TED 2019: The start-ups launching in space

Image copyrightRocket LabImage caption

图片copyrightRocket LabImage标题

Rocket Lab has had five successful launches from a base in New Zealand

Rocket Lab在新西兰基地成功发射了五次

Peter Beck is a space entrepreneur with a rocket and launch pad in New Zealand that has permission for flights “every 72 hours for the next 30 years”.

Peter贝克是一名太空企业家，在新西兰拥有火箭和发射台，可以“在未来30年内每72小时一次”进行飞行许可。

The 25 satellites his firm Rocket Lab has launched include one from a US high school, which designed a spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of Jupiter.

他的公司Rocket Lab的25颗卫星已经推出了一个来自美国高中的学校，它设计了一个航天器来测量木星的气氛。

Mr Beck has no plans for human cargo and he does not want to go to space.

贝克先生没有人类货物的计划，他不想去{/}

“I'm the chief engineer of a rocket company. I know every little thing that can go wrong,” he said.

“我是一家火箭公司的总工程师。我知道每件小事都可能出错。”他说。{/ p>

Mr Beck spoke at the TED conference in Vancouver, where space has been a hot topic. There are at least two female astronauts on the delegates lists - including one who took her watercolour set to the International Space Station “to pass the time”.

贝克先生在温哥华的TED会议上发表讲话，那里的空间一直是热门话题。代表名单上至少有两位女宇航员 - 其中一位将她的水彩画集合带到国际空间站“以打发时间”。

TED attracts tech billionaires who could afford to become space tourists, but Mr Beck has his eyes on another prize.

TED吸引了可能的技术亿万富翁有可能成为太空游客，但贝克先生将目光投向了另一个奖项。

“We have a fundamental policy that we will not fly meat,” he told the BBC. Instead his firm is concentrating on delivering small satellites from both the commercial and government sectors into orbit.

“我们有一项基本政策，我们不会吃肉，”他告诉BBC。相反，他的公司专注于将商业和政府部门的小型卫星送入轨道。

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The Space Foundation has forecast that the international space industry will be worth $720bn (£552bn) by 2030, with much of the growth coming from launching satellites.

太空基金会预测国际航天工业将是到2030年价值7200亿美元（5520亿英镑），其中大部分增长来自发射卫星。

“Satellites used to be the size of school buses, but now they have shrunk to the size of microwaves and that creates a need for small rockets to launch them,” said Mr Beck.

卫星曾经是校车的大小，但现在已经缩小到贝克先生说：微波炉的大小需要小型火箭才能发射它们。

It costs around $7m to launch Rocket Lab's Electron rocket from its base in New Zealand.

从新基地发射火箭实验室的电子火箭需要花费700万美元左右。新西兰。

So far, it has completed five missions to deliver different payloads to specific orbits. Its most recent was for the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa).

到目前为止，它已经完成了五项任务不同的有效载荷到特定的轨道。最近的一次是针对五角大楼的国防高级研究计划局（Darpa）。

While Rocket Lab is already launching rockets, many other firms are vying to compete, including Virgin Orbit, a sister company to Richard Branson's passenger rocket.

虽然火箭实验室已经发射火箭，但许多其他公司正在争夺竞争，包括Virgin Orbit，姊妹公司是理查德布兰森的客运火箭。

Image copyrightRocket Lab

图片copyrightRocket Lab

“Space is enormously hard, there are lots of considerations like infrastructure and regulation so there are huge barriers to entering this market,” said Mr Beck.

空间非常艰难，有许多考虑因素，如基础设施贝克先生表示，进入这个市场存在巨大的障碍。

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“I used to wish when I was growing up that I was born in the Apollo era because I thought that was the golden time to be in space but, quite honestly, it is now,” he told the BBC.

“我曾经希望，在我长大的时候，我出生在阿波罗时代，因为我认为这是太空的黄金时间，但老实说，现在是，”他告诉我英国广播公司。

“If a high school can build a spacecraft and put it in orbit and do meaningful science, then we really have democratised space.”

“如果一所高中能够建造一艘航天器并将其投入轨道并进行有意义的科学研究，那么我们真正拥有民主化的空间。”

Rocket Lab is currently building a second launch pad in Virginia in the US and is even considering a third one in Scotland.

Rocket Lab目前正在弗吉尼亚州建造第二个发射台美国，甚至考虑在苏格兰进行第三次。

{777}

“People think space is just up, but when you put something in orbit it is not so much up as around,” he said.

“人们认为空间刚刚升起，但是当你把东西放在轨道上时，它并没有那么多，”他说。

Rockets need different trajectories to hit the correct orbits, depending on where in space they want to be, and the site in Scotland could make launches “complex”.

火箭队需要不同的轨迹才能击中正确的轨道，这取决于他们想要的空间位置，苏格兰的场地可能使发射变得“复杂”。

For the time being, Rocket Lab is concentrating on its US site, which is due to be completed in September.

目前，火箭实验室正专注于其美国网站，该网站将于9月完成。

Space junk

太空垃圾

As more and more satellites are sent into orbit, so the need to clean up space junk which can smash them gathers pace.

随着越来越多的卫星被送进轨道，所以需要清理可以粉碎它们的太空垃圾。

It is estimated that there are already nearly 26,000 objects orbiting the Earth and when they no longer work, they become floating and potentially dangerous rubbish.

据估计，已经有近26,000个物体围绕地球运行，当它们没有时更长的工作，他们变得漂浮和潜在危险的垃圾。

Image copyrightTEDImage caption Moriba Jah has a platform to monitor Space junk

图片copyrightTEDImage标题Moriba Jah ha平台rm监控太空垃圾

TED Fellow Moriba Jah wants to tackle the problem and has designed AstriaGraph, an open database which brings together multiple sources of information to monitor space objects.

TED研究员Moriba Jah希望解决这个问题并设计了AstriaGraph，这是一个开放的数据库，汇集了多个信息来源来监控空间物体。

He is hoping that it can be used to help inform policymaking in future.

他希望将来可以用它来帮助决策。

Mr Beck agrees that current regulation of space is woefully inadequate.

贝克先生同意目前对太空的监管严重不足。

“When a lot of the laws were created, we thought it would only be governments putting things in orbit and the rules are not designed for the massive influx of lots of companies,” he said.

“当很多法律制定完成后，我们认为只会是政府将物品送入轨道而且这些规则并非适用于大量公司的大规模涌入，”他说。

“Space is truly global and while seas and airspace have boundaries, that doesn't work in space. A spacecraft can't dodge a country, physics won't allow it.”

“太空是真正的全球性，而海洋和空域有边界，在太空中不起作用。宇宙飞船不能躲避一个国家，物理不会允许它。”

Listen to more on Space at TED with Business Daily from the World Service

通过世界服务商业日报收听有关TED空间的更多信息