Tiny satellites that photograph the entire planet, every day | Will Marshall

譯者: Harry Chen 審譯者: Marssi Draw

The Earth needs no introduction.

地球不需介紹，

It needs no introduction in part because the Apollo 17 astronauts,

有部分原因是阿波羅17號的太空人

when they were hurtling around the moon in 1972,

在1972年快速繞著月球時，

took this iconic image.

拍下這張象徵性的照片，

It galvanized a whole generation of human beings

這照片振奮了整個世代的人類，

to realize that we're on Spaceship Earth,

讓我們了解自己是生活在 「地球號太空船」上，

fragile and finite as it is,

它容易受損且資源有限，

and that we need to take care of it.

我們得要保護好它。

But while this picture is beautiful, it's static,

儘管這張照片很漂亮， 不過它是靜止的，

and the Earth is constantly changing.

而地球卻是不斷地在改變。

It's changing on days' time scales with human activity.

它是伴隨人類的活動逐日在改變。

And the satellite imagery we have of it today is old.

我們現今擁有的 衛星照片已經過時了，

Typically, years old.

而且已經過時好幾年了。

And that's important because you can't fix what you can't see.

這很重要，因為你無法 修補看不到的東西，

What we'd ideally want is images of the whole planet every day.

理想上我們要的是 整個地球每天的影像，

So, what's standing in our way?

那麼有什麼事會妨礙我們呢？

What's the problem?

問題出在哪裡？

This is the problem:

這就是問題：

Satellites are big, expensive and they're slow.

人造衛星既大又貴，而且很緩慢。

This one weighs three tons.

這一個重達3噸、

It's six meters tall, four meters wide.

6公尺高、4公尺寬，

It took up the entire fairing of a rocket just to launch it.

光是發射衛星就需要 整整一枚火箭的酬載燃料，

One satellite, one rocket.

「一顆衛星、一枚火箭」，

It cost 855 million dollars.

花上8億5千5百萬美金。

Satellites like these have done an amazing job

像這樣的衛星大大地幫助我們

at helping us to understand our planet.

瞭解我們的星球。

But if we want to understand it much more regularly,

可是假使我們想要更有規律地掌握地球，

we need lots of satellites,

我們需要有大量的人工衛星，

and this model isn't scalable.

而這種衛星不能大規模製造。

So me and my friends, we started Planet Labs

因此我和朋友 成立了「星球實驗室」，

to make satellites ultra-compact

要做出極度緊密、

and small and highly capable.

小巧又非常有用的衛星。

I'm going to show you what our satellite looks like:

請看我們製作的衛星長什麼模樣，

This is our satellite.

這就是我們的衛星。

This is not a scale model,

這不是一個等比例模型，

this is the real size.

這是實際大小，

It's 10 by 10 by 30 centimeters,

體積是10X10X30公分、

it weighs four kilograms,

重達4公斤，

我們配載了最新、最棒的 電子零件和感應系統

and we've stuffed the latest and greatest electronics

and sensor systems into this little package

在這個小盒子裡面，

so that even though this is really small,

即使這真的非常小巧，

this can take pictures 10 times the resolution of the big satellite here,

也能拍攝出比這個大衛星 高10倍解析度的照片，

even though it weighs one thousandth of the mass.

即使它的質量只有大衛星的千分之一。

And we call this satellite "Dove" — Thank you.

我們稱這個衛星為「鴿子」。謝謝！

(Applause)

（掌聲）

We call this satellite "Dove,"

我們稱這顆衛星「鴿子」，

and we call it "Dove" because satellites are typically named

因為衛星通常是以鳥類來命名，

after birds, but normally birds of prey:

不過通常是猛禽性鳥類，

like Eagle, Hawk, Swoop, Kill, I don't know,

像是大鵰、老鷹、飛撲、獵殺…等等，

Kestrel, these sort of things.

或是紅隼這一類的東西。

But ours have a humanitarian mission,

不過我們的衛星有著 人道的使命，

so we wanted to call them Doves.

所以我們想稱為「鴿子」。

And we haven't just built them, though.

而且我們不只是製造它們而已，

We've launched them.

我們還發射它們，

And not just one, but many.

不只一顆而是很多顆。

這一切的起源來自於我們的車庫。

It all started in our garage.

Yes, we built our first satellite prototype in our garage.

