華裔天才少女，一個人頂一整個美國航天局？！

We need to get the hell out of here
我們得離開這鬼地方

The premise of the movie Gravity is that space debris hits the International Space Station
電影《地心引力》的開頭講述了 太空垃圾撞擊國際空間站后

it causes utter destruction which is a little unrealistic
對其造成了徹底的毀壞 雖然這可能性不大

but that scenario is actually what people are scared of
但實際上這也反映出了 人們非常害怕這種情況的發(fā)生

My name is Amber Yang, I am 19 years old
我是安布爾·揚 今年19歲

And I am a physics major college student at Stanford University
我是斯坦福大學物理系的一名學生

I'm also the founder of Seer Tracking
我也是Seer Tracking的創(chuàng)始人

We take the data of current satellites and spacecraft
我們所做的就是獲取當前太空上的衛(wèi)星和航天器的數(shù)據(jù)

and try to predict if there will be any collisions with space debris
并預測它們是否會與太空垃圾發(fā)生碰撞

So space debris is any defunct man-made space part or spacecraft
太空垃圾是所有已經失效的人造太空部件和航天器的統(tǒng)稱

that is orbiting in low-earth orbit right now
這些太空垃圾現(xiàn)在正在近地軌道上運行

They can be as small as a paint fleck to as big as a completely dead satellite
小到油漆碎片 大到報廢的衛(wèi)星

And they often travel as fast as 17,500 miles per hour
它們通常以每小時17500英里的速度行進

and you can only imagine with something traveling that quickly
不難想象 它們運動的速度有多快

that its impact on another orbiting object will be extremely large and will cause lots of damage
這將對另一個軌道上的物體產生巨大的影響 甚至是毀滅性破壞

This space debris could have such a big impact on essentially the success of the American space program
這些太空垃圾可能會對美國太空計劃能否成功產生重大的影響

and mankind's advancement into space technologies
它關乎著人類探索太空的進程

I watched this series of videos that astronaut Scott Kelly published
我之前有看過宇航員斯科特·凱利發(fā)布的這一系列視頻

He would have to duck into the Soyuz capsule
視頻中的他不得不躲入聯(lián)盟號太空艙

which is an adjacent capsule to the International Space Station
這個聯(lián)盟號太空艙是與國際空間站相鄰的太空艙

because there was fear that the spacecraft that he was in might be hit by space debris
因為擔心他所在的宇宙飛船可能會被太空垃圾擊中

We're just inside one minute from the time of closest approach
最近的太空垃圾還有一分鐘就要撞上我們了

It first became like an issue around the 1950's
20世紀50年代左右 第一例有關太空垃圾的問題出現(xiàn)了

and really in the past few decades, that number has only skyrocketed
在此之后的幾十年里 這個數(shù)字一直在飆升

There is a concept that
有觀點認為

as the space debris collide with other space debris and other objects
當太空垃圾與其他太空垃圾或是其他物體碰撞時

that fragmentation will cause even more space debris to occur
這些碎片又將會造成更多的太空垃圾

Currently the method for tracking space debris is extremely inaccurate at times
目前 跟蹤太空垃圾的方法有時是非常不準確的

because the orbit of space debris changes so quickly
因為太空垃圾的軌道變化非?？?br />
The method that I have introduced
我所介紹的方法

is using artificial neural networks and artificial intelligence to track space debris
是使用人工神經網(wǎng)絡和人工智能來跟蹤太空垃圾

An artifical neural network is essentially a computer's version of the human mind
人工神經網(wǎng)絡從本質上講 就是運用了人類思維的電腦系統(tǒng)

It will provide a prediction, it will say
它會提供一種預測

I think this is where the space debris will be in this future point in time
預測出太空垃圾將會出現(xiàn)的時間和地點

And if we find the actual point in time in the future where the space debris is
并且如果我們能知道太空垃圾的實際時間和地點的話

and there is an error metric between the artificial neural network
這樣就能人知道工神經網(wǎng)絡技術預測出來的位置

and where the space debris actually is
和太空垃圾實際出現(xiàn)在的位置之間的偏差了

we can tell the neural network that oh you're wrong by this amount
我們就可以告訴神經網(wǎng)絡 哦你錯了這么多

I am basically allowing the artificial intelligence to learn
我一直在讓人工智能不斷地學習

the patterns of how the space debris positions are changing over time
讓它們學習太空垃圾的位置是怎么隨時間變化的

and it will keep training itself until its predictions are actually very very accurate
然后人工智能就會一直訓練自己 直到它的預測非常非常準確為止

The primary concern would be for things already orbiting in space
我們現(xiàn)在主要擔心的是那些已經在太空軌道上運行的物體

and trying to allow these things orbiting in space to have enough time to move out of  a collision's way
我們會試圖讓這些物體在太空軌道上有足夠的時間來避開碰撞

If my software predicts that there would be a future collision
如果我的軟件預測未來會發(fā)生碰撞的話

Another thing that it could be readily used for
這個軟件還有另一個用途

is predicting when is the best optimal launch time for things like NASA and SpaceX
就是可以幫助NASA和SpaceX預測最佳發(fā)射時間

when they're trying to find a time window where to launch their rockets and other space cargo
當他們想確定火箭和其他航天載送物的發(fā)送時間窗口時

They want to look at a window where there isn't a lot of space debris
他們想要發(fā)射到的地方肯定是太空垃圾沒那么多的地方

Right now a lot of people are putting space debris on the back burner
現(xiàn)在很多人都把太空垃圾的問題放在次要位置

they're saying it could be potentially very dangerous someday
他們認為這些太空垃圾有一天可能會非常危險

but right now it's not that big of a concern because we haven't really had any casualties yet
但目前來看這不是一個大問題 因為它還沒有造成任何的人員傷亡

But the very terrifying version of the Kessler syndrome would be a space atmosphere so trashed
但如果發(fā)展到凱斯勒現(xiàn)象最壞的情況 意味著太空環(huán)境已經太糟糕了

that you couldn't launch anything up without it being hit by space debris
在這種太空環(huán)境下 你發(fā)射的任何物體都有可能被太空垃圾擊中

The whole goal is that we're trying to preserve our Earth
我們的目標是保護我們的地球

our atmosphere for future generations in front of us
為我們的子孫后代保護好大氣層

and in order to keep developing technologies that will succeed and go to space
為了繼續(xù)發(fā)展能夠成功進入太空的技術

We need to make sure that there is enough space in space to not be hit by space debris
我們需要確保太空中有足夠空間是沒有太空垃圾的