Are there limits?: Stamatis Krimigis at TEDxAthens 2013 "Uncharted Waters"
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0:10 - 0:16Today, I am going to talk to you about
limits with a question mark. -
0:16 - 0:18Are there limits?
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0:18 - 0:22I am going to use two examples.
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0:22 - 0:27One is the orbiting and landing
of an asteroid with NEAR spacecraft. -
0:27 - 0:31NEAR stands for
Near-Earth-Asteroid-Rendezvous. -
0:31 - 0:36And the other is exiting
the solar system with Voyager. -
0:37 - 0:39This is the kind of thing
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0:39 - 0:43that is very much in line with
the theme of Uncharted Waters, -
0:43 - 0:47which, of course, is the theme
of this conference. -
0:48 - 0:52You know that we don't know
a lot about asteroids, -
0:52 - 0:56and we certainly did not
fifteen years ago. -
0:56 - 1:00We didn't know
if they were a solid body -
1:00 - 1:02or a rubble pile, a bunch of rocks.
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1:02 - 1:05Are they moving together in space?
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1:05 - 1:08So the idea is to leave Earth
and go and orbit an asteroid -
1:12 - 1:14which is typically not spherical, by the way.
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1:14 - 1:17And nobody had orbited
a non-spherical body. -
1:18 - 1:25So, asteroids, there are lot of them
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1:25 - 1:28that go orbiting in the vicinity of Earth.
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1:28 - 1:31As you can see here is the orbit of Mars
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1:31 - 1:33and here is the orbit of Earth,
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1:33 - 1:36and these are a few of the asteroids
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1:36 - 1:39that cross the path of Earth.
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1:39 - 1:41And, of course, we have been lucky
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1:41 - 1:44that we haven't had too many collisions.
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1:44 - 1:47There have been collisions
as I am sure you have heard. -
1:47 - 1:50So the idea is to go to one of these,
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1:50 - 1:53orbit it and study it
for a long period of time. -
1:53 - 1:56To do that you need the spacecraft.
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1:56 - 2:03We started the work two months
before this picture was taken. -
2:03 - 2:08You see the spacecraft on top
of what we called a shake-table. -
2:08 - 2:13Which means that we take
the spacecraft, once it is finished, -
2:13 - 2:16and then we vibrate it to a level
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2:16 - 2:18which it is going to experience
-
2:18 - 2:21as it goes up on top of the rocket,
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2:21 - 2:23through the atmosphere
and then into space. -
2:23 - 2:28And it better survive that,
otherwise it will not work. -
2:28 - 2:31So, that's what we did.
-
2:31 - 2:35The spacecraft and we moved
on to Cape Canaveral. -
2:35 - 2:39We put it on top of the rocket,
as you can see here, -
2:39 - 2:44and you can also see
there is a protective shell -
2:44 - 2:47which is called the heat-seal
-
2:47 - 2:50simply because it protects
the spacecraft -
2:50 - 2:55as the rocket moves through
the atmosphere at a very high rate. -
2:55 - 2:56(Buzzing sound)
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2:56 - 2:59This is sort of my last walk
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2:59 - 3:04through the tower
that surrounds the rocket. -
3:05 - 3:11By the way, the young lady that you see
is the first program manager -
3:11 - 3:14that I appointed
to a NASA planetary mission. -
3:14 - 3:21And I am very proud
of having worked with ladies -
3:21 - 3:26who really know how to do it.
-
3:26 - 3:29(Applause)
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3:29 - 3:32So this is the rocket and
you can see the exhaust, -
3:32 - 3:35it's a little bigger
than your car exhaust. -
3:35 - 3:38These are just the solid rockets
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3:38 - 3:41that surround
the main body of the rocket. -
3:41 - 3:47And then, of course, when
the fuel is exhausted from these, -
3:47 - 3:53they fall off and then we go on
to the next main tank of the rocket -
3:53 - 3:54and it goes up.
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3:54 - 3:56This lasted a long time
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3:56 - 4:01so I am not going to tell you a lot more
and spend time on it. -
4:01 - 4:06Finally we launched on February of 1996.
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4:06 - 4:10What you see in this ...
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4:11 - 4:14This is Eros, this is the asteroid.
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4:14 - 4:18We put the spacecraft around it into orbit,
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4:18 - 4:23and it rotated every
about 6 1/2 hours, or so. -
4:23 - 4:25So the spacecraft is rotating
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4:25 - 4:28and watches the asteroid
as it rotates around. -
4:28 - 4:30Getting there, of course,
wasn't simple. -
4:30 - 4:35So we launched and then we went
-
4:35 - 4:38by the asteroid Mathilde in 1997.
