00:00Apabila NASA menghantar kapal angkasa ke Mareh, Musytari atau jauh merentasi sistem suria,
00:05satu persoalan penting timbul.
00:07Bagaimana manusia berkomunikasi dengan mesin yang berada berjuta-juta kilometer dari bumi?
00:12Jawapannya terletak di Jet Propulsion Laboratory atau JPLD California
00:16yang mengendalikan satu rangkaian antena gergasi dikenali sebagai Deep Space Network.
00:25Rangkaian ini dibangunkan sejak era perlombaan angkasa lepas pada 1960-an
00:30ketika Amerika Syarikat berusaha menghantar manusia ke bulan.
00:33Pada masa itu, NASA memerlukan cara untuk berhubung dengan misi-misi angkasa lepas
00:38yang semakin jauh dari bumi.
00:40Hasilnya, tiga kompleks antena dibina di Spanyol, Australia dan Amerika Syarikat
00:45bagi memastikan komunikasi dapat diteruskan sepanjang masa walaupun apabila bumi berputar.
00:51So, what we ended up having to develop was this infrastructure you could see
00:54displayed downstairs called the Deep Space Network.
00:57It's basically these very large dish-shaped antennas that are scattered around the globe
01:01that allow us to, you know, send instructions to the robots to download all the data from them.
01:07One of the issues we knew we were going to have to be dealing with was the distance.
01:10So, dish antennas were the kind of solution to that problem.
01:13But the problem with the dish antenna, as much as they're very good at sending signals long distances,
01:17they are directional antennas.
01:19So, your spacecraft, or your antenna rather, has to be pointed at your spacecraft.
01:23Of course, the problem is the antennas are stuck on Earth, which is busy rotating all day.
01:27So, we had to figure out how to compensate for that.
01:30So, the simplest solution for us was to take the Earth and effectively, you know, cut it into thirds
01:35or something resembling that.
01:37So, we have three locations around the planet that are approximately 120 degrees apart.
01:43That being just outside of Madrid, Spain, just outside of Canberra, Australia,
01:48and then right here in California, about three hours away from here, in the desert,
01:51and then right above a city called Barstow, about 40 miles north of that city.
01:55Hari ini, Deep Space Network menjadi talian hayat kepada puluhan misi angkasa NASA.
02:01Lalu, antena gergasi itu, arahan dihantar ke kapal angkasa dan data scientific dihantar pulang ke bumi.
02:07Tanpa sistem ini, NASA tidak akan dapat menerima gambar marikh, data planet jauh,
02:13atau berkomunikasi dengan misi yang sedang menjelajahi alam semesta.
02:17Namun, masa depan, penerokaan angkasa memerlukan teknologi yang lebih canggih.
02:21Justru di JPL, salah seorang tenaga pakarnya yang juga rakyat Malaysia,
02:25kini membangunkan sensor berasaskan atom yang menggunakan laser
02:29untuk menjadikan atom sangat sensitif kepada gelombang elektromagnetik.
02:33Ya, saya mempunyai sensor atom rebuk yang mempunyai untuk mempunyai sensor remote sensing untuk NASA.
02:41They are based on highly excited atoms, so we excite them with lasers.
02:46Once they become highly excited, they are very sensitive to a variety of different electromagnetic fields.
02:53They can be used to do remote sensing for earth signs, for example.
02:58At NASA, we're interested in that because it allows us to develop dynamically tunable systems.
03:03These atoms can be dynamically tuned based on how we excite them.
03:07certain types of excitations with laser wavelengths will maybe make them sensitive to millimeter wave signals.
03:14Others might make them sensitive to microwave, and others can make them sensitive to low-frequency signals.
03:19And so we can develop instrumentation that can be dynamically tuned,
03:23that can adapt to different needs of NASA for remote sensing.
03:27For instance, we can sense snow, or tune the instrument to detect vegetation,
03:35study soil moisture, or dryness, all of which respond to different wavelengths.
03:42Energy ini boleh membantu satelit mengumpul maklumat tentang salji, tumbuh-tumbuhan,
03:47kelembapan tanah, dan perubahan iklim menggunakan satu sistem yang boleh diubah suai mengikut keperluan.
03:52Lebih penting, sensor atom ini jauh lebih kecil berbanding antena konvensional,
03:58membolehkan NASA membangunkan satelit generasi baru yang lebih kompak dan menjimatkan kos.
04:03Daripada rangkaian antena agregasi yang menghubungkan bumi dengan kapal angkasa,
04:07hinggalah sensor atom yang boleh mengubah cara satelit memerhati planet ini,
04:12penyedikan di JPL menunjukkan bahawa teknologi angkasa lepas bukan sekarang tentang meneroka dalam semesta,
04:18tetapi juga membantu kita memahami dunia yang kita diami hari ini.
04:22Gunjungan media ke JPL bersempena lawatan pelaporan yang dianjurkan oleh US Foreign Press Center
04:27bertajuk The Next Frontier, How American Innovation Powers Global Commerce.
04:32Najib Aruf, Astro Awani, Pasadena, California.
