英国皇家科学院圣诞讲座：如何在太空中生存（2015）

Now, the question is, what can I do
让燃料充分燃烧
to make that be everything it can be
释放出化学能
and release its chemical potential.
我不会在这里尝试点燃火箭燃料
And I am not going to try and light rocket fuel here.
另外 不要这样做
Don't ever do this, by the way, with any...
不要尝试点燃你在家里
any fuel that you might find around you,
能找到的任何燃料
by the way, in the house.
汽油 脂肪油 都会毁了你的一天
Petrol, chip fat - it will ruin your entire day.
我们要做的这个实验
We're going to do this demonstration
所使用的燃料要温和一点
with a fuel that's slightly more gentle
你们也非常熟悉
and that you're more familiar with,
这是英式饼干
and that is the Great British biscuit.
我们可以把饼干当作燃料
Now, you use this as fuel,
也能当作充饥的食物
and you use it to power yourselves.
我要用它向你们展示
I'm going to use it to show you
在适当的条件下
that if you get the right conditions,
了无趣味的事物
you can get quite boring things
也能释放出相当数量的能量
to release a fair amount of energy.
为什么我不能让火箭燃料燃烧呢
Why couldn't I get that rocket fuel going?
我可能是漏掉了燃烧三要素中
It's because I was probably missing the vital elements
极其重要的一个要素
of the fire triangle.
我们需要些燃料
Now, you know you need some fuel,
这里有些燃料
I've got some fuel.
周围空气中也的确存在部分氧气
And I did have some oxygen in the air around me,
但是热量不够
but I didn't have enough heat.
我们需要燃料 热量 氧气
So you need fuel, you need heat, and you need oxygen,
然后就能燃烧了
and then you can get the stuff going.
这里有燃料 些许氧气
So I've got my fuel, a bit of oxygen,
还有热源 这应该能行
I've got my heat here, I'll get these going.
我该戴副护目镜 对不对
I should put some goggles on, shouldn't I, really?
有备无患 好 开始了
You never know. OK, here we go.
热量 氧气 燃料
So heat, oxygen, fuel...
真令人失望啊
Very disappointing.
估计你们在想 "我就知道
And you're probably sitting there thinking, "I knew that,
"我就知道饼干不会有什么大作为
"I knew the biscuits weren't going to do anything exciting,
"因为饼干没什么特别"
"because biscuits aren't very exciting."
这就是问题所在
But that's the thing.
我有燃料 热量
I had fuel, and I had heat,
还有些氧气
and I had some oxygen -
我们呼吸的空气中氧气占21%
there's 21% oxygen in the air that we breathe.
但这些氧气并不够
But that's not enough oxygen.
为了让燃料充分燃烧
To get this to be everything it can be
我需要用足量氧气浸泡这些饼干
I need enough oxygen to soak these biscuits.
真的是要将饼干"泡"在氧气里
I need to literally soak these biscuits in oxygen
要这么做 我必须使用液态氧
and I can only do that if I have some liquid oxygen.
这又有个问题
Now...here's the problem with that.
制♥造♥液态氧难度相当大
It's quite hard to make liquid oxygen.
我们有一套制♥造♥液态氧的装置
We've got a set-up here that's going to do that,
安迪会帮我的忙
and Andy's going to help me with it.
这是一个氧气瓶
This is oxygen in a cylinder.
医院里每天都在用的东西
It's what I use every day in my hospital.
氧气瓶中的压力
It's compressed to about 200 times
是屋子中气压的两百倍 即两百个大气压
the pressure you have here in this room now,
因此这里面有好几千升氧气
so there's a good couple of thousand litres of oxygen in that.
现在里面的氧气以气体状态流经这根管子
That oxygen is running through this tube right now, as a gas.
接下来它会流进这个铜管
The next thing is it runs into this copper pipe,
铜管的导热性很好
which is very good at conducting things.
为了使物质由气态变成液态
And to get something to become a liquid when it's as a gas,
你必须让它的温度低于沸点
you have to get it below its boiling point.
这里有个问题
And this is the problem.
氧的沸点是零下183摄氏度
The boiling point of oxygen is -183 degrees Celsius.
为了使其从气态变成液态
To get it to turn into a liquid from a gas,
我必须使氧气温度低于零下183摄氏度
I have to get it colder than -183 degrees Celsius,
为了达到这个目的 我需要使用
and for that I need to use what is probably
很可能是安迪以及皇家科学院
Andy's and the Royal Institution's
一直以来最喜欢的物质 液氮
favourite substance ever - liquid nitrogen.