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4:38 - 4:42We came back to Earth
to change the plane of the orbit -
4:42 - 4:47so that we could match
the trajectory of the asteroid. -
4:47 - 4:52And then, something happened
-
4:52 - 4:56just before we were
ready to get into orbit. -
4:56 - 4:58That is, we fired the onboard rocket
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4:58 - 5:01and we lost the spacecraft.
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5:01 - 5:07No communication
for almost 24 hours. -
5:07 - 5:09It's the worst thing.
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5:09 - 5:12It can ruin your whole day
when you are in this business. -
5:12 - 5:13(Laughter)
-
5:13 - 5:17But fortunately we had built
enough redundancy into the system -
5:17 - 5:22that 24 hours later
we got a weak signal -
5:22 - 5:25and we got the control
of the spacecraft again. -
5:25 - 5:26We found out what happened,
-
5:26 - 5:30and it turned out that the two computers
on board had a disagreement. -
5:30 - 5:35The spacecraft computers couldn't
agree with propulsion in engine computer -
5:35 - 5:37and we got in trouble.
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5:37 - 5:39We lost some fuel.
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5:39 - 5:46We went around the Sun once more
and finally we got into orbit. -
5:46 - 5:51As we were approaching Eros, the asteroid,
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5:51 - 5:55on February 12, two days
before Valentine's day, mind you. -
5:55 - 5:58Here was the picture,
-
5:58 - 6:00it looked like a heart.
-
6:02 - 6:05Of course we knew
it was an optical illusion -
6:05 - 6:07and, of course,
we never published the picture -
6:07 - 6:09because we would get
into all kind of trouble. -
6:09 - 6:13And when we got close,
as you will see, -
6:13 - 6:17what happened is that
you had these three craters -
6:17 - 6:20that were arranged in a triangle,
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6:20 - 6:28and they looked with
a kind of Sun angle and the shade, -
6:28 - 6:31it looked like a heart from a distance.
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6:31 - 6:35So, that is the kind of stuff
that you see in the tabloids -
6:35 - 6:37that in the United States
we pick out in supermarkets. -
6:37 - 6:40Supermarket counters.
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6:40 - 6:42You know ... "Heart on Eros" ...
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6:42 - 6:44So much for that.
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6:45 - 6:55It was big news that a NASA spacecraft
orbited an asteroid on February 12. -
6:56 - 6:59CNN is very loud everywhere it goes,
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6:59 - 7:01including the United States.
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7:01 - 7:03(CNN Speaker): A close encounter
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7:03 - 7:06between a NASA satellite and an asteroid.
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7:06 - 7:10An unmanned spacecraft is now
in orbit around an asteroid. -
7:10 - 7:12It's supposed to teach us
about these giant rocks, -
7:12 - 7:14and perhaps help scientists to figure out
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7:14 - 7:17how to protect us from a possible collision.
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7:21 - 7:24That is our Trajectory Manager
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7:24 - 7:29who was making, he and his team,
most of the calculation. -
7:29 - 7:36(CNN Video)
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7:36 - 7:40And this is the Senator of Maryland.
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7:40 - 7:43And now I am showing you
the next episode, -
7:43 - 7:46after we were in orbit for a year.
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7:46 - 7:50We had charted the entire asteroid.
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7:50 - 7:54We were familiar
with every little corner -
7:54 - 7:56and every little crater.
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7:56 - 7:59And we just had a little bit of fuel left.
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7:59 - 8:01And we said, "What are
we going to do now?" -
8:01 - 8:07Because to maintain a spacecraft
in orbit around an asteroid -
8:07 - 8:10that has this kind of shape,
like a potato, -
8:10 - 8:14it's very hard and you have
to really keep pushing -
8:14 - 8:18and adjusting the orbit by using fuel.
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8:18 - 8:20And we were at the end of the fuel.
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8:20 - 8:25So what would happen is that
the spacecraft would drift away. -
8:25 - 8:28So what we did is, I went to NASA
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8:28 - 8:31and persuaded the administrator that
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8:31 - 8:40we were going to try to easy down
on the surface of the asteroid. -
8:40 - 8:45He eventually agreed to let us do it.
