{"id":6852,"date":"2016-04-11T09:53:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T09:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kurzweilai.net\/?p=278076"},"modified":"2016-04-16T01:14:02","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T01:14:02","slug":"breakthrough-starshot-aims-to-reach-alpha-centauri-20-years-after-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2016\/04\/11\/breakthrough-starshot-aims-to-reach-alpha-centauri-20-years-after-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Breakthrough Starshot’ aims to reach Alpha Centauri 20 years after launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Alpha Centauri (credit: ESO Online Digitized Sky Survey)<\/p><\/div>\n

Internet investor and science philanthropist\u00a0Yuri Milner and physicist Stephen Hawking <\/em>announced Tuesday a\u00a0$100 million\u00a0research and engineering program, Breakthrough Starshot<\/a><\/em>, aiming to demonstrate proof of concept for\u00a0light-propelled “nanocrafts” that could travel to Alpha Centauri,\u00a0our nearest star system.<\/p>\n

The nanocrafts would fly at\u00a020 percent of light speed and capture images of possible planets and other scientific data, arriving in just over\u00a020 years\u00a0after their launch.<\/p>\n

“Earth is a wonderful place, but it might not last forever,” said Hawking. “Sooner or later, we must look to the stars. Breakthrough Starshot is a very exciting first step on that journey.”<\/p>\n

Breakthrough Starshot program
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L-R) Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Prize and DST Global Founder; Stephen Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, Dennis Stanton Avery and Sally Tsui Wong-Avery Director of Research, University of Cambridge; Freeman Dyson, Emeritus Professor, Princeton Institute for Advanced Study; Ann Druyan, Producer, Co-Founder and CEO of Cosmos Studios; Avi Loeb, Frank B. Baird, Jr. Professor of Science at Harvard University; Mae Jamison, Nasa Astronaut, Principal 100 Year Starship Foundation; and Peter Worden, Chairman, Breaktrough Prize Foundation, Former NASA Director speak on stage as Yuri Milner And Stephen Hawking host press conference to announce Breakthrough Starshot, a new space exploration initiative, at One World Observatory on April 12, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Bryan Bedder\/Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize Foundation)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Breakthrough Starshot<\/em> program will be led by Pete Worden, the former director of NASA AMES Research Center, and advised by a committee of world-class scientists and engineers. The board will consist of Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n

Nanocrafts<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Nanocraft, comprising Lightsail and StarChip powered by Light Beamer (credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)<\/p><\/div>\n

The Alpha Centauri star system is\u00a025 trillion miles\u00a0(4.37 light years) away. With today\u2019s fastest spacecraft, it would take about\u00a030,000 years\u00a0to get there. <\/em>The program aims to establish whether a gram-scale\u00a0nanocraft on a sail pushed by a\u00a0light beam can fly more than 1,000 times faster.<\/p>\n

Nanocrafts are gram-scale robotic spacecrafts, comprising:<\/p>\n

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Starchip (credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)<\/p><\/div>\n

Starchip<\/strong>: a gram-scale wafer carrying cameras, photon thrusters, power supply, navigation, and communication equipment, and constituting a fully functional space probe.<\/p>\n

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Lightsail (credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)<\/p><\/div>\n

Lightsail<\/strong>:\u00a0Advances in nanotechnology are producing increasingly thin and lightweight materials, promising to enable the fabrication of\u00a0meter-scale\u00a0sails no more than\u00a0a few hundred atoms thick\u00a0and at\u00a0gram-scale mass.<\/p>\n

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Light Beamer (credit: Breakthrough Initiatives)<\/p><\/div>\n

Light Beamer. <\/strong>The rising power and falling cost of lasers has led to significant advances in light-beaming technology. Phased arrays\u00a0of lasers\u00a0(the “light beamer”)\u00a0could potentially be scaled up to the\u00a0100 gigawatt\u00a0level.<\/p>\n

Breakthrough Starshot<\/em>\u00a0aims to bring economies of scale to the astronomical scale. The StarChip can be\u00a0mass-produced\u00a0at the cost of an\u00a0iPhone\u00a0and be sent on missions in large numbers to provide redundancy and coverage. The light beamer is modular and scalable. Once it is assembled and the technology matures, the cost of each launch is expected to fall to a few hundred thousand dollars.
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