STEPHEN HAWKING including other scientists and backers such as Russian billionaire internet investor Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg will send “nano craft” deep into space to explore the most remote regions that humans have ever seen, by far.
The $100m project, called Breakthrough Starshot, will rely on tiny so-called ‘nanocraft’ flying on sails pushed by beams of light through the universe. They will travel to the Alpha Centauri star system at a distance of 4.37 light years: that is, 40,000,000,000,000 kilometres (4.37 light years) away on a 20-year mission to look for alien life.
The most ambitious alien-hunting mission in history launched by Stephen Hawking, is teamed up with Milner and Zuckerberg.
More than looking at the stars
“For the first time in human history, we can do more than look at the stars, we can reach them,” said Yuri Milner, founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives.
Each of these ‘interstellar sailboats’ is expected to carry cameras and a built-in GPS to search deep space for habitable planets.
“55 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Today, we are preparing for the next great leap. Earth is a wonderful place, but it might not last forever,” commented Stephen Hawking.
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| STEPHEN HAWKING: ‘“Sooner or later, we must look to the stars. Breakthrough Starshot is a very exciting first step on that journey.” |
“Sooner or later, we must look to the stars. Breakthrough Starshot is a very exciting first step on that journey. With light beams, light sails and the lightest spacecraft ever built we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation,” added Hawking.
Light beam to propel super lightweight nanocraft
The $100 million research and engineering programme will seek proof of concept for using light beam to propel super lightweight nanocraft to 20 per cent of light speed.
A possible fly-by mission could reach Alpha Centauri within about 20 years of its launch, Milner said, and also revealed Mark Zuckerberg is joining the project’s board.
Habitable zones
These craft are designed to take images of planets and other scientific data in our nearest star system. Astronomers estimate that there is a reasonable chance of an Earth-like planet existing in the ‘habitable zones’ of Alpha Centaur’s three-star system.
The programme 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.
“Today we commit to this next great leap into this cosmos, because we are human and our nature is to fly.
We take inspiration from Vostok, Voyager, Apollo and the other great missions,” said Worden.
Interstellar flight
“It’s time to open the era of interstellar flight, but we need to keep our feet on the ground to achieve this,” added Millner.
Following that, development of the ultimate mission to Alpha Centauri would require a budget comparable to the largest current scientific experiments.
However, the key elements of the proposed system design are based on technology either already available or likely to be attainable in the near future under reasonable assumptions.
Transcending limits the great void
Professor Hawking said: “What makes us unique is transcending our limits. Gravity pins us to the ground, but I just flew to America.
“How do we transcend these limits? The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars. But now we can transcend it, with light beams, light sails, and the lightest spacecraft ever built. Today we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos, because we are human and our nature is to fly.”
In an interview with El País in 2015, famed physicist Hawking posited that an alien visitation would put Earthlings in the same position as Native Americans when Columbus landed on their shores.
“Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach,” Hawking speculated.
Destination: Alpha Centauri
The Starshot Project hopes to get the tiny robots out to the Alpha Centauri star system, 25 trillion miles away. Getting there through normal means would take 30,000 years – but the new project hopes that using the tiny rockets will allow them to get there in just 20 years.
In 2012 a team of European astronomers announced that they had found a planet located in the nearest star system to our sun, Alpha Centauri.
At 4.6 light-years away, it’s just a stone’s throw on the cosmic yardstick. The system is reachable within a human lifetime at velocities of one-tenth the speed of light. We don’t need warp drive to magically travel there at superluminal speed.
American programmer, Internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is the chief executive and co-founder of the social networking website Facebook. His net worth is estimated to be $51.8 billion as of 2016.
Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world as a part of its Person of the Year distinction.
Source: Weekly Holiday