沒錯！我們在車庫裡 打造了第一顆衛星的原型，

Now, this is pretty normal for a Silicon Valley company that we are,

對我們這種矽谷公司 來說這很普遍，

but we believe it's the first time for a space company.

不過我們相信對太空 科技公司來說是頭一遭，

And that's not the only trick we learned from Silicon Valley.

而且這不是我們從 矽谷學來的唯一訣竅。

We rapidly prototype our satellites.

我們很快就打造出衛星原型，

We use "release early, release often" on our software.

我們的軟體採用 「早發布、常發布」原則。

And we take a different risk approach.

還有我們使用少見的冒險方法，

We take them outside and test them.

我們到外面做測試，

We even put satellites in space just to test the satellites,

甚至把衛星放到外太空， 就為了做測試，

and we've learned to manufacture our satellites at scale.

我們也學會了大規模製造衛星，

We've used modern production techniques

我們採用了先進的製造技術，

so we can build large numbers of them,

因此可以製造大量的衛星，

I think for the first time.

這應該是史上頭一回。

We call it agile aerospace,

我們管它叫靈活的太空產業，

and that's what's enabled us to put so much capability into this little box.

這是讓我們能在這個小盒子裡 配置如此強大性能的原因。

Now, what has bonded our team over the years

這麼多年來讓我們團隊 凝聚在一起的理由

is the idea of democratizing access to satellite information.

是讓衛星資訊取得普及化的想法。

In fact, the founders of our company, Chris, Robbie and I,

實際上我們公司的創辦人 克里斯、羅比還有我，

we met over 15 years ago at the United Nations

15年前就在聯合國裡認識了，

when they were hosting a conference about exactly that question:

當時他們主持的研討會主題就叫做

How do you use satellites to help humanity?

你如何利用衛星來幫助人類？

How do you use satellites to help people in developing countries

你如何利用衛星幫助

在開發中國家的人民 或是面臨氣候變遷問題的百姓？

or with climate change?

And this is what has bonded us.

就是這些事情把我們凝聚起來的。

Our entire team is passionate about using satellites to help humanity.

我們整個團隊非常熱衷於 利用衛星造福全人類，

You could say we're space geeks,

你可以說我們是太空怪胎，

but not only do we care about what's up there,

但我們不只關心上面（太空） 發生事情，

we care about what's down here, too.

我們也關心發生在（太空） 下面的事情。

I'm going to show you a video

我打算讓你們看一段影片，

from just four weeks ago of two of our satellites

是四個禮拜前我們的兩顆衛星

being launched from the International Space Station.

從國際太空站發射的景象。

This is not an animation,

這不是動畫，

this is a video taken by the astronaut looking out of the window.

是太空人拍攝窗外的影片。

It gives you a bit of a sense of scale of our two satellites.

會讓你大致瞭解這兩顆衛星的大小，

It's like some of the smallest satellites ever

是目前最小的人造衛星之一，

are being launched from the biggest satellite ever.

並從史上最大的衛星發射出。

And right at the end, the solar array glints in the sun.

片尾照到了在太陽裡 閃爍的太陽能光線，

It's really cool. Wait for it.

這真的酷斃了！再等一下！

Boom! Yeah. It's the money shot.

碰！好耶！這是能賣錢的照片！

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

So we didn't just launch two of them like this,

所以我們不只發射了 2顆這樣的衛星，

we launched 28 of them.

我們發射了28顆衛星，

It's the largest constellation of Earth-imaging satellites in human history,

這是史上拍攝地球影像 最大的衛星星系，

and it's going to provide a completely radical new data set

這將會帶給我們

about our changing planet.

地球變化極重要且嶄新的資料。

But that's just the beginning.

不過這只是個開頭，

You see, we're going to launch more than 100 of these satellites

我們明年打算要再發射

like these over the course of the next year.

超過100個這樣的人造衛星，

It's going to be the largest constellation of satellites in human history.

這將會成為人類史上 最大的衛星星系。

And this is what it's going to do:

它們要做的事情是

Acting in a single-orbit plane that stays fixed with respect to the sun,

固定跟著太陽在 單一軌道面上運動，

the Earth rotates underneath.

地球在人工衛星底下繞轉，

They're all cameras pointed down,

它們都有朝下拍攝的鏡頭，

and they slowly scan across as the Earth rotates underneath.

當地球在下方轉動時， 它們會慢慢地掃描整個地球。

The Earth rotates every 24 hours,

地球每24小時轉動一週，

so we scan every point on the planet every 24 hours.

