Quote
NEW YORK â€" Stephen Hawking wants humanity to reach the stars.
The famed cosmologist, along with a group of scientists and billionaire investor Yuri Milner, unveiled an ambitious new $100 million project today (April 12) called Breakthrough Starshot (http://www.space.com/32548-20-percent-light-speed-to-alpha-centauri-nanocraft-concept-unveiled-video.html), which aims to build the prototype for a tiny, light-propelled robotic spacecraft that could visit the nearby star Alpha Centauri after a journey of just 20 years.
"The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars, but now we can transcend it," Hawking said today during a news conference here at One World Observatory. [Stephen Hawking: 'Transcending Our Limits' With Breakthrough Starshot (Video) (http://www.space.com/32550-stephen-hawking-transcending-our-limits-with-breakthrough-starshot-video.html)]
"With light beams, light sails and the lightest spacecraft ever built, we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation," he added. "Today, we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos. Because we are human, and our nature is to fly."
The Starshot spacecraft will consist of a wafer-size chip attached to a super-thin sail (http://www.space.com/22799-interstellar-solar-sails-light-propulsion-infographic.html). This paired duo will be launched to space aboard a mothership, and then propelled to the stars by laser light beamed from a high-altitude facility here on Earth.
Such a craft, Milner said, could be accelerated up to 20 percent the speed of light â€" fast enough to make it to the Alpha Centauri system, which lies 4.37 light-years away, just two decades after launch. (It would take a conventionally propelled probe about 30,000 years to make such a trip.)
Read the full article at: http://www.space.com/32546-interstellar-spaceflight-stephen-hawking-project-starshot.html
Yeah, saw this earlier. I didn't post it because in 20 years I'll likely be dead. :shucks:
Yeah, why couldn't this have been done 20 years ago? I feel cheated...
I do hope they get it done right. Maybe silly humans are finally on their way to becoming citizens of the universe.
So much the worse for the universe, though.
Quote from: stromboli on April 12, 2016, 05:20:45 PM
Yeah, saw this earlier. I didn't post it because in 20 years I'll likely be dead. :shucks:
You shouldn't be playing God with your life. In 20 years you will see it happen... Even if someone will be pushing you on a wheelchair... ;-)
Quote from: josephpalazzo on April 12, 2016, 06:38:45 PM
You shouldn't be playing God with your life. In 20 years you will see it happen... Even if someone will be pushing you on a wheelchair... ;-)
Actually none of us might see the results since it also takes 20 years for a signal to make it back.
Quote from: Nonsensei on April 12, 2016, 06:41:13 PM
Actually none of us might see the results since it also takes 20 years for a signal to make it back.
At least you'll know if half-way it still on course, which is better than nothing...
It will only take 4.2 years or so for the signal to return to us.
Quote from: josephpalazzo on April 12, 2016, 06:38:45 PM
You shouldn't be playing God with your life. In 20 years you will see it happen... Even if someone will be pushing you on a wheelchair... ;-)
In 20 years I'll be 87. Probably demented and possibly blind. don't think it'll matter.
The thing won't get off the ground for decades, probably, so add that to the 20 years.
:shucks:
The last time we tried to get to Alpha Centauri THIS is what happened!
https://youtu.be/Wz2_d6zWDhg
Am I the only one impressed by the potential 20% speed of light capability?
Quote from: Hydra009 on April 13, 2016, 07:18:32 PM
Am I the only one impressed by the potential 20% speed of light capability?
Life is just too hectic to get in that big of a rush..
Quote from: AllPurposeAtheist on April 13, 2016, 05:31:19 PM
The last time we tried to get to Alpha Centauri THIS is what happened!
https://youtu.be/Wz2_d6zWDhg
God APA--I hate that show! The evil villain and the little fucking brat were/are insipid, stupid, vapid, and just plain dumb!! Hated Hogan's Hero's, F-Troop, Car 54 Where Are You, and oh so many more. Sitcom's suck!!
Quote from: Mike Cl on April 14, 2016, 10:53:22 AM
God APA--I hate that show! The evil villain and the little fucking brat were/are insipid, stupid, vapid, and just plain dumb!! Hated Hogan's Hero's, F-Troop, Car 54 Where Are You, and oh so many more. Sitcom's suck!!
I only like
Night Court and
News Radio, myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0NmaBtpnBE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxFv71aybZ4