看一下这个航天器
Take a look at this spacecraft.
你觉得它有多大？
How big do you think it is?
跟背包一样大？还是跟车一样大？
The size of a bagpack? A car?
那这个呢？
How about this one?
你知道吗？
Any ideas?
那这些绿色的方块物体呢？
What about these green squares?
因为大多航天器的图片和视频
Since most images and videos of spacecrafts
都是在漆黑又广阔的背景下拍的
are on dark, spacy backgrounds,
通常只有用遥远的行星或恒星来与它们对比
often with only distant planets or stars to compare them through.
所以很难说明
It’s pretty hard to tell
这些航天器有多大
how big or small these things really are.
即将在2018年登上木星的朱诺号探测器
Juno, that’s gonna crash into Jupiter in 2018,
和一个篮球场一样大
is the size of a basketball court.
飞往冥王星的新视野号宇宙飞船
New Horizons that flew by Pluto
大小和形状与三角钢琴相似
is about the size and shape of the grand piano.
新型的全球定位通讯卫星
The new class GPS satellites
就是手机上用来定位的卫星
that you phone is gonna use to tell you where you are,
它们跟三条保龄球道一样宽
those are about the size of 3 bowling lanes.
让我们回到最初那张图片吧
But let’s go back to this first image.
这是国际航天站
This is the International Space Station.
这是地球有史以来最大的航天器
That’s the largest spacecraft as ever all over the planet earth
它非常大
and it is huge.
我们说的是跟足球场一样的那种大
We’re talking football field huge.
国际空间站从一边到另一边
From one end to the other,
有357英尺长
the ISS measures 357 feet.
航天器的大小取决于很多因素
The size of a spacecraft depends on a lot of things.
它需要搭载人类吗
Will it be carrying people?
它的用处是什么
What’s is built to do?
哪些设备是必要的
What equiment is necessary
对于我们即将要去的那个环境而言
for the environment that we’re going to?
它的任务是什么等等许多因素
What’s its mission? And so on.
建立太空站的主要目的之一
One of the main purposes of the space station
就是将人类送上太空
is to put humans in space.
所以显然它需要有足够大的空间
So obvious it needs to be big enough
给人类在里面自由活动和进行科学实验
for humans to flow around in and have scientific experiments.
国际空间站的生活区
The ISS’s livable space is
大小和一间有六个卧室的房子一样
about as much as a six-bedroom house.
但那357英尺还包括了
But that 357 feet includes
给太空站提供能量的巨型太阳能电池板
massive solar arrays that are needed to power the station.
每一块电池板自身都像篮球场一样大
Each one of them has the same area as a basketball court in itself.
国际空间站建立于1998年
The ISS was lauched in 1998
但原来那个小一点的航天器
but the original smaller spacectaft.
只是其中一个模块
It was just one module.
它在过去的二十年了不断扩大
It’s been expanded over the last 20 years.
有一些航天器
Well, there are some spacecrafts
比国际空间站在轨道上运行时间更长
that have been on orbi for longer than the ISS,
比如说耶鲁航天器
like this Yale,
它在轨道上运行了30年
she’s been orbiting almost 30 years.
哈勃望远镜和一辆校车一样长
The Hubble Telescope is as long as a school bus.
它的作用简单明了
Its purposes are pretty self-explanatory
就是用来观察行星 恒星 黑洞 太空事件和银河系
to observe planets and stars, black holes, galatic events, galaxies
你知道的 差不多数万亿英里之外的东西
trillions of miles away, you know, casual.
但要能够观察这些东西
But to do things like this,
望远镜必须要超级强大
the telescope has got to be super powerful.
所以它需要在里面放入八英尺大的镜片
So it needed to fit an 8 foot mirror in there.
你可以看见这台望远镜有多大
You can see how huge the telescope is,
这个位置你可以看到
and right about here is where you find
那个巨型的镜片
that gigantic mirror.
哈勃望远镜的太阳能电池板每一块有25英尺长
Hubble’s two solar arrays are each 25 feet long.
它们实际上比在黑暗的背景下
a lot larger than they would appear
看起来大得多
just on a black background.
好 记住了前面那些
Ok, so with that in mind,
现在你觉得这些有多大？
how big do you think these are?
信不信由你
Believe it or not,
这些小小的绿色方块物体是迷你的人造卫星
those little green squares are mini satellites.
预备在2018年送入轨道
Set to lauch into orbi in 2018,
每一块都只有1.25英寸大
each one is only 1-1/4 inches across.
它们的重量少于0.2盎司
They weigh less than 1/5 the ounce.
微小的航空母舰 只有一个鞋盒那么大
The tiny mother ship, only as big as a shoe box.
你也许知道
As you probably know,
航天开拓先锋们都试图
space pioneers are trying to travel
探索离地球越来越远的地方
further and further away from earth.
为此它们需要小的 快的 便宜的人造卫星
To prep for that, they need small, fast, cheap satellites
可以用来进行自杀式任务
that can be sent on suicide missions
来探索宇宙中危机四伏的环境
to explore violent environments of space and
同时也可以为未来更贵的航天器
test the water, solar speed
探测所需的水或太阳能速度
for future more expensive spacecraft.
这就是我们为什么需要这些小型的人造卫星
This is why we need these tiny satellites.
这是突破摄星项目的一部分
These are part of the Breakthrough Starshot project.
它们是如此小以至于可以用激光制作
They’re so small that they could be prepared by lasers
或许在未来50年里的目标
to 1/5 the speed of light within the next 50ish years.
就是将送它们到邻近的太阳系
Maybe sending them to our neighboring solar system Alpha is the target.
不仅仅是人造卫星
And it’s not just satellites.
NASA曾将许多探测器送上火星
NASA has sent numerous rovers to Mars,
例如 1997的旅行者号
for example, Sojourner in 1997,
大小和一台遥控模型车相似
which is about the size of an RC car;
又如21世纪初的两个火星探测器
Spirit & Opportunity in the early 2000s,
它们大体上和高尔夫球车相同
which are roughly the size of small golf carts;
然后在2011年，NASA将好奇号送上火星
and then in 2011, they sent Curiosity,
它和一辆小型汽车一样大
which is the size of a small SUV.
我们将在2020年将好奇号另一个配对的探测器送上火星
We’re gonna send another twin rover to Mars in 2020.
它体形非常庞大
It’s huge.
工程师们根据他们的需要对航天器进行打造
Engineers build these things as big as they need to be,
这也意味着它们的大小和形状不受限制
which can mean quite a range of sizes and shapes.
所以下次你见到航天器的图片
So next time you see a picture of a spacecraft,
去调查一下
just do some digging,
看看这台机器究竟有多大
see how big that thing really is.
不止是航天器
It’s not just spacecraft,
宇宙的图片本身也相当有欺骗性
pictures of space itself can be pretty deceiving too.
探寻他们是如何得到这些神奇的图片
Find out how they get those crazy images.
这里
Right here.
哪一个航天器你最想近距离地观看
Which spacecraft would you most like to see up close?
留言让我们知道吧
Let us know in the comments.
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