: Tour the solar system from home

譯者: Serena Liu 審譯者: Yuguo Zhang

As a kid, I was fascinated with all things air and space.

在小的時候，我就對航空及太空的事物十分著迷。

I would watch Nova on PBS.

我會看公共電視網播放的 Nova 節目。

Our school would show Bill Nye the Science Guy.

我們學校也會放映的 "比爾教科學" (由迪士尼製作的一個科學節目)

When I was in elementary school, my next door neighbor,

小學的時候, 隔壁鄰居

he gave me a book for my birthday.

在我生日時送了我一本

It was an astronomy book,

有關天文的書，

and I poured over that thing for hours on end,

我花了好幾個小時一口氣把它看完,

and it was a combination of all these things

就是這些經歷

that inspired me to pursue space exploration

對太空的探索

as my own personal dream, and part of that dream was,

成為了我的夢想, 而其中一個，

I always wanted to just fly around the solar system

就是飛遍太陽系,

and visit different planets and visit moons and spacecraft.

拜訪不同的星球，參觀各個衛星及太空飛行器。

Well, a number of years later, I graduated from UCLA

幾年後，我從加州大學洛杉磯分校畢業

and I found myself at NASA,

進入了美國國家航空暨太空總署，

working for the jet propulsion laboratory,

在噴氣推進實驗室裡工作

and there our team was challenged

而我們的團隊, 正思索著

to create a 3D visualization of the solar system,

能否創建一個三度空間視覺化的太陽能系統，

and today I want to show you what we've done so far.

今天, 我要向您們展示我們現階段所做出的成果。

Now, the kicker is, everything I'm about to do here

而且, 我在這裡所展示的

you can do at home, because we built this

您們在家裡都可以自己操作，因為我們建立的目的

for the public for you guys to use.

就是讓大眾都能輕易使用。

So what you're looking at right now is the Earth.

現在各位看到的是地球。

You can see the United States and California

可以看到美國和加州

and San Diego, and you can use the mouse

聖地牙哥. 您可以使用滑鼠

or the keyboard to spin things around.

或鍵盤輕易的旋轉。

Now, this isn't new. Anyone who's used Google Earth

使用過 Google Earth 的人

has seen this before, but one thing we like to say

都知道如何的操作，但我們團隊所做的

in our group is, we do the opposite of Google Earth.

和 Google Earth 是完全相反

Google Earth goes from this view down to your backyard.

Google Earth 是將視野透視到每個家的後院。

We go from this view out to the stars.

而我們則是從地球向外拉出去看各個宇宙中的星球。

So the Earth is cool, but what we really want to show

這個地球是很酷，但我們真正想要展示的

are the spacecraft,

是太空飛行器，

so I'm going to bring the interface back up,

現在我獎調節接觸面

and now you're looking at a number of satellites

然後, 你們會看到幾個衛星，

orbiting the Earth.

正繞著地球飛行。

These are a number of our science space Earth orbiters.

這裡有些科學人造衛星。

We haven't included military satellites and weather satellites

我們還沒將軍事衛星和氣象衛星涵蓋進來

and communication satellites and reconnaissance satellites.

也沒有通信衛星和偵察衛星。

If we did, it would be a complete mess,

如果將它們全數納進來，這系統將會顯得非常混亂，

because there's a lot of stuff out there.

因為實在太多了。

And the cool thing is, we actually created 3D models

最酷的是，我們確實的創建了某些飛行器的 3D 模型

for a number of these spacecraft, so if you want to visit

因此，如果您想要更仔細的它們,

any of these, all you need to do is double-click on them.

只需要按兩下划鼠就可以了.

So I'm going to find the International Space Station,

假設我想找國際太空站，

double-click, and it will take us all the way down to the ISS.

找到它, 按兩下，馬上就到那兒去了。

And now you're riding along with the ISS

而且就跟著它此時此刻所在的位置

where it is right now.

一起飛行。

And the other cool thing is, not only can we

另外一件很酷的事是，我們不只可以

move the camera around, we can also control time,

左右移動相機，還可以控制時間，

so I can slide this jog dial here

我現在在這選項裡

to shuttle time forward, and now

將時間往後拉,

we can see what a sunset on the ISS would look like,

就可以看到在國際空間站的日落是什麼景象

and they get one every 90 minutes. (Laughter)

而且每隔90分鐘就可以有一個日落。（笑聲）

All right, so what about the rest of it?

