Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberk and Yuri Milner propose making a solar sail nanocraft wich will reach Alpha Centauri in 20 year.
What do you think about it /sci/ ? are they serious, or just dreamers ?
>>8004445
>le ebin lazers to another universe quantum skeletons xdd thx based zuckerberg
>>8004445
What I don't understand is why this is big news now...http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/projects/directed-energy-interstellar-precursors
The idea has been around, and there are more implications to be made past sending a microchip to another star, but I guess everyone gets all hot and bothered when the nugget in the wheelchair says anything.
>>8004482
Well it's mostly because they also have the money to do it
>>8004445
Still a lot of problems though.
Any laser powerful enough to push the sail will actually just burn through the sail.
Make the sail thicker and it'll be to heavy and take decades longer.
The best place to put the laser would be in mercury's orbit. Or somewhere on the moon.
But setting aside the cost of putting such a thing in space. No government will allow you to put a laser that is basically a super weapon in space.
There is also the issue of slowing down once you get there.
Also there is no way we can send interstellar communications with transmitters the size of a few grams.
Still. Lasers are the way to go for sending (inter)stellar probe.
>>8005248
>Any laser powerful enough to push the sail will actually just burn through the sail.
You realize that the intensity of the light will decrease the further away you get right? You don't have to blast the thing with full power right away. Granted, I haven't done any calculations as to what the thrust will actually be from a laser weak enough to not burn through the sail but I'm guessing neither have you. If you have please feel free to share your work.
And another thing to note, using the Heat Equation high intensity lasers can be designed that do not burn the target. It's the genius behind laser hair/tattoo removal and my quantum physics professor actually has a patent on a technique that makes designs on ceramics without causing any damage.
>There is also the issue of slowing down once you get there.
Or they could put it into orbit. If they want to get it there in 20 years in needs to be going at .2c. If we assume a circular orbit (which is not likely) we know that the circumference of the orbit will be [math] 2 \pi a [/math] where a is the radius. We also know from Keppler's Laws that [math] T^2 =\frac{1}{M} a^3 [/math] We also know that the circumference of the orbit divided by the period T will equal the speed of the craft, .2c. Plugging in the mass of Alpha Centauri and solving the system of equations gives us:
T=1.35*10^-10 years
a=2.72*10^-7 AU
That's about 40,000 meters away from the center of mass of the star, which is inside the core. So maybe you're right about the slowing down problem. BUT this was for a circular orbit, and it's a lot more complex to calculate this for a highly elliptical one. It's definitely possible, it might even be better for sending signals back because it would be far enough away from the star for the signal to not get washed out by radiation.
>>8005386
I forgot to mention, they could also reverse the sail as the craft gets closer to the star and let the starlight slow it down. Maybe not to a stop, but at least enough to make a reasonable orbit possible.
>>8005386
If these things are launched then they will spontaneously network together, become self aware and decide to destroy the human race. Granted i don't have jack shit to back this up, but then since you can't prove me wrong, i'm right.
>inb4 that's retarded
It was meant to be you fucking mongol.
Guise let's launch ships to go to the Andromeda galaxy. If they're powered by Zuckerberg and Musk's egos, we'll be there within a week.
Thing also about interstellar dust.If we go at 0.2 c without protections, the probe will be seriously eroded.
While it is a neat idea, what is the value in doing this? Will it be potentially scaled up for human colonization or an actual probe that can send back useful data? I wouldn't do this without a way to slow down when you get there.
>>8006582
If they find something it will wet our appetites for human exploration even if that commitment takes generations to achieve.
>Will it be potentially scaled up for human colonization?
I don't think that's possible: can't create a sail large enough to push a craft for human, can't build laser powerful enough to push giant sail, can't take the laser with you and push from the back for obvious reasons
>>8006605
Why can't you take the lazer with you? Distance from star?
Also why does this idea work but the EM drive doesn't?
>>8005463
Oh come on now. Their aims may be lofty and they may not even achieve half of it, but fuck, at least they're trying. It's vastly superior to the (relatively speaking) sitting on thumbs we saw in the past two decades.
And aside from that, there are finally more well-funded interests pouring money into space. How can that possibly be a bad thing?
>>8004452
>quantum skeletons
>>8006648
>Why can't you take the lazer with you? >Distance from star?
Because of the mass maybe? Kind of like trying to move a sail boat with a fan I think
Unless you have a bunch of lasers you want to sequentially detach, aim at the sail, then fire
them
>>8007785
>chip arrives
>discovery of intelligent A. Centaurians
>lightyears-long train of uncontrollable giant death rays arrives
>>8004482
oh please dont tell me that if hawking walked into your room right now you wouldnt turn into spageti and grovel at his towering intellect
>>8006537
Isn't interstellar dust very sporadic? School me if I'm wrong, but isn't it only a extremely small percentage in the medium? Would that really affect the sail as bad as you say it would?
>>8004445
Why don't you decide for yourself OP?
http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Challenges/3
>>8004482
it was big news when it came out. There were countless clickbaity headlines about "MARS IN 30 MINUTES" and what not.
It's big news now, because some billionare put down 100 million to do it.
>>8005248
>>Any laser powerful enough to push the sail will actually just burn through the sail.
Not if the sail is reflective enough. We have mirrors that can reflect 99.999% of incident light for a limited range of wavelength, although we need better. LIGO has mirrors that reflect 99.9999% of incident light, but said mirrors are thick.
http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/index.php?controller=Forum&action=viewforum&id=5&page=2
http://www.deepspace.ucsb.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/A-Roadmap-to-Interstellar-Flight-15-u.pdf
>>The best place to put the laser would be in mercury's orbit. Or somewhere on the moon
the proposed laser is on earth, because it's expensive to put the laser in those places.
>>There is also the issue of slowing down once you get there.
you don't slow down, it's a flyby. You could slow down using Robert L. Forward's method, where a portion of the light sail is detached and used to reflect the laser back at the sail. pic related. However, this requires a fucking huge space lens just so you can get light out there.
>>Also there is no way we can send interstellar communications with transmitters the size of a few grams.
With a really fucking big telescope, you can detect a 1 watt at alpha centauri flashing at the telescope.
http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/index.php?controller=Forum&action=viewforum&id=13&page=2
>>8006648
>>why not take the lazer with u?
That defeats the whole purpose of launching it with a laser. By leaving the laser on Earth, you don't have to take any fuel with you.
>>Also why does this idea work but the EM drive doesn't?
the EM drive violates conservation of momentum, a light sail propelled by a laser does not.
>>8007824
>if hawking walked