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8:45 - 8:50So the day came, again it was
as I mentioned the year later. -
8:50 - 8:56We had already calculated what
the trajectory was going to be like. -
8:56 - 9:01What you see here is
the calculated trajectory, -
9:01 - 9:03[it] is the black line.
-
9:03 - 9:06And the points are the real-time data.
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9:06 - 9:09We had the laser altimeter
that measured -
9:09 - 9:11the distance of the spacecraft
from the ground -
9:11 - 9:13by signing a laser,
getting the reflection -
9:13 - 9:17and measuring the distance with
the precision of about a centimeter. -
9:17 - 9:20So we knew what was happening.
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9:20 - 9:25And we figured that it would take about
45 minutes to get down to the ground. -
9:26 - 9:29It seemed like it was going very well.
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9:29 - 9:33I will show you a simulation
of what we had done -
9:33 - 9:37with the spacecraft as you see it.
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9:37 - 9:42And in fact, the spacecraft landed
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9:42 - 9:45with the solar panels pointing
in the direction of the Sun, -
9:45 - 9:48with the antenna pointing
in the direction of Earth, -
9:48 - 9:50and we kept getting data.
-
9:50 - 9:52And it went on for a number of days.
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9:52 - 9:58What you see is the pictures
that were taken by the spacecraft -
9:58 - 10:03as it was moving into closer
and closer to the surface of Eros. -
10:03 - 10:10And at the end we had a resolution
which was actually quite good. -
10:10 - 10:14You can see here,
this is the last image we had. -
10:14 - 10:18You can discriminate and see rocks
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10:18 - 10:23that were of the order
of a few centimeters across. -
10:23 - 10:26Well, that wasn't all.
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10:26 - 10:29We had the opportunity
to do other things. -
10:29 - 10:33This is the announcement
that we had actually landed. -
10:33 - 10:39And Mr.Goldin, who was
the NASA administrator at the time, -
10:39 - 10:43was exceptionally anxious because
-
10:43 - 10:46NASA had just crashed
a spacecraft on Mars a month before. -
10:46 - 10:51And he was very worried about
what was going to happen, -
10:51 - 10:54if this happened again,
to NASA's reputation. -
10:54 - 10:57But he was very happy.
-
10:57 - 11:02Then, I wanted to show you
another thing, here, -
11:02 - 11:05about the details of the surface.
-
11:05 - 11:07There is a crater
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11:07 - 11:11that the International Astronomical Union
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11:11 - 11:15in its wisdom decided to name Hios,
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11:15 - 11:19which was the love child of
Poseidon and the nymph Hiona. -
11:19 - 11:24So we have a crater on Eros
by the name of Hios. -
11:24 - 11:27Nothing to do with the fact
that I am from Chios, mind you. -
11:27 - 11:30(Laughter)
-
11:30 - 11:37The most important thing, however,
is that we finished the project -
11:37 - 11:40and we didn't spend all the money.
-
11:40 - 11:44Which had never happened
in the history of NASA. -
11:44 - 11:47We had a little ceremony,
-
11:47 - 11:52the down payment to NASA of
the remainder of 3.6 million dollars. -
11:52 - 11:55In the end we gave them
back about 30 million. -
11:55 - 12:00Needless to say, we got a lot of abuse
from my other colleagues at NASA centers -
12:00 - 12:02who said, "You never give back
money to the government. -
12:02 - 12:04"Shame on you", and so and so .
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12:04 - 12:07But we overcame.
-
12:07 - 12:11Now let me tell you about the other part
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12:11 - 12:15of the things that go
on uncharted waters. -
12:15 - 12:19What you see here is
a view of the solar system. -
12:19 - 12:22Each one of our planets
of the solar system -
12:22 - 12:26has already been imaged by spacecrafts.
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12:26 - 12:28The four planets you see here,
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12:28 - 12:30Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune
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12:30 - 12:34are all, of course, pictures
from the Voyager mission. -
12:34 - 12:39The Voyager mission started
in 1977, ladies and gentlemen. -
12:39 - 12:44It was 36 years ago,
in a couple of months. -
12:44 - 12:50The original plan was to go
to Jupiter and to Saturn. -
12:50 - 12:53It was going to be a four year mission.
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12:53 - 12:55But then it turned out that it was possible
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12:55 - 13:00using gravity assist
from Jupiter to go on to Saturn, -
13:00 - 13:02but then also using gravity assist
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13:02 - 13:04from Saturn to go on to Uranus
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13:04 - 13:06and from Uranus to Neptune.
