A few days ago at noon, Stephen Hawking, along with Russian entrepreneur Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg, announced Breakthrough Starshot–a plan to leave the solar system and visit our neighbor, Alpha Centauri. Even though its 24,800,000,000,000 miles away, or, 4.22 light-years away, Starshot has a plan to utilize currently existing or nearly existing technology to start their mission. We’ll be “one world, reaching out to the galaxy”, as Milner eloquently puts it.
So…what has changed that makes interstellar travel achievable?
First off, they have a clear set of expectations. This mission is not about space travel, but about exploring interstellar space and sending photos back to earth. In a few decades, hundreds of “space sails” the size of potato chips will be launched into space, moving at about 1/5 the speed of light. In just 20 years (instead of the 30,000 years it would take with today’s spacecrafts), the probes will hopefully arrive at Alpha Centauri.
What Does this Mean for Science?
We haven’t seen a star or supernova from interstellar space–were always looking through the lens of our own solar system. Starshot isn’t a new idea, either; it was previously proposed by Bill Nye, although there wasn’t enough funding or materials to lift the idea off the ground.
If the trio succeeds, the activity may convince other billionaires to invest in similar space missions, though it’s too hard to predict the outcome of this test for now. If Starshot works, similar probes can be sent to Mars in a matter of hours, or to Pluto in a few days, at the cost of only a few thousand dollars.
By the end of this operation, Mark Zuckerberg will be 85 years old. These men, along with a collection of scientists and specialists, could create a stepping stone for future probes that may one day carry seeds, algae, bacteria, or even DNA to far away areas of the galaxy.
One thing is for sure, no, it will not look like the blockbuster film, Interstellar. If anything, it might be much cooler than that, because it’ll be real, and we’ll experience it in our lifetimes.
Further reading on the structure of the probes here, via Scientific American
The Brain Vomit 