Probes to alpha Centauri

[Dajjal]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


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[Billy_Kinetta]

Perhaps they will find the Robinson family ...

 

[mamooth]

The problem with interstellar probes is that they can become obsolete after they've been launched. Even a minor technology breakthrough in terms of speed means that probes which are launched later will arrive sooner.

However, they're not announcing a probe launch soon. They're announcing a $100 million investment to develop technology.

Breakthrough Starshot in Pictures: Laser Sail Nanocraft to See Alpha Centauri

Their design uses earth-based lasers to push the light sail, which I think is poor planning. And 60,000g acceleration? Why? Why not slower acceleration over a longer time period? Space-based lasers could accomplish that. With no atmosphere to distort the beam, they could stay focused on target for much longer.

 

[IsaacNewton]

Who cares about details just build the things and get them moving. Including a good bank of dna sequences from humans and various other life forms wouldn't hurt either. And a short film of Curiosity doing that complicated landing on Mars and a note "see that shite, not bad for a bunch of monkeys eh".

 

[sealybobo]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


.View attachment 71071

I posted this on space exploration thread and was surprised no one replied.

Smaller than a phone and the cost of an eyepad. The sail is laser powered and goes 1/5 the speed of light. With this we can find life on other planets

 

[sealybobo]

The problem with interstellar probes is that they can become obsolete after they've been launched. Even a minor technology breakthrough in terms of speed means that probes which are launched later will arrive sooner.

However, they're not announcing a probe launch soon. They're announcing a $100 million investment to develop technology.

Breakthrough Starshot in Pictures: Laser Sail Nanocraft to See Alpha Centauri

Their design uses earth-based lasers to push the light sail, which I think is poor planning. And 60,000g acceleration? Why? Why not slower acceleration over a longer time period? Space-based lasers could accomplish that. With no atmosphere to distort the beam, they could stay focused on target for much longer.

So we shouldn't launch today because technology might be better tomorrow? Tell that to Voyager 1&2

 

[Dajjal]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


.View attachment 71071

I posted this on space exploration thread and was surprised no one replied.

Smaller than a phone and the cost of an eyepad. The sail is laser powered and goes 1/5 the speed of light. With this we can find life on other planets

I didn't see that post. But the subject may deserve its own thread. I was wondering how long a signal will take to travel back to earth, once the probes had arrived at Alpha Centauri. I assume it would take 4 years if the signals were travelling at light speed.
Since they have not sent any yet and that may take years more it would probably take 30 years for this mission to get results, and I doubt I will live to see it.

 

[sealybobo]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


.View attachment 71071

I posted this on space exploration thread and was surprised no one replied.

Smaller than a phone and the cost of an eyepad. The sail is laser powered and goes 1/5 the speed of light. With this we can find life on other planets

I didn't see that post. But the subject may deserve its own thread. I was wondering how long a signal will take to travel back to earth, once the probes had arrived at Alpha Centauri. I assume it would take 4 years if the signals were travelling at light speed.
Since they have not sent any yet and that may take years more it would probably take 30 years for this mission to get results, and I doubt I will live to see it.

But a kid will find out in their lifetime. Pretty cool

 

[sealybobo]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


.View attachment 71071

I posted this on space exploration thread and was surprised no one replied.

Smaller than a phone and the cost of an eyepad. The sail is laser powered and goes 1/5 the speed of light. With this we can find life on other planets

I didn't see that post. But the subject may deserve its own thread. I was wondering how long a signal will take to travel back to earth, once the probes had arrived at Alpha Centauri. I assume it would take 4 years if the signals were travelling at light speed.
Since they have not sent any yet and that may take years more it would probably take 30 years for this mission to get results, and I doubt I will live to see it.

Something else I heard today on NPR:

Finding a new planet that orbits a distant star isn't such a big deal anymore — astronomers have discovered around 2,000. But no one knows if any of these planets has a moon. Finding the first moon outside our solar system would be a big deal partly because when it comes to places that life could call home, moons may outnumber planets. Any alien life that's out there might well be on a moon. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has revealed that around 2 percent of sun-like stars have a rocky planet orbiting in the region where temperatures are right for liquid water to exist. But there are five times more gaseous planets in that habitable zone and those gas giants could be orbited by smaller, potentially habitable moons. This question about the occurrence rate of moons is really salient to the question of whether we're alone in the universe or not," says Kipping. "Because it does seem that gas giants are at the right position for life more often than rocky planets."

I'd certainly like to see a moon that is at least the size of Mars," he says. "When you get to that size, then you can start talking about moons that maybe hold on to an atmosphere for a long period of time." Even in our own backyard, Jupiter and Saturn are circled by moons called Europa and Enceladus that are thought to have oceans. But whatever water might be there is hidden beneath miles of ice. For now, scientists can only wonder what might be swimming around down there. It could be that 100 years from now we'll know that the Earth is one of a handful of bodies in the solar system that’s habitable and most of them are moons.

Hot On The Trail Of Alien Moons

 

[Old Rocks]

Given the energy available, and chemical makeup of the atmosphere of Jupiter, I would think that an ideal area to look for life not as we know it.

 

[baileyn45]

Maybe when such a probe gets there some one will send it back!

 

[CremeBrulee]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[baileyn45]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damn, and I already made vacation plans. Got an extra room next summer?

 

[Moonglow]

Perhaps they will find the Robinson family ...

At least the bones.....well not the robots..........

 

[Moonglow]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You couldn't have, I got there first....with my sixteen sided culture dice

 

[Moonglow]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damn, and I already made vacation plans. Got an extra room next summer?

You can fit in a lap top?

 

[baileyn45]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damn, and I already made vacation plans. Got an extra room next summer?

You can fit in a lap top?

Darn, hadn't thought of that part. I guess it's off to Glacier park like we had planned.

 

[Moonglow]

Don't know what all the fuss is about. I colonized it in 1999.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Damn, and I already made vacation plans. Got an extra room next summer?

You can fit in a lap top?

Darn, hadn't thought of that part. I guess it's off to Glacier park like we had planned.

Hopefully in the summer...

 

[Moonglow]

I was hoping this was a soft porn thread, what with that title...

 

[Publius1787]

A new project started by millionaire Yuri Milner and backed by Mark Zuckerberg and Professor Steven Hawking is preparing to send probes to Alpha Centauri. (the nearest star).
The probes will be no bigger than mobile phones and driven by a light powered sail. It will take them 20 years to arrive.


.View attachment 71071

Damn thing is 4.24 light-years away. Which means, of course, even if it were to reach its intended destination it would take at bare minimum 5 years simply to read the signal. So, 20 years to arrive and 5 additional years to receive the signal, .... yeah, I don't care.