“StarShoot Project” In 20 Years To Send Satellite To Alpha-Centauri!

[Economy 53,076]

http://www.iflscience.com/space/stephen-hawking-reveals-plan-send-spacecraft-alpha-centauri-20-years/

 

So a Billionaire and NASA are colaborating resources to send a satelite to Alpha Centauri in 20 years that in turn would get there in about a generation traveling at 20% the speed of light (59,400km per second, or about once around the Earth every 0.8 seconds)

 

This satellite would be a micro-chip with giant sails! Thats right! Barely 1 inch long it has all the tech to take and send photos but will carry giant sails to use lazer beam light pressure from earth for sudden acceleration!

 

Heres an animation video showing the concept

 

 

 

[Guest]

[Frivolero 3,705]

To the planet (VENUS)

[PartySick 174,214]

That's so freaking COOL

In our lifetime we will see humanity take its first tentative steps to the nearest star system  Then it's only a hop, skip, and jump to becoming an interstellar spacefaring species

[Avenues 4,370]

THIS IS HUGGGEEE 

I'M SCREAMING, THIS MIGHT BE THE BIGGEST THING HUMANITY COULD ACHIEVE 

Also we'll get LG12 by then 

[Ronk 14,930]

So small, tho.  How are we going to get Gaga on there for the ride?

[ItsTommyBitch 12,640]

Meanwhile at North Korea

[MonsterJay 1,563]

51 minutes ago, Ronk said:

So small, tho.  How are we going to get Gaga on there for the ride?

She ride on a custom made one... aka leh disco stick 

[Jupiter Drive 155]

On a serious note, this is arguably one of the most exciting pieces of news (even though this concept is a few months old at least) to come out of the science world in a while - the only other in recent memory I can think of with the same impact is LIGO detecting gravitational waves. To think that in several hundred years we might become an interstellar spacefaring species is cause for celebration.

[whore 11,447]

Didn’t even know we had the resources to send anything traveling at that speed 

[Economy 53,076]

7 hours ago, Possibly Maybe said:

Didn’t even know we had the resources to send anything traveling at that speed 

By conventional means we dont. Voyager 1 which left our solar system some time ago (yes it took over 30 years to do that cuz some ppl think Pluto is near the end but whats considered the solar system goes WAY beyond that) is traveling several times faster than a bullet. It is traveling at something like 17.4km per second (11 or 12 miles a second!)

 

To get Voyager to travel that fast we had to use slingshot method from different planets which we were able to take advantage of due to the alignment of the planets when they sent voyager (thats why the project was rushed) we wont be able to do anything like that again for 100 years or so!

 

Even at that speed, it is a tiny fraction of the speed of light, its nothing... so to come up with a means to send something no matter how small at 20% speed of light is a massive leap!!!! 😱