因此每24小時我們可以再次掃描 地球上的任何一點。

It's a line scanner for the planet.

這是地球的線性掃描器。

We don't take a picture of anywhere on the planet every day,

我們並沒有每天拍攝 地球上的所有角落，

we take a picture of every single place on the planet every day.

我們每天拍攝地球上 每個單一地點。

Even though we launched these just a couple of weeks ago,

即使是幾個星期之前 我們才發射了這些衛星，

we've already got some initial imagery from the satellites

我們已經得到一些最新的影像，

and I'm going to show it publicly for the first time right now.

現在是首次公開發表。

This is the very first picture taken by our satellite.

這是我們的衛星 所拍攝的第一張照片，

It happened to be over UC-Davis' campus

當我們開啟這些相機的時候，

in California when we turned the camera on.

剛好是在加州的 加大戴維斯分校上空。

But what's even cooler is when

不過更棒的是

we compare it to the previous latest image of that area,

我們拿來跟這個地區 最近一次的照片做比較，

which was taken many months ago.

那已經是好幾個月之前拍的了。

And the image on the left is from our satellite,

而左邊的照片是我們的衛星拍攝的，

and we see buildings are being built.

可以看到建築物正在搭蓋。

The general point is that we will be able to track urban growth as it happens

重點是我們能追蹤都市成長的變化，

around the whole world in all cities, every day.

全世界所有的城市每一天的變動，

Water as well.

追蹤水文的變化也行。

Thank you.

謝謝！

(Applause)

（掌聲）

We'll be able to see the extent of all water bodies

我們每天都能看到全球的水體，

around the whole world every day and help water security.

並幫助保護水資源。

From water security to food security.

水資源的安全之後是 確保糧食安全，

We'll see crops as they grow in all the fields

我們會看到農作物 在田野裡生長的情形，

in every farmer's field around the planet every day.

每天地球上每位農人的田地都看得到，

and help them to improve crop yield.

並且幫助他們改善糧食產量。

This is a beautiful image that was taken

這張美麗的照片是

just a few hours ago when the satellite was flying over Argentina.

幾個鐘頭前衛星飛越 阿根廷上空時才拍到的。

The general point is

重點是這份資料可能會有 成千上百種方式應用，

there are probably hundreds and thousands of applications of this data,

I've mentioned a few, but there's others:

我已經說了一些，但是還有其他的，

deforestation, the ice caps melting.

像森林除伐、冰山溶化，

We can track all of these things, every tree on the planet every day.

我們能追蹤所有這類的事情， 每天在地球上的每棵樹都行。

If you took the difference between today's image and yesterday's image,

如果你拍下今天和昨天景像的差異，

you'd see much of the world news — you'd see floods and fires and earthquakes.

你就會看見非常多的世界新聞， 像是水災、火災和地震。

And we have decided, therefore, that the best thing that we could do with our data

因此我們決定了， 若要讓資料發揮到最大的用處

is to ensure universal access to it.

就是確保全世界都能取得這些資料，

We want to ensure everyone can see it.

我們要確保每個人都能看到。

Thank you. (Applause)

謝謝！（掌聲）

We want to empower NGOs and companies and scientists and journalists

我們要增加非政府組織、 企業、科學家和記者的力量，

to be able to answer the questions that they have about the planet.

讓他們能解答有關地球的問題。

We want to enable the developer community to run their apps on our data.

我們想讓研發人員們可以在我們的 資料上運用他們的應用程式，

In short, we want to democratize access to information about our planet.

簡言之，我們希望讓大家都能 得到有關我們星球的資料。

Which brings me back to this.

這讓我回到這一點。

You see, this will be an entirely new global data set.

你知道這將會是嶄新的全球資料庫，

And we believe that together,

而且我們相信只要你我一起來，

we can help to take care of our Spaceship Earth.

我們就能幫忙照顧我們的 「地球號太空船」。

And what I would like to leave you with is the following question:

我想要留給你們這個問題，

If you had access to imagery of the whole planet every single day,

如果你曾取得整個地球每一天的影像，

what would you do with that data?

你們會怎麼利用這些資料呢？

What problems would you solve?

你會解決什麼樣的難題呢？

What exploration would you do?

你會探索什麼呢？

Well, I invite you to come and explore with us.

邀請你與我們一起探索！

Thank you very much.

非常謝謝你們！

(Applause)

（掌聲）