-
13:06 - 13:08And that's exactly what
we did with Voyager 2 -
13:08 - 13:12while we sent Voyager 1
away from the Sun -
13:12 - 13:15and towards the north ecliptic.
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13:15 - 13:22That was a very well planned program,
-
13:22 - 13:27it worked well, it provided
essentially all new information. -
13:27 - 13:29And I just want to show you
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13:29 - 13:34the spacecraft which
is about this size. -
13:34 - 13:37This is the antenna,
it points in the direction of Earth. -
13:37 - 13:38It transmits information.
-
13:38 - 13:42These here is the instrument
from my team. -
13:43 - 13:45And I am pointing it out loud
-
13:45 - 13:51because it did some other things
that we were very proud of. -
13:51 - 13:53I am showing you this picture
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13:53 - 13:59with President Herbert Walker Bush.
-
14:00 - 14:03Not the new one,
not the son, the father. -
14:03 - 14:06He had a lot of brains, the father.
-
14:06 - 14:07(Laughter)
-
14:07 - 14:12He invited us to the White House
-
14:12 - 14:17as had done Mr. Reagan before him.
-
14:17 - 14:20And I am showing you
that simply because -
14:20 - 14:28to point out that the American
government, the politicians, -
14:28 - 14:33really appreciate what science
does for the country. -
14:33 - 14:35And it is not just NASA,
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14:35 - 14:37it's the National Institute of Health,
-
14:37 - 14:40it's all kind of national science foundations.
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14:40 - 14:43And they show it. Effectively.
-
14:43 - 14:44With this kind of things,
-
14:44 - 14:47by inviting us to lunch,
and things like that. -
14:48 - 14:53Anyway. This, after Voyager went
past all these four planets. -
14:53 - 14:57This is a simulation,
that I am showing you, -
14:57 - 15:00where it was moving away
from the Sun -
15:00 - 15:04passed the last planet,
the orbit of Pluto. -
15:04 - 15:06And we expected that someday
-
15:06 - 15:09we were going to run into this boundary
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15:09 - 15:13and then eventually
cross another boundary -
15:13 - 15:15that would lead us into the galaxy.
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15:15 - 15:20The problem was that nobody knew
how far these boundaries were. -
15:20 - 15:23We were sort of going in blind.
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15:23 - 15:26There were suggestions that it could be
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15:26 - 15:30a year away, five years away,
ten years away. -
15:30 - 15:31Nobody really knew.
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15:33 - 15:35So, how to find it out?
-
15:35 - 15:38We had four instruments
that were working. -
15:38 - 15:44This is the one that I pointed out
before, our team had built. -
15:44 - 15:46And another thing that we did
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15:46 - 15:48is to put a little stepper motor
-
15:48 - 15:51that rotated the entire platform
back and forth. -
15:51 - 15:54I'll show you a very short video.
-
15:54 - 15:55(Buzzing sound)
-
15:55 - 16:00That is the kind of sound it made
in the laboratory, when it rotated. -
16:00 - 16:03I did this little video for the press
-
16:03 - 16:09right after the Neptune encounter.
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16:09 - 16:13I did have hair at one time, you noticed?
(Laughter). -
16:14 - 16:18We had this little stepper motor
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16:18 - 16:20that was rotating the detectors.
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16:20 - 16:23Just like this simulation shows.
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16:23 - 16:24And you see the colors here.
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16:24 - 16:28You can't see them
because of these lights. -
16:28 - 16:33But by rotating around
it was possible for us -
16:33 - 16:41to measure the speed and the direction
of the hot wind from the Sun, -
16:41 - 16:48which moves at the speed of about
1.5 million Km per hour. -
16:48 - 16:51Now, you say, "OK, you told us
about these instruments, -
16:51 - 16:55what did you find by rotating this?"
-
16:55 - 16:56What we found...
-
16:56 - 16:59Here it is, we kept going
and going and going. -
16:59 - 17:03The idea was that once
we cross this boundary -
17:03 - 17:05we would be out in the galaxy.
-
17:05 - 17:09What we found instead
is that we ran into a place -
17:09 - 17:14where the solar wind no longer
moved away from the Sun. -
17:14 - 17:18And we called that
the Stagnation Region. -
17:18 - 17:22We published it in 2011.
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17:22 - 17:25It was not predicted by theory.