好吧，那還有什麼呢？

Well, I can click on this home button over here,

按一下主頁按鈕，

and that will take us up to the inner solar system,

這將帶我們到太陽系內部，

and now we're looking at the rest of the solar system.

我們看到了太陽系的其他星球。

You can see, there's Saturn, there's Jupiter,

有土星，木星

and while we're here, I want to point out something.

在這裡，我想說明的是

It's actually pretty busy.

這是個很忙碌的銀河系。

Here we have the Mars Science Laboratory

這個是上個星期才發射,

on its way to Mars, just launched last weekend.

正航向火星的科學實驗室

Here we have Juno on its cruise to Jupiter, there.

這個是正航向木星的 Juno 號.

We have Dawn orbiting Vesta,

我們的曙光號繞著灶神星 (Vesta)

and we have over here New Horizons

這裡是新視野號

on a straight shot to Pluto.

正航向冥王星

And I mention this because

我提到這些是因為

there's this strange public perception that

大眾有個奇特的認知，

NASA's dead, that the space shuttles stopped flying

以為美國國家航空暨太空總署已死，太空梭已不再發射

and all of the sudden there's no more spacecraft out there.

或突然之間所有的太空飛行器都不見了。

Well, a lot of what NASA does is robotic exploration,

目前美國國家航空暨太空總署都是用機器人探索，

and we have a lot of spacecraft out there.

而且已經送出很多這樣的太空飛行器了。

Granted, we're not sending humans up at the moment,

我們不再將人類送至外太空，

well at least with our own launch vehicles,

至少 NASA 不再如此做了.

but NASA is far from dead,

但 NASA 不會這麼輕易的結束的

and one of the reasons why we write a program like this

我們寫這個程式的原因之一

is so that people realize that there's so many other things

就是因為人們意識到

that we're doing.

我們還在著手進行很多其它的研究。

Anyway, while we're here, again,

好, 現在回到這個程式,

if you want to visit anything,

如果您想要造訪任何行星衛星，

all you need to do is double-click.

您只需對著它按兩下划鼠。

So I'm just going to double-click on Vesta,

現在我找到灶神星，按兩下

and here we have Dawn orbiting Vesta,

就可以看到曙光號環繞灶神星

and this is happening right now.

而且這是現在這個時刻正在進行的事。

I'm going to double-click on Uranus, and we can see

現在對著天王星，按兩下，我們看到

Uranus rotating on its side along with its moons.

天王星以及它的衛星群的運轉情形

You can see how it's tilted at about 89 degrees.

您可以看到它們是呈 89 度傾斜。

And just being able to visit different places

我們可以造訪不同的地點

and go through different times,

也可以進入不同的時空

we have data from 1950 to 2050.

因為這系統擁有 1950 到 2050 年的資料

Granted, we don't have everything in between,

當然，我們沒有所有的時空的詳細資料，

because some of the data is hard to get.

因為某些資料真的很難取得

Just being able to visit places in different times,

因為可以在不同的時空裡造訪這個太陽系,

you can explore this for hours,

您大概得花上幾個小時

literally hours on end,

才能瀏覽完畢

but I want to show you one thing in particular,

現在我要特別展示一下

so I'm going to open up the destination tab,

現在我要打開目標選項欄

spacecraft outer planet missions, Voyager 1,

選擇: 外太空衛星任務，旅行者一號

and I'm going to bring up the Titan flyby.

然後再叫出泰坦星球

So now we've gone back in time.

所以現在我們回到了那個時空

We're now riding along with Voyager 1.

我們現在正在與旅行者一號同行。

The date here is November 11, 1980.

日期是 1980 年 11 月 11 日。

Now, there's a funny thing going on here.

現在，有趣的是

It doesn't look like anything's going on.

它看上去像沒事一樣

It looks like I've paused the program.

