英検1級に出そうな単語-1,000km Cable to the Stars - The Skyhook
今回は理系の話題です。
実現するのでしょうか。
すごい話ですね。
まずは惑星の名前の確認です。
"Mercury;水星"→"mercury;水銀"
"Venus;金星"
"Mars;火星"
今回のお話で出てくるのはここまでです。
あとは木星を覚えていれば、普段は困ることもないと思います。
"Jupiter;木星"
"Saturn;土星"
"Uranus;天王星"
"Neptune;海王星"
宇宙に興味ない人には、まったく知らない単語ですね。
ここからが本編の単語です。
"payload;可搬重量、有料荷重"
"infrastructure;基盤、基礎施設"
"promising;有望な"
"tether;つなぎ綱"
"altitude;高度、標高"→"latitude;緯度"、" longitude;経度"、"elevation;海抜"
"counterweight;釣り合いの重り"
"catapult;射出機、投石機、弓"
"velocity;速度"
"fiber;繊維"
"collision;衝突、対立"
"debris;瓦礫、破片"
"meteorite;隕石"
"redundant;冗長な、余分の"
"reusable;再利用可能な"
"shuttle;スペースシャトル、往復便"
"friction;摩擦、軋轢"
"dip to;(数値が)下がる、落ちる"
"tip;先端、ヒント"
"a.k.a.(also known as);別名、またの名を"
"navigation;運行指示、航法、航空、航海"
"drone;小型無人機、ドローン"
"latch onto;つかむ、しがみつく"→"latch;かけ金"
"momentum;勢い、はずみ、運動量"
"departing;出発する、はなれる"→"depart;出発する、はなれる"
"landing;着陸、上陸"
"asteroid belt;小惑星帯"→火星と木星の間にある小惑星の軌道が集中しているところ
"solar system;太陽系"
"interplanetary;惑星間"
"propellant;ロケットの推進剤"
"terrestrial planet;地球型惑星"→"terrestrial;地球の、陸の、陸生の"
"martian;火星の、火星人"
"sustainable;持続可能な"
"affordable;手頃な、入手可能な"
"accessible;利用できる、近づきやすい、行きやすい"
"exploitation;開発、開拓、搾取"
全文
00:00
getting to space is hard right now it's
00:04
like going up a mountain on a you cycle
00:06
with a backpack full of explosives
00:08
incredibly slow you can't transport a
00:11
lot of stuff and you might die a rocket
00:14
needs to reach a velocity of about
00:16
40,000 kilometers an hour to escape from
00:18
earth to get to that speed rockets are
00:21
mostly containers for fuel with a tiny
00:24
tip of payload this is bad if you want
00:27
to go to other planet because you need a
00:29
lot of heavy stuff if you want to
00:31
survive and maybe even come back so is
00:34
there a way to get to space with less
00:36
fuel and more payload a nice thing that
00:49
solved most of our transport problems on
00:52
earth is what you call infrastructure
00:53
whether it's roads for cars ports for
00:56
ships or rails for trains we've made it
00:59
easier to get to places we can apply the
01:02
same solution to space travel space
01:05
infrastructure will make getting into
01:06
orbit and out to the moon Mars and
01:09
Beyond easier and cheaper great but what
01:13
exactly is space infrastructure unlike
01:16
an earth space elevator which is
01:18
currently science fiction there is a
01:20
simple yet promising technology that
01:22
does not require new science magic
01:25
materials or huge investments and that
01:27
has been tested successfully in orbit
01:29
already the cable and a wait known as a
01:33
tether the concept is so simple it's
01:36
surprising what if we put tethers
01:39
hundreds or thousands of kilometers long
01:41
into space and had spacecraft use them
01:44
as ladders to climb to higher altitudes
01:46
and gain speed
01:48
this concept is known as the skyhook it
01:51
works even better if we make it spin the
01:54
counterweight holds a long cable in
01:55
place while it rotates around a circle a
01:58
rotating tether slows down its tip
02:00
relative to the ground at the bottom and
02:02
speeds it up at the top like a catapult
02:04
this means that you can transfer energy
02:07
from the tether and get a massive boost
02:09
when released more or less for free
02:11
equal to twice the tethers rotation
02:13
velocity the specialized fibers already
02:16
exists that can survive the
02:17
extraordinary stresses a skyhook would
02:19
be faced with to protect against cuts
02:22
and collisions from debris of meteorites
02:24
we can thread our tether into a web of
02:26
redundant fibers since our skyhook would
02:29
pass over the same spot many times a day
02:31
this would allow small reusable shuttles
02:34
to catch up with it of course it's not
02:36
that easy at its lowest point the
02:39
tethers tip is dashing through the
02:40
atmosphere at around 12,000 kilometers
02:42
per hour because of Earth's atmosphere
02:45
we can't know the skyhook too much or it
02:47
will get too hot from air friction so it
02:50
will dip to a height of 80 to 150
02:52
kilometers and no lower to match this
02:55
will need specialized spacecraft that
02:57
can get to the tether while this isn't
02:59
exactly easy it's still much cheaper
03:01
than getting a big tin can filled with
03:04
rocket fuel to go 40 thousand kilometers
03:06
an hour catching the tip will be a
03:08