-
17:25 - 17:30However some models were suggesting
that what happens to this wind -
17:30 - 17:35is that it goes to the north direction
towards the ecliptic pole. -
17:35 - 17:39Our instrument, however,
was only rotating in one plane -
17:39 - 17:42and we couldn't measure
the speed up and down. -
17:42 - 17:46So, I asked the engineering team,
-
17:46 - 17:51I said "Why don't we turn the spacecraft
90 degrees, now and then? -
17:51 - 17:54And then we can measure
the north-south direction." -
17:54 - 17:56Mind you, this is a spacecraft
-
17:56 - 18:01that had been in space
for 34 years already. -
18:01 - 18:05And it is just like getting
a dog that's about to die -
18:05 - 18:07trying to teach him new tricks.
-
18:07 - 18:10However, what happened is
-
18:10 - 18:13that we were able
to send the commands, -
18:13 - 18:15and by guiding the spacecraft
-
18:15 - 18:18it executed every command perfectly.
-
18:18 - 18:22And for two years we have been
doing this every two months. -
18:22 - 18:25We rotated the spacecraft
in this direction. -
18:25 - 18:28What we found out is that, in fact,
-
18:28 - 18:30even this model was also wrong.
-
18:30 - 18:34There was no flow of the wind
in the north direction -
18:34 - 18:36or in the south direction
for that matter. -
18:36 - 18:39So theory failed us again.
-
18:40 - 18:45We actually wrote this up
and were publishing it -
18:45 - 18:51until we found something very strange
that happened last year. -
18:51 - 18:53What you see here,
-
18:53 - 18:57and it is the only data that I will show you,
-
18:57 - 19:02is the curve for cosmic rays, the intensity.
-
19:02 - 19:10And you see that they started increasing
right about early May of 2012. -
19:10 - 19:13These are the so-called
Galactic Cosmic Rays. -
19:13 - 19:19These are particles that were actually
generated by explosions of Supernovae -
19:19 - 19:22millions of years ago
in the vicinity of the Sun, -
19:22 - 19:26and were coming from outside
the galaxy into our solar system. -
19:26 - 19:28And they began to go up.
-
19:28 - 19:33And then, eventually,
at about the same time, -
19:33 - 19:36after two or three increases,
-
19:36 - 19:39the material that was coming from the Sun,
-
19:39 - 19:43never mind what these are, protons and
heliums and what we have here, oxygen -
19:43 - 19:45dropped at the same time.
-
19:45 - 19:48In other words,
the solar material disappears -
19:48 - 19:51and the stuff that was supposed to be coming
-
19:51 - 19:53from outside the galaxy
-- that's what we believed -- -
19:53 - 19:56appeared and increased.
-
19:56 - 20:02So we said, "Aha! We actually got out of
the solar system and into the galaxy!" -
20:02 - 20:04But we lacked some data.
-
20:04 - 20:07This is a picture from a press event
-
20:07 - 20:10at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena. -
20:10 - 20:13We were trying to interpret the data
-
20:13 - 20:17a few days after
we had made that observation. -
20:17 - 20:20Here we have the model
of the spacecraft. -
20:20 - 20:24But we didn't have
all the data that we needed. -
20:24 - 20:28Namely, we couldn't measure the density
of the atmosphere of the galaxy, -
20:28 - 20:30if I can put it that way.
-
20:30 - 20:35Until April of this year.
-
20:35 - 20:37I don't know if you can hear the sound,
-
20:37 - 20:40maybe you can turn it up a little bit?
-
20:40 - 20:41(Whistling sound)
-
20:41 - 20:45OK. Now, what are these,
-
20:45 - 20:49is, we have some antennas on the spacecraft.
-
20:49 - 20:53And in the vicinity of the spacecraft
something happened -
20:53 - 20:56and all these electrons
began to oscillate back and forth. -
20:56 - 20:58When the electrons oscillate
in a magnetic field -
20:58 - 21:00they produce sounds.
-
21:00 - 21:02And when they produce this sound
-
21:02 - 21:07we are able to determine
the density of the material -
21:07 - 21:08around the spacecraft.
-
21:08 - 21:13What you see here is that
we were able to determine -
21:13 - 21:18that it was 0.1 per cubic centimeter.
-
21:18 - 21:19You would say,
"What does that mean?" -
21:19 - 21:24Well, it was 50 times
what we had before. -
21:24 - 21:29When we were in the solar wind,
inside our solar atmosphere. -
21:29 - 21:32And because most models predict
-
21:32 - 21:35that the density in the galaxy is about 0.1,
-
21:35 - 21:39we knew that we had actually arrived.
