What will the starshot project do?

The moonshot project, fittingly called Breakthrough Starshot, aims to create a tiny spacecraft equipped with a sail that will catch a brief burst of powerful laser light, propelling it to some 20 percent the speed of light.

What is the Breakthrough Starshot initiative?

Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named Starchip, to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.37 light-years away.

What type of propulsion system will be used by Breakthrough Starshot probes?

The Breakthrough Starshot research program envisions a laser-propelled sail that will probe our neighboring stars within a human lifetime.

Can we visit Alpha Centauri?

A long, strange trip Alpha Centauri is 4.4 light-years away, or nearly 40 trillion kilometers. To get there in anywhere close to a human lifetime, spacecraft will need to travel a substantial fraction of light-speed—10\% would get a craft to Alpha Centauri in 44 years.

When did breakthrough starshot launch?

2016
Breakthrough Starshot was established in 2016. Teams of scientists and engineers are studying the challenges of launching such tiny probes. Each one would be powered by a “sail” covering a few square yards. High-powered lasers on Earth would beam light at them.

Is a Bussard ramjet possible?

Robert Zubrin and Dana Andrews analyzed one hypothetical version of the Bussard ramscoop and ramjet design in 1985. The exhaust velocity of their interplanetary ion propulsion ramjet could not exceed 100,000 m/s (100 km/s); The largest available energy source could be a 500 kilowatt nuclear fusion reactor.

How would an antimatter engine work?

Antimatter power generation Antimatter annihilations are used to directly or indirectly heat a working fluid, as in a nuclear thermal rocket, but the fluid is used to generate electricity, which is then used to power some form of electric space propulsion system.

What speed is Voyager 1 traveling at?

about 17 kilometers per second
Voyager 1 is traveling faster, at a speed of about 17 kilometers per second (38,000 mph), compared to Voyager 2’s velocity of 15 kilometers per second (35,000 mph). In the next few years, scientists expect Voyager 2 to encounter the same kind of phenomenon as Voyager 1.

How does a Bussard ramjet work?

Bussard proposed a ramjet variant of a fusion rocket capable of reasonable interstellar travel, using enormous electromagnetic fields (ranging from kilometers to many thousands of kilometers in diameter) as a ram scoop to collect and compress hydrogen from the interstellar medium.

The Breakthrough Starshot initiative will establish a research grant program, and will make available other funding to support relevant scientific and engineering research and development.

What is Starshot project?

Internet Investor and Science Philanthropist Yuri Milner & Physicist Stephen Hawking Announce Breakthrough Starshot Project to Develop 100 Million Mile per Hour Mission to the Stars within a Generation

Can Breakthrough Starshot really accelerate spacecraft to 20 percent the speed of light?

The initiative has made some impressive strides, but there’s still a long way to go. For instance, if Breakthrough Starshot is really going to accelerate a spacecraft to 20 percent the speed of light, that craft will need to be roughly 1/1,000 the mass of IKAROS, which weighed in at about 4.4 pounds (2.2 kilograms).

What are the benefits of the Space Telescope project?

Along the way, the project could generate important supplementary benefits to astronomy, including solar system exploration and detection of Earth-crossing asteroids. A number of hard engineering challenges remain to be solved before these missions can become a reality.