Post by auntym on May 4, 2016 10:16:38 GMT -6
www.hutchnews.com/opinion/columnists/et-and-me-is-a-meeting-i-d-like/article_678606a9-3a3b-5fa5-a707-4fbce3f290ae.html
ET and me is a meeting I'd like
Jim Schinstock still sometimes gazes at the stars in the night sky and wonders about who is looking back at him.
By Jim Schinstock
May 3, 2016
I’ve long had a not-so-secret desire to meet an ET (extraterrestrial). Back in my grade school days I started reading science fiction and science fantasy, starting with authors like Andre Norton and progressing through Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Fred Hoyle and many others. I learned to think outside the box, to see possibilities and unexplored potentials.
Then, in July 1972, as harvest was finishing up I drove one last load of wheat to the Offerle Co-op and dumped it. About a mile from home I was startled when I saw several flashing lights zipping across the sky at incredible speed. The UFOs (unidentified flying objects) frolicked and danced in the moon-washed late evening sky. The UFOs would start, stop, reverse, then go off at a tangent. The experience was like watching fireflies in the backyard, and I stopped the truck, transfixed by the spectacle. After several minutes, the lights suddenly merged, then fled across the star-spangled sky and disappeared. It was an experience I’ve never forgotten. And I still kind of wish one of those visitors had stopped to say hello.
Nor was I the only observer. According to a July 1972 Hutch News story, more than 40 UFO sightings were reported in Kansas in 1972. Air Force bases in Topeka and Wichita denied any involvement. In addition to the local discussions over morning coffee, the sightings gathered national attention, and reporters visited some of those who reported seeing the alien craft. Although the UFO explanation was not universally accepted, no one else offered a more credible explanation for the phenomenon.
That was 44 years ago, and recently I picked up an article focusing on a proposal from physicist Stephen Hawking (the “brains”), and billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner (the “money”) to spend $100 million to search for extraterrestrial life in outer space. Their project is called Project Starshot, and its goal is to find alien life in outer space. The first major step in the project is the exploration of our nearest neighboring star, Alpha Centauri.
Today’s fastest spacecraft would take about 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, but Hawking and other reputable physicists believe it is possible to reach the star in 20 years by traveling at 20 percent of the speed of light and using new nanotechnology.
The project displayed a model of its newest spaceship, a computer chip about the size of a postage stamp and costing no more than an iPhone. Microminiaturization nanotechnology allows the chip to incorporate cameras, photon thrusters, and navigation and communication equipment to relay information back to the mothership.
The project team plans to launch the mothership into Earth orbit, then use it as a launching platform for thousands of the minispacecraft. Once launched, each spacecraft would deploy a super-thin “light sail,” similar to a racing yacht hoisting sail. The crew on the mothership would fire lasers on the light sails to propel the spacecraft to the projected velocity of 20 percent of the speed of light.
CONTINUE READING: www.hutchnews.com/opinion/columnists/et-and-me-is-a-meeting-i-d-like/article_678606a9-3a3b-5fa5-a707-4fbce3f290ae.html
ET and me is a meeting I'd like
Jim Schinstock still sometimes gazes at the stars in the night sky and wonders about who is looking back at him.
By Jim Schinstock
May 3, 2016
I’ve long had a not-so-secret desire to meet an ET (extraterrestrial). Back in my grade school days I started reading science fiction and science fantasy, starting with authors like Andre Norton and progressing through Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Frank Herbert, Ursula Le Guin, Fred Hoyle and many others. I learned to think outside the box, to see possibilities and unexplored potentials.
Then, in July 1972, as harvest was finishing up I drove one last load of wheat to the Offerle Co-op and dumped it. About a mile from home I was startled when I saw several flashing lights zipping across the sky at incredible speed. The UFOs (unidentified flying objects) frolicked and danced in the moon-washed late evening sky. The UFOs would start, stop, reverse, then go off at a tangent. The experience was like watching fireflies in the backyard, and I stopped the truck, transfixed by the spectacle. After several minutes, the lights suddenly merged, then fled across the star-spangled sky and disappeared. It was an experience I’ve never forgotten. And I still kind of wish one of those visitors had stopped to say hello.
Nor was I the only observer. According to a July 1972 Hutch News story, more than 40 UFO sightings were reported in Kansas in 1972. Air Force bases in Topeka and Wichita denied any involvement. In addition to the local discussions over morning coffee, the sightings gathered national attention, and reporters visited some of those who reported seeing the alien craft. Although the UFO explanation was not universally accepted, no one else offered a more credible explanation for the phenomenon.
That was 44 years ago, and recently I picked up an article focusing on a proposal from physicist Stephen Hawking (the “brains”), and billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Yuri Milner (the “money”) to spend $100 million to search for extraterrestrial life in outer space. Their project is called Project Starshot, and its goal is to find alien life in outer space. The first major step in the project is the exploration of our nearest neighboring star, Alpha Centauri.
Today’s fastest spacecraft would take about 30,000 years to reach Alpha Centauri, but Hawking and other reputable physicists believe it is possible to reach the star in 20 years by traveling at 20 percent of the speed of light and using new nanotechnology.
The project displayed a model of its newest spaceship, a computer chip about the size of a postage stamp and costing no more than an iPhone. Microminiaturization nanotechnology allows the chip to incorporate cameras, photon thrusters, and navigation and communication equipment to relay information back to the mothership.
The project team plans to launch the mothership into Earth orbit, then use it as a launching platform for thousands of the minispacecraft. Once launched, each spacecraft would deploy a super-thin “light sail,” similar to a racing yacht hoisting sail. The crew on the mothership would fire lasers on the light sails to propel the spacecraft to the projected velocity of 20 percent of the speed of light.
CONTINUE READING: www.hutchnews.com/opinion/columnists/et-and-me-is-a-meeting-i-d-like/article_678606a9-3a3b-5fa5-a707-4fbce3f290ae.html