“Much of this plan is probably half a lifetime away. Mr. Milner and his colleagues estimate that it could take 20 years to get the mission off the ground and into the heavens, 20 years to get to Alpha Centauri and another four years for the word from outer space to come home. And there is still the matter of attracting billions of dollars to pay for it.”
Project website: http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/
The most difficult part, as I see it, is for an iPhone-sized box to punch a signal- an image signal- over 4 light years, and to receive that signal.
And to remember to look for it after 50 years!
But first, maybe they can figure out how to make a return trip to the moon that is only 1 Light-Second away.
. But it would still take 20 years for them to get to Alpha Centauri. Those that survived would zip past the stars, making measurements and beaming pictures back to Earth.
Actually this whole thing is just an excuse to build a huge laser array so that Zuckerburg can carve his initials on the moon. You heard it here first.
It actually is a great idea. Solar sails are really a tech that can get us places for cheap. The problem is energy storage and transmission. It’s lonely in interstellar space and signals are hard to push out across vast distances.
That will take a lot of wind generators, solar power and batteries as that is likely all we will have in 20 years...
Gotta start somewhere.
Kinda like the little butterflies who flit around FR who are Cruz supporters.
Haven’t read the article yet, but I didn’t detect any mention of stopping or slowing down when they get there. I hope the little drones have high speed imaging systems as they whisk by.
Also curious where they’re going to put the big laser. If on Earth, it’s going to be awfully hard to keep it pointed at Alpha Centauri as the Earth rotates once a day and orbits the sun. Seems it would need to be out in space somewhere relatively stable, and then where do you plug it in?
Didn’t the Robinson’s already go there?
It’s a flyby mission, but a string of probes, say a day apart will provide near continuous coverage.
There are many stars and planets 20 or less LY away.
Big thing is are there any green zone planets and what life is on them.
I came up with an idea about 30 years ago when I was an aerospace engineer.
Using asteroid resources we can build a mass driver, which is a linear magnetic accelerator, in gravity gradient mode around the Sun. The mass driver could be up to several thousand kilometers long. In space there is no real limit on the size of such as structure.
Using solar power, we can accelerate nano-probes (5 kg or so) to about .1 C
Such a mass driver could launch millions of probes in every direction over a period of decades.
To return a signal to Earth, I proposed a very slow rate of laser pulses that would be picked up by dedicated telescopes.
I like this better than laser propulsion. We already proved in rail gun programs that we can build sophisticated nano-craft that take over 100,000 Gs of acceleration.
So, when we got our rail gun up to 100,000 Gs, what do you think we launched first? A Timex watch! It was still ticking when we pried it out of the backstop.
Yeah and what happens when we let a superior race know we are here for the taking, if you believe we are not alone?
Too bad for all of them if they aren’t Christians. I believe that The LORD is going to populate the universe with humans and life seeded from the earth. He will have ways to do it. We are going to see the universe. Become a Christian if you are not already one and you will too.
Isaiah 51:16 And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people.