Space entrepreneurs and physicist Stephen Hawking have teamed up for a venture to develop a spacecraft that will travel at a speed of 150 million kilometers per hour to the stars within a generation.
A research and engineering program worth 100 million dollars will seek to demonstrate the ability to use light beams to launch a nanometer spacecraft in the first stage at a speed of 20% of the speed of light. Such a mission could reach Alpha Centauri within 20 years of launch.
The program is led by Pete Warden, former director of NASA's Ames Research Center, and is advised by a committee of senior scientists and engineers, including Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg. Ann Derouyan, Freeman Dyson, Mee Jamison, Abby Leib and Pete Worden also attended the announcement.
The star system Alpha Centauri is 4.37 light years away, or about 40 trillion kilometers from us. With today's technology it will take 30 thousand years to get there. project Breakthrough Starshotaims will develop a nano spacecraft weighing a few grams attached to a sail propelled by a beam of light. Such a spacecraft would be able to fly a thousand times faster and would bring the Silicon Valley approach to spaceflight, thanks to rapid advances in several areas of technology since the beginning of the 21st century.
Nanospacecraft are robotic spaceships on the scale of grams that consist of two main parts - StarChip: Moore's Law enabled a dramatic reduction in the size of microelectronic components. This made it possible to build a gram-scale chip that includes cameras, photon thrusters, an electrical power system, navigation and communication equipment and thus assemble a complete functioning spacecraft.
The second component is -LightsailAdvances in the field of nanotechnology make it possible to produce lightweight metamaterials, which promise to enable the construction of sails with a diameter of several meters and a thickness of no more than a few hundred atoms, also on a scale of a few grams.
In addition, the construction of a laser beam launch facility on a scale of 100 gigawatts will be required.
The spacecraft will be mass produced for the price of an iPhone and sent in large quantities to orbit to create redundancy and cover. The light launchers will send laser beams to specific spacecraft that will arrive within minutes at cruising speed.
The road to the stars
The research and engineering phase is expected to last several years. It will be followed by the development phases and finally the launch of the mission to Alpha Centauri at a price comparable to today's large spacecraft in the solar system.
These steps will include
- Construction of a light launcher several kilometers in size at high altitude in dry conditions
- Generation and storage of several gigawatt hours of energy per launch,
- Launching a "mother ship" that will carry thousands of nano spacecraft into high orbit and utilize adaptive optics technology as a real-time countermeasure to the effects of the atmosphere.
- Focusing the light beams on the sail to accelerate each spacecraft to target speed within minutes
- Counting the collisions of the spacecraft in interstellar dust on the way to the destination,
- Taking pictures of planets and other scientific data and sending it to Earth using a compact laser communication system inside the spacecraft.
- Using the same laser device that launched the nano spacecraft to receive data from them about 4 years later.
The systems were designed based on components that exist today or are expected to be available in the near future at a reasonable estimate. The approvals for the launch will have to be given by all governmental and international authorities.
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On the other hand, it is also difficult to remove heat in space. That is, the space is quite isolated.
The temperature in space is -275 degrees
A',
I estimate that, like mirrors, they reflect close to 100% of the light that hits them (due to the use of special materials and nano technology), so they do not absorb radiation and do not heat up.
Does anyone know how the sails don't get burned by the laser?
rival
Correct - dividing the time by 5 multiplies the acceleration by 5.
Thanks. If the mass only increased by 2% then this does not seem to be the reason for the speed limit in question. And according to Shavit's website it is about something around 50,000 G but acceleration in only two minutes... which is quite compatible with your calculation.
rival
The acceleration is ten thousand G.
The mass increased by two percent.
comet,
Thanks for the link, I'll go see it soon, in any case, I think I understand why there is a limit to 20% of the speed of light, it's probably not because of the distance from the Earth and the laser source, because it's a few minutes from the beginning of a 20-year journey, which means it's still very close to the Earth. It seems to me that the reason is Einstein's theory of relativity, at such a high speed the mass of the spaceship begins to increase and it is more and more difficult to push it, it seems to me that this is the reason for the limitation.
Miracles, at a speed of 20% of the speed of light, by how much should the mass of the spaceship increase?
In this article:http://www.space.com/32592-breakthrough-starshot-interstellar-laser-sail-challenges.html Some of the problems you mentioned are shown.
Interesting by the way why only 20% of the speed of light and not more. When the spaceships reach this speed and the laser will still be aimed at them, won't they tend to accelerate to a higher speed?
Another question, what will prevent them from going into a spin and continuing to point the sail all the time towards the Earth? After all, a small asymmetry in thrust in one direction (in the sail) is enough for the spaceship to start changing direction, isn't it?
Perhaps it is possible to coordinate in advance with the aliens who live there that they will launch a laser in the opposite direction as soon as the spaceships approach them, and the spaceships will deploy their sails in the opposite direction accordingly.
Seeing the stars, I don't think that the solution of a spaceship turning over and projecting the laser at the other spaceships will work, first of all because it itself will accelerate from the laser and very quickly move away from there, and secondly, the Earth will already be too far away and it will not be possible to use the laser coming from it, it will be too weak in terms of energy and it will also be very difficult to direct it to spacecraft at such distances.
I read a bit on the official website of the project and also saw some videos on the subject on YouTube, as far as I understood there is no intention to stop, slow down or land on one of the planets there. The intention is just to pass by and collect data while doing so.
