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Post by swamprat on Apr 12, 2016 13:15:37 GMT -6
Stephen Hawking Helps Launch Project 'Starshot' for Interstellar Space ExplorationBy Tariq Malik, Space.com Managing Editor April 12, 2016
NEW YORK — Stephen Hawking wants humanity to reach the stars.
The famed cosmologist, along with a group of scientists and billionaire investor Yuri Milner, unveiled an ambitious new $100 million project today (April 12) called Breakthrough Starshot, which aims to build the prototype for a tiny, light-propelled robotic spacecraft that could visit the nearby star Alpha Centauri after a journey of just 20 years.
"The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars, but now we can transcend it," Hawking said today during a news conference here at One World Observatory.
"With light beams, light sails and the lightest spacecraft ever built, we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation," he added. "Today, we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos. Because we are human, and our nature is to fly."
The Starshot spacecraft will consist of a wafer-size chip attached to a super-thin sail. This paired duo will be launched to space aboard a mothership, and then propelled to the stars by laser light beamed from a high-altitude facility here on Earth.
Such a craft, Milner said, could be accelerated up to 20 percent the speed of light — fast enough to make it to the Alpha Centauri system, which lies 4.37 light-years away, just two decades after launch. (It would take a conventionally propelled probe about 30,000 years to make such a trip.)
- Read more and watch video: www.space.com/32546-interstellar-spaceflight-stephen-hawking-project-starshot.html#sthash.8tybZ1TN.dpuf
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Post by patsbox7 on Apr 14, 2016 1:21:57 GMT -6
So what happens if of little probe bugs make it, and discover the Grey's home planet(s)?
"Folks, all of those disc shaped ships, buildings and lights are simply weather balloons. Oh wait, we mean swamp gas, yeah that's it. Along with disc shaped meteors that reflect the on the atmosphere to create an artifical city like illusion. " - NASA 25 years from now.
Seriously though, there is not much info on the Grey's home planets, what it is like, and how they live at home. Would be amazing of our little probes did in fact observe and record them at home as they do to us. Take that you fat heads, next step beaming up alien cows, and making up for every one of ours taken. Hawking said that isn't until 2022 though. :/
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Post by auntym on Apr 15, 2016 14:36:05 GMT -6
www.space.com/32560-alpha-centauri-what-we-know.html?cmpid=514648 What Do We Know About Alpha Centauri?By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer April 13, 2016 Stephen Hawking, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg helm the board for a new initiative, Breakthrough Starshot, whose technology could be used to someday reach Earth's neighboring star Alpha Centauri after just a 20-year journey. Besides being an easy target — it's among the closest stars to the sun — astronomers have been eying our stellar neighbors for potential Earth-like planets. "This is Alpha Centauri, our neighboring star," Milner said in a news conference yesterday (April 12). "But in space, neighboring does not mean very near. Alpha Centauri is over 4 light-years away […] that's 25 trillion miles. And the problem is, space travel as we know it is slow. If [humanity's fastest-moving spacecraft] Voyager had left our planet when humans first left Africa, travelling at 11 miles a second, it would be arriving at Alpha Centauri just about now." [Alpha Centauri: Earth's Neighboring Star System (Infographic)] www.space.com/18097-alpha-centauri-stars-planet-explained-infographic.htmlMilner said that his proposed Starshot technology could get a tiny spacecraft to the system, traveling at 20 percent the speed of light, in around 20 years. But barring that, it would be a long trip indeed. The stars of Alpha Centauri lie 4.3 light-years from us, which is around 270,000 times the distance from the Earth to the sun. To travel that distance within a generation, Milner said, a chemical rocket like the ones we use today would need fuel equivalent to the weight of all the stars in the Milky Way. A fusion rocket could reach the system in 50 years, but the technology is still far from viable. His proposed Starshot technology would make it there in just over 20. From Earth, Alpha Centauri appears as a single point of light: It's one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Through a telescope, one can make out the system's two stars Alpha Centauri A and its smaller, dimmer companion Alpha Centauri B. Each has a mass that is about the same as the Earth's sun, and they orbit one another at about the same distance that Uranus orbits the sun. From Earth, Alpha Centauri appears as a single point of light: It's one of the brightest stars in the southern sky. Through a telescope, one can make out the system's two stars Alpha Centauri A and its smaller, dimmer companion Alpha Centauri B. Each has a mass that is about the same as the Earth's sun, and they orbit one another at about the same distance that Uranus orbits the sun. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/32560-alpha-centauri-what-we-know.html?cmpid=514648
Hawking Supports Tiny Spacecraft To Alpha Centauriwww.universetoday.com/128379/hawking-supports-tiny-spacecraft-alpha-centauri/
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Post by auntym on Apr 15, 2016 15:04:37 GMT -6
sorry swamprat & pat for moving the last few posts on alpha centauri to the galaxy thread...then over to this one...
i always thought alpha centauri was a galaxy...
i just discovered it is a 3 star system inside the milky way...
again sorry... my mistake...
i'm having a bad day...
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Post by auntym on Apr 25, 2016 16:36:22 GMT -6
www.space.com/32570-5-facts-about-alpha-centuari-starshot.html?utm_content=buffer21532&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer%26cmpid%3D514648 Stephen Hawking's 'Starshot': 5 Fun Facts About Alpha CentauriBy Laura Geggel, Live Science Staff Writer April 13, 2016 This artist's concept shows the alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb, found in a three-star system just 4.3 light-years from Earth. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada Earthlings may have left boot prints on the moon, but even nearby stars, such as the bright Alpha Centauri system, have long been out of reach. That may not be the case for long. Famed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, billionaire investor Yuri Milner and a panel of scientists announced today (April 12) that they plan to send hundreds, if not thousands, of tiny spaceships into space, toward Alpha Centauri The journey to the nearby star, located more than 4.3 light-years away, is expected to take just 20 years, the panelists said. These little spaceships would be wafer-size, and have lightweight sails that lasers on Earth would propel forward, Milner told reporters today. It may be a generation before the project, called Breakthrough Starshot, takes off, but in the meantime, here are five weird facts about Alpha Centauri. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/32570-5-facts-about-alpha-centuari-starshot.html?utm_content=buffer21532&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer%26cmpid%3D514648
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