-
21:39 - 21:46So, we had a meeting at my lab
back in Johns Hopkins in September. -
21:47 - 21:50We looked at all the data
and we finally decided -
21:50 - 21:54that it was safe
to issue a press release -
21:54 - 21:59that actually we had crossed
-
21:59 - 22:06the boundary with the galaxy
on August 25 of 2012. -
22:06 - 22:09So, think about this:
-
22:09 - 22:12a hundred and ten years ago,
-
22:12 - 22:15it was when the Wright brothers
-
22:15 - 22:19flew a... you could call it an airplane
-
22:19 - 22:22-- that's what they called it --
-
22:22 - 22:25at an altitude of few meters
for about 30 seconds. -
22:25 - 22:29And then about 50 years later
-
22:29 - 22:34there was the launch
of the first Earth satellite, Sputnik. -
22:34 - 22:38It went outside the Earth's
atmosphere for the first time ever -
22:38 - 22:42in our history, in humanity's history.
-
22:42 - 22:49And it got to an altitude
of 946 km, to be exact. -
22:49 - 22:55And then another 55, or so, years later,
-
22:55 - 22:59we had the exit of the first
spacecraft, Voyager 1 -
22:59 - 23:08from the atmosphere of the Sun
at an altitude of 18.2 billion kilometers. -
23:08 - 23:09To give you an idea:
-
23:09 - 23:12the signal that we get from Voyager,
-
23:12 - 23:15when it leaves Voyager,
it travels with the speed of light, -
23:15 - 23:20and it takes 17 hours and 20 minutes
to get from there to Earth. -
23:20 - 23:24The light from the Sun to come to Earth
only takes 8 1/2 minutes. -
23:24 - 23:28So you can imagine
how far this spacecraft is. -
23:28 - 23:32To give you the bottom line, so to speak.
-
23:32 - 23:35Here we are.
Voyager 1 is in the galaxy. -
23:35 - 23:38Voyager 2 is not there yet,
it is a little slower, -
23:38 - 23:42so we expect it will go out at some point.
-
23:44 - 23:48Finally, I can imagine that
there was a rooster there -
23:48 - 23:51that said "People of Earth,
welcome to the galaxy!", -
23:51 - 23:52(Laughter)
-
23:52 - 23:55on August 25, 2012.
-
23:56 - 24:01I posed the question in the beginning:
"Are there limits?" -
24:01 - 24:07I think you can imagine that my answer
to that is "No, of course no." -
24:07 - 24:12I think limits constrain our imagination
-
24:12 - 24:16and retard progress, I think.
-
24:16 - 24:20So, we don't need any limits.
-
24:20 - 24:22And there are none.
-
24:22 - 24:23Thank you very much.
-
24:23 - 24:32(Applause)
- Title:
- Are there limits?: Stamatis Krimigis at TEDxAthens 2013 "Uncharted Waters"
- Description:
-
Dr. Stamatios Krimigis received his B. Physics from the University of Minnesota (1961), his M.S (1963) and Ph.D. (1965) in Physics from the University of Iowa, and served on the faculty there. In 1968 he moved to the Applied Physics laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, became Chief Scientist in 1980, Space Department Head in 1991, and Emeritus Head in 2004. The 600-member Space Department has designed, built and operated more than 65 spacecrafts and most of the planetary missions during his tenure.
He is Principal Investigator on several NASA spacecrafts, including Voyagers 1 and 2 to the Outer Planets, the Voyager Interstellar Mission and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan. He and his colleagues proposed and implemented the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission and oversaw its landing on the asteroid Eros on February 12, 2001, the first ever landing on an asteroid. He has designed and built instruments that have flown to all eight planets, and also the New Horizons mission currently headed to Pluto. He has published more than 530 papers in peer-reviewed journals and books on the physics of the sun, interplanetary medium, planetary magnetospheres, and the heliosphere.
He is recipient of NASA’s Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal twice, a Fellow of the American Physical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, recipient of COSPAR’s Space Science Award in 2002, recipient of the Basic Sciences Award of the International Academy of Astronautics where he chairs the Board of Trustees for Basic Sciences and he has been awarded with the Council of European Aerospace Societies CEAS Gold Medal for 2011. He is an Academician at the Academy of Athens since 2005, occupying the Chair of “Science of Space” and chairman of Greece’s National Council of Research and Technology.In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 24:42
Chryssa R. Takahashi
The subtitles weren't separated as they should, no line breaks.