就好像我暫停了程序。

It's actually running at real rate right now,

但它實際上是以一個速率在行進的

one second per second, and in fact,

事實上，

Voyager 1 here is flying by Titan at

旅行家一號正在飛往泰坦星

I think it's 38,000 miles per hour.

速率應該是每小時 38,000 英里

It only looks like nothing's moving because, well,

它看起來不像在移動的樣子

Saturn here is 700,000 miles away,

那是因為, 土星離這裡是 700,000 英里，

and Titan here is 4,000 to 5,000 miles away.

泰坦星則離這裡 4,000 至 5,000 英里遠。

It's just the vastness of space makes it look like nothing's happening.

因為距離太遙遠, 因此感覺不到有任何的動靜

But to make it more interesting,

為了使它更有趣，

I'm going to speed up time, and we can watch

我把速度加快， 我們可以看到

as Voyager 1 flies by Titan,

旅行者一號正通過泰坦星

which is a hazy moon of Saturn.

它是一個土星的矇矓的衛星。

It actually has a very thick atmosphere.

實際上，它有很厚的大氣層。

And I'm going to recenter the camera on Saturn, here.

並且我要把中心設為土星

I'm going to pull out, and I want to show you

然後將鏡頭拉出去，

Voyager 1 as it flies by Saturn.

您就會看到旅行者一號正飛行過土星

There's a point to be made here.

我要說明的是

With a 3D visualization like this,

利用這樣的三度空間視覺化系統

we can not only just say Voyager 1 flew by Saturn.

我們不僅僅可以了解旅行者一號飛過了土星

There's a whole story to tell here.

更可以明白在背後的故事

And even better, because it's an interactive application,

更棒的是，它是一個互動式應用程式

you can tell the story for yourself.

您可以讓它為您說故事。

If you want to pause it, you can pause it.

可以依您的需要隨時的暫停, 繼續

If you want to keep going, if you want to change

如果您想更改相機角度

the camera angle, you can do that,

隨時都可以這麼做的

and because of that, I can show you

因此，我可以告訴您

that Voyager 1 doesn't just fly by Saturn.

旅行者一號不只是飛向土星。

It actually flies underneath Saturn.

它實際上是從土星的下方飛過

Now, what happens is, as it flies underneath Saturn,

現在, 當它從土星底下飛過, 發生了一件事

Saturn grabs it gravitationally and flings it up

土星的地心引力抓住了它

and out of the solar system,

並把它往上扔出了太陽系

so if I just keep letting this go,

所以如果我只是讓它繼續延著這路徑走，

you can see Voyager 1 fly up like that.

您會看到旅行者一號往上飛了起來。

And, in fact, I'm going to go back to the solar system.

現在我要回到太陽系裡

I'm going to go back to today, now,

回到今天，現在，此時此刻

and I want to show you where Voyager 1 is.

我會指出旅行者一號在哪裡

Right there, above, way above the solar system,

就在哪兒，在太陽系的上方

way beyond our solar system.

在離太陽系很遠很遠的地方

And here's the thing. Now you know how it got there.

現在您明白了它是如何到那裡的

Now you know why, and to me,

對我來說，

that's the point of this program.

這也是設計這個程式的主要目的

You can manipulate it yourself.

您可以自己操縱它

You can fly around yourself and you can learn for yourself.

您可以任意的飛，也可以幫助自己學習

You know, the theme today is "The World In Your Grasp."

今天的主題是"掌握世界"。

Well, we're trying to give you

我們試圖給您的

the solar system in your grasp — (Laughter) —

則是 "掌握的太陽系" — — （笑聲） — —

and we hope once it's there,

我們希望可以藉由這個系統

you'll be able to learn for yourself

您能夠自我學習

what we've done out there, and what we're about to do.

也能更瞭解我們做了什麼，我們將要做什麼

And my personal dream is for kids to take this

我個人則是希望, 能藉此啟發孩子們

and explore and see the wonders out there

去探索外太空的奇妙宇宙

and be inspired, as I was as a kid,

像我孩提時的經歷一樣

to pursue STEM education

追求科學,技術,工程和數學 (STEM) 教育

and to pursue a dream in space exploration.

並繼續探索太空的夢想。

Thank you. (Applause)

謝謝。（掌聲）