challenge too there's only a short time
03:11
window of 60 to 90 seconds to find a
03:13
tiny thing in the sky moving at mark 12
03:16
to make this easier the tip could have a
03:19
sort of fishing line ake a lot along
03:21
with a navigation drone that helps the
03:23
spacecraft connect another challenge is
03:26
keeping our skyhook in orbit as more and
03:29
more ships latch onto it and pull
03:30
themselves up they use up the momentum
03:32
that keeps it in place if we don't do
03:35
anything it will
03:36
slow down and crash into the atmosphere
03:38
and here we can cheat the universe a bit
03:42
the skyhook is a battery of orbital
03:45
energy it's possible to balance the
03:47
payloads coming in and being sent off
03:49
arriving ships bringing humans and
03:52
materials home to earth and energy to
03:54
the tether which it can give to other
03:56
ships departing into space this way the
03:59
tether doesn't lose any energy the more
04:01
we use it the cheaper it gets if we're
04:04
still losing energy with each boost we
04:06
can recover it with small electric or
04:08
chemical engines that regularly correct
04:10
the tethers position a set of tethers
04:12
one around earth and one around Mars
04:14
could make trips between the planets
04:16
fast straightforward and low cost
04:18
compared to rockets the earth tether
04:21
would sit in low-earth orbit to grab
04:23
people and payloads and fling them off
04:24
to Mars
04:25
the Mars tether catches them and slows
04:27
them down for a landing on the surface
04:29
in the opposite direction the tether
04:32
could pick up a vehicle traveling
04:33
through Mars is thin atmosphere at only
04:35
about 1,000 kilometres an hour not much
04:38
faster than our airliners on earth and
04:40
fling it back to earth to be caught and
04:42
lowered down the tethers could shorten
04:45
trips between both planets from 9 months
04:47
down to 5 or even 3 and reduced the
04:50
scale of the rockets required by between
04:52
84 and 96% even better people may be
04:56
able to travel in a relative luxury as
04:58
we could afford to invest in passenger
05:01
comfort tether travel would be
05:03
first-class seats to Mars together
05:05
tethers around Earth and Mars could
05:07
provide the rapid and cost efficient
05:09
transportation backbone that would make
05:11
space travel affordable but let's go
05:14
further
05:14
starting from low Mars orbit a tether
05:17
could boost ships to the asteroid belt
05:19
the first craft sent to a new asteroid
05:21
would need rockets to slow down at its
05:23
destination subsequent arrivals might
05:25
find a tether waiting to catch them and
05:27
send them back for free getting to
05:30
asteroids cheaply is a major factor in
05:32
opening up the resources of the solar
05:34
system precious metals and valuable
05:37
minerals could be delivered to Mars just
05:39
weeks after they were cut out of their
05:40
asteroid they would be the perfect
05:43
building blocks for our interplanetary
05:45
civilization but why stop here
05:48
Mars moons are very convenient no other
05:51
moons in the solar system orbit that
05:53
close to their planet
05:54
the Phobos is so heavy that we don't
05:56
need to worry about slowing it down
05:58
making it the perfect attachment point
06:00
for super tethers just under six
06:02
thousand kilometers long the lower tip
06:05
would fly just over the surface of Mars
06:06
and be very easy to catch the upper tip
06:10
can fling ships all the way to Jupiter
06:12
and Saturn the same super tether can
06:14
also bring the inner solar system closer
06:17
Venus and Mercury are a single swing
06:20
away unlike Mars they're bursting with
06:23
solar energy and are rich in minerals in
06:26
the long term nothing is stopping
06:28
humanity from constructing a zero
06:30
propellant transport network for the
06:32
terrestrial planets centered on the
06:34
Martian moons tethers are a comparable
06:37
cheaper and sustainable solution to
06:39
making space travel affordable and the
06:41
rest of the solar system accessible for
06:44
exploitation and exploration considering
06:47
that we have the technology to build
06:48
them today there's really no good excuse
06:51
to wait any longer
06:52
parts of the solar system are far away
06:55
but they could be very close the
07:00
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