液氮的沸点是零下196摄氏度
Liquid nitrogen is at -196 degrees Celsius,
因此当氧气
er, and so as the oxygen
以气态形式通过那个铜管时
passes through that copper tube as a gas,
液氮会吸收氧气中的热量
the liquid nitrogen draws the energy out of the gas,
使其变成液体
it turns it into a liquid,
然后我就能在这个试管里收集液氧了
and I can collect liquid oxygen in this test tube.
这就是正在发生的事
And that's what's happening now.
这一刻对我来说真是太美妙了
This is a very beautiful moment for me,
因为我每天都在医院使用氧气
because I use oxygen in hospitals every day,
但我从未真正♥见♥过它 因为它是无形的
but I never really see it, cos it's invisible.
我曾在教科书中读到过
I've been told in textbooks
它呈美丽的淡蓝色
that it has this beautiful blue tinge,
现在我们要看到它了
and we are going to try and see that now.
它一直在汽化
And it's boiling away.
一直汽化的原因是
It's boiling away
室温比它的沸点高200度
because it's 200 degrees above its boiling point here,
我们即将看到 有了热源
and this is what happens if you have some heat,
燃料
have some fuel,
以及一些液态的...
and have some liquid...
氧气 会发生什么
..oxygen.
这就是火箭燃料发挥作用的方式
And that is how you get rocket fuel to be rocket fuel.
现在看样子它很想跑走
Now, that looked like it wanted to go somewhere,
那是个装满饼干的火箭
and that's a rocket full of biscuits.
我可以告诉你们
And I can tell you something -
提姆的火箭装的可不是饼干
Tim's rocket wasn't full of biscuits.
提姆的火箭装满了RP-1号♥燃料
Tim's rocket was full of RP-1 rocket fuel,
液氧 以及点燃它所需的足够能量
liquid oxygen, and enough power to light it.
那么问题来了
And that's the problem.
必须有人控制它并确保
Someone has to control that, someone has to make sure
那些物质在正确的时间
that those substances combine precisely at the right time
以恰到好处的剂量
in precisely the right amounts
通过恰到好处的方式精确混合
in precisely the right way
才能将飞船和船员送入太空
to propel you and your crew into space
而非将他们炸成碎片
instead of tearing your vehicle and your crew apart.
现在让我们回到提姆飞船发射前的几个小时
Now, let's go back to the hours before Tim's launch
来看看莫妮卡进展如何
and see how Monica's getting on.
凯文好 孩子们好
Hi, Kevin, hi, kids!
离发射还有一小时 我现在在观察区
It's an hour to launch and I'm here at the viewing area
距离火箭大约2千米
about 2km away from the rocket,
你们能在地平线上看见它
which you can see on the horizon.
我们在这里等待
But here, we're waiting.
而这里马上就会挤满工程技术人员
Place is going to be crawling with engineers and technicians
在点燃这种高腐蚀且极易爆♥炸♥的燃料
making those last, vital checks before they light the blue touchpaper
将飞船送入太空前
and send up this rocket
他们会为火箭做最后重要的检查
with its highly corrosive and very, very explosive fuel.
发射时将会产生强大的气流
And it will be a big blast.
你们能看到吗
Now, can you see?
火箭顶部有个很小的白色尖状物
There's a little white pointy thing on the top of the rocket.
在那下面就是太空舱
Just underneath that is the capsule
提姆以及尤里会坐在那里
where Tim and Tim and Yuri will be sitting.
大约还有一小时
So it's about an hour to go.
我们就快等到了 太兴奋了
We're nearly there. Really exciting -
我已经等不及了
I just can't wait!
让我们重温发射前的这一小时
So let's relive that hour before launch.
拿出我们的任务计时器并启动它
Let's take ourselves to our mission clock and let's get it going.
发射前60分钟 一切无关人员
60 minutes before launch, and everyone who has no business
都已经离开了发射塔
being on that tower is getting out of there.
火箭已经启动 同时也很危险
The rocket is live and the rocket is dangerous.
当我说"那里的一切无关人员"时
When I say, "Anyone who doesn't have any business being there,"
我指的是不乘火箭进太空的所有人
I mean anyone who's not riding that rocket into space.
让我们将时间快进到发射前30分钟
Let's go forwards now to 30 minutes before.
发射前30分时 开始装备发射逃逸系统
At 30 minutes, they start to arm the launch escape rocket-
你们能看到 莫妮卡提到过
you can see, that white pointy thing
就是顶部那个白色尖状物
that Monica talked about on the top.
如果发射不顺利 如果火箭真的爆♥炸♥