You can try to slow down with the help of the slingshot effect. Assuming the spaceships have some ability to navigate. I don't think there is in these spaceships
A. As they wrote... it is not necessarily necessary to stop.
B. If you want to stop...very simple...send one spacecraft with a sail forward and use it to return the laser beam.
and stop another spacecraft.
third. I don't understand why they don't use a small radioactive source instead as a source of inertia. Let's say half a spaceship is fissile material. The other half is the spaceship itself. Better than laser.
d. For communication..there is no need for a mini laser in the spacecraft..you just need to be able to return the original laser in the antenna...you can use a sail that changes optical properties.
Avi Cohen,
It may be so, and it may be that, as I wrote before, there is no intention at all to slow them down, but only to collect data during the suit. In any case, a project of this size must have at least one official website and I'm pretty sure you can find the answers to these questions there.
Miracles,
"There are 10,000 seconds in a week. So that's the G number the spacecraft will feel.'
Will she feel 10,000 ji?
10,000 G times 10?
What is the final number in G?
rival,
You can try to slow down the spacecraft by using the solar wind from Alpha Centauri in the sails. It probably won't be enough at the speeds in question, but maybe a number of techniques can be used when this is one of them, similar to the number of techniques for slowing down the landing of landers on Mars.
rival
Let's say in 10 minutes instead of 10 weeks. There are 10,000 seconds in a week. So that's the G number the spacecraft will feel.
A',
I also think that the acceleration at the beginning is faster, but let's talk about an average acceleration, one that brings the spacecraft to 10% of the speed of light in 20 minutes.
Please think and tell me how much it comes out and how much G-force will be applied to the spaceship.
Miracles,
The article states: "The light launchers will send laser beams to specific spacecraft that will reach cruising speed within minutes... Focusing the light beams on the sail to accelerate each spacecraft to the target speed within minutes."
In the article, they talk about an acceleration that will last only a few minutes, not weeks... So again I ask, what G-force such an acceleration will create on the components of the spacecraft?
rival
At 1G, the speed of light is reached within a year. So 20% will take 10 weeks, at this rate.
rival
g is simply the acceleration divided by 10 (9.8 in length to be precise)
Acceleration is simply the change in speed over time. It is not difficult to calculate. But that too is just the acceleration. the average We don't have data to calculate the acceleration at every moment so it could even be probable that there are moments when the acceleration is much greater. On the other hand, you have to remember that the spaceship does not start at a speed of zero. They will circle the earth first so that they have a speed (almost negligible for the final speed, but still)
Avi Cohen,
Maybe there is no intention to stop at all, but just to pass by and collect data while passing. I don't think that opening sails in the opposite direction will help if there is no laser source there that can push them in the opposite direction (as for the laser from Earth, it is also not in the right direction and its purpose is to push the spacecraft away from Earth, and in any case it will probably be too far away for the energy coming from it to be used for stopping the spaceships).
By the way, acceleration in minutes to a speed of 20% of the speed of light sounds like a tremendous acceleration that the components in the spacecraft will have to withstand. Does anyone know how to calculate how much G will be generated with such a fast acceleration?
Good,
Apparently they found the drive to get there, but what about the restraints once they get there? Should the sails be disconnected, and then what? Open sails in the opposite direction? (Just an idea I thought of now)...
Another problem is, do we know exactly how many planets there are around the star and calculate their orbits?
How do we get to the most interesting star? Is there an option for the direction of the sails? If we assume that there is a solar system similar to ours, the chances are that we will see Jupiter and not Kedhua...
Yaron,
It doesn't seem to me that Alpha Centauri has an advanced culture thousands of years ahead of us, because if there were, then they would have already visited us. And even if there are, what are the chances that they will notice bodies weighing a few grams in their solar system?
Every time we talk about reaching these speeds... maybe not specifically relevant to this project, but what if we stop? Let's say in spacecrafts to Mars with similar technology...
Has anyone considered what would happen if Alpha Centauri had a leading culture about a million years older than ours. What do we do to a pig that is our genetic relative? what will they do with us
The fact that entrepreneurs like Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are pushing space travel and not heads of state, are filling a void. On the other hand it is bad because the future will belong to dictators and they will be emperors of space colonies and not countries.
Asaf
Obviously they are publicists. It doesn't seem to me that anyone thinks that Hawking actually designed the spaceships, certainly considering that he is an astrophysicist who has been dealing with theories all his life and not an engineer. But also publicity and connections like his can play a crucial part in such a project. I assume that a scientist of his caliber has the ability to have a tremendous influence on decision makers. This is the most iconic scientist alive today. There is no leader in the world who would refuse a meeting with him.
Regarding malfunctions, I don't think there will be a problem due to the large amount of spaceships, it's enough that only some will reach the destination.
Regarding the laser, many countries have been operating for many years continuous particle accelerator star observatories and not to mention the space station. I don't think there's any reason they wouldn't withstand the operation of the laser for 30 years.
Is the title a bit populist?
The project belongs to NASA, Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg are only used as spokespersons, it is not their project.
Besides, even though it's an interesting experiment it sounds like it has a lot of potential for glitches. 30 years in space is a long time. The components break down, the sail will tear, the spacecraft will deviate from the path, etc... Besides, the cost of maintaining a powerful laser on Earth for 30 years is high and politically it is hard to believe that it will find funding for such a long time.
At such a speed the spacecraft can already convert interstellar dust
For the fuel that drives her further and further and faster.
Simply turn the "sail" face forward and rake
https://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/fusion-spacecraft-engines-4