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Sci-fi meets
reality in this 1975 NASA photo: The Shuttle Enterprise rolls out of its Palmdale, California, manufacturing
facilities with Star Trek television
cast members on hand for the ceremony. From left to right are James Fletcher
(NASA), DeForest Kelley (“Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy”), George Takei (“Mr. Sulu”), James
Doohan (“Chief Engineer Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott”), Nichelle Nichols (“Lt.
Uhura”), Leonard Nimoy (“Mr. Spock”), Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, an unnamed NASA
official, and Walter Koenig (“Ensign Pavel Chekov”).
Fifty years after Gene Roddenberry launched the Star Trek series on American television,
many of the then-futuristic devices and ideas on the award-winning show have
become commonplace on Earth.
Roddenberry’s creativity and extensive homework in consultation with
scientists and engineers of his day infused the show with technology such as
photodynamic therapy, laser weapons, and handheld sensors and communication devices.
In the process, his sci-fi world colored our expectations, inspiring more than
a few young people with a level of interest that led to STEM careers.
The short list that follows notes photonics-enabled ideas
and props from the initial series (1966–69) that have become reality. See the January
2016 SPIE Professional magazine article for more.
1. The Replicator: today’s 3D printer
Star Trek’s replicator synthesized food, water, and other
provisions on demand.
Today, the company 3D Systems sells consumers
a popular 3D printer based on stereolithography, a solid-imaging technology for
which company founder Chuck Hull received a patent in 1986. General Electric
uses laser-powered 3D printers to create jet-engine fuel nozzles and other
complex components
In space, a 3D printer from the
company Made in Space was delivered to the International Space Station to test
the effects of microgravity on 3D printing.
2. The Communicator: the first flip phone
Captain Kirk and other Enterprise crew members flipped open
their personal communicators to speak to someone elsewhere on the starship or
on a planet below.
Motorola engineer Martin Cooper,
who invented the first mobile phone, told Time magazine that his invention was inspired by the Star Trek communicator.
The flip phone already has been
succeeded by smartphones and tablets; photonics devices with displays, lenses,
cameras, and more. Lasers are used to manufacture the processors, cases, and
batteries and to mark a serial number on each device.
3. The Long-Range Scanner: today’s space-based
sensors
Scanners on the Enterprise could detect atmospheric
chemistry and presence of water on faraway planets, and even count life forms.
All of this is possible today via
satellites or aircraft equipped with photonics sensors.
This year, the European Space
Agency will launch a spacecraft equipped with sensors that optical engineers
developed to search Mars for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric
gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes, using
two infrared and one ultraviolet spectrometer.
4. The Tricorder: tomorrow’s Tricorder!
The Star Trek tricorder (a TRI-function reCORDER) was a black
rectangular device with a shoulder strap with three functions: to scan a person
or unfamiliar area, record technical data, and analyze that data.
For today’s Tricorder, contestants
for the $10 million Qualcomm Tricorder
XPRIZE are competing in developing a consumer-friendly device capable of
diagnosing 15 medical conditions and capturing metrics for health. Consumer testing
of finalist teams’ solutions is scheduled for this September, with the winner
to be announced in early 2017.
5. Invisibility Cloak: object cloaking
Metamaterials have been
demonstrated to effectively cloak objects by manipulating the paths of lightwaves
through a novel optical material, demonstrating the basic physics used to make
Romulan and Klingon spacecraft invisible in Star
Trek.
Sir John Pendry of Imperial
College is one of the real-life pioneers of invisibility cloaking with
negative-refractive-index metamaterials, and many others report on their
research at various SPIE conferences on metamaterials and plasmonics.
6. Healing with light: photodynamic therapy
Star Trek’s chief medical officer, “Bones,” used light for surgery,
wound care, accelerated bone healing, and as a dermal regenerator to rebuild
skin -- all of which will be discussed at SPIE BiOS during SPIE Photonics West in San Francisco next month.
Lasers and specific wavelengths of light are used today to treat cancer and help skin heal faster, and for for
aesthetic treatments, dentistry, and eye surgery. Transcranial near-infrared
laser therapy (NILT) has been used to reduce the severity of stroke. Complex
skin cancers have been treated at University of Lund and elsewhere using
light-activated (photodynamic) medicine.
What fueled your
dreams?
Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking once wrote that "Science fiction such as Star Trek is
not only good fun but it also serves a serious purpose, that of expanding the
human imagination.” With a nod to such inspiration, the SPIE Photonics West 2016 welcome reception will celebrate the Star Trek anniversary.
What other light-based technologies depicted by Star Trek or elsewhere in science
fiction serve a real purpose today or inspired your STEM career?
I watched the first episodes of Star Trek on our black and white Zenith TV as a kid in the Bronx. With Apollo launches becoming almost routine I wrote a letter to NASA saying that I wanted to be an astronaut. I still have the blue postcard style "Dear John" response in my office. I have since flown mirrors on 3 ISS missions and the X37-B. I have pioneered new materials that could be used on future NASA observatories. If you can conceive it, and believe it, then you can achieve it! Get a Life Coach like me.
ReplyDeleteGreat story about being true to one's own vision -- thanks for your contributions!
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