Space
In a surprise boost for interstellar travel, the Silicon Valley philanthropist Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking have announced $100m project to research sending a small lightweight robot to Alpha Centauri at near light speed travel.
In a joint announcement at the One World Observatory in New York City, billionaire Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking unveiled Breakthrough Starshot, a $100 million research and engineering program seeking to lay the foundations for an eventual interstellar voyage. Milner and Hawking were joined by Ann Druyan, Freeman Dyson, Mae Jamison, Avi Loeb and Pete Worden to make the announcement. (Video of the announcement below.)
"For the first time in human history we can do more than just gaze at the stars,we can actually reach them."
This is the third Breakthrough Initiative in the past four years and will test the technologies needed to send a featherweight robot spacecraft to the Alpha Centauri star system, at a distance of 4.37 light years away (40,000,000,000,000 kilometres or 25 trillion miles).The first step of the program involves building light-propelled “nanocrafts” that can travel at relativistic speeds—up to 20 percent the speed of light. At such high velocities, the robotic spacecraft would pass Pluto in three days and reach our nearest neighboring star system, Alpha Centauri, in only 20 years after launch.
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“For the first time in human history we can do more than just gaze at the stars,” Milner said. “We can actually reach them.”Milner cites three factors in the exponential rise of technology that will enable the project. These include mobile phone technology, nanotechnology and photonics. Broken down, the probe itself will be constructed of the same technology as your phone, with nanotech sails, and propelled by lasers.
"The message that Stephen Hawking and I want to send is that for the first time ever, this is an achievable goal," Milner said. "We can stand up and talk about it. Fifteen years ago, it wouldn't have made sense to make this investment. Now we've looked at the numbers, and it does."
At Tuesday's announcement, Hawking spoke of humanity's need for exploration as a driving force behind the project.
"Today we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos because we are human and our nature is to fly," he said.
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