A group of researchers from Canberra, Australia, claimed to have cracked the code that allows a spacecraft to send a spacecraft to another planetary system at a much higher speed, also when compared to Voyager 1 and 2.
At the same time, the spacecraft will be so small and sensitive that scientists are planning to send more than one in the hope that some will reach Alpha Centauri without being destroyed by a piece of space dust wandering along the way.
According to scientists, this achievement is “very exciting”, because it will allow us to record information from these planets during our lifetime, since the expected travel time is only 20 years.
That’s compared to the nearly 44 years Voyager 2 traveled around Uranus and Neptune before continuing on beyond.
“We already have several spacecraft, including Voyager, in interstellar space, but it will take many human lives before they get close to another star,” said astrophysicist Chatura Bandutunga, lead author of the study.
“For the Breakthrough Starshot probe to reach Alpha Centauri within its lifetime, it will have to travel more than 2,000 times faster than the current interstellar probes.”
At the same time, the researcher acknowledged that the project was so ambitious, that they wanted to wait to be sure of exactly what they were doing before sharing their discovery with the rest of the world.
“The challenge we are studying is how light can be used to propel a satellite, and how that light is transmitted from a beam on Earth to a satellite in orbit. It has never before been seen to do this on a large scale until recently,” the astrophysicist added.
If your theory is correct, the laser will be placed in the correct amount and the correct combination to propel you in the desired direction.
Initially, the spacecraft will arrive at Alpha Centauri, and then record images and scientific measurements that will be transmitted back to Earth.
Scientists believe it would take about 100 million individual lasers to produce the required light power – about 100 gigawatts.
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