When Stephen Hawking has even the tenuous affair to say about quad , multitude listen . So it naturally get quite the uproar this workweek when he and Russian billionaire philanthropist Yuri Milner held a pressing conference atop Manhattan ’s Freedom Tower to denote an ambitious $ 100 million deputation . The architectural plan ? To send tiny probes to our closest star system – Alpha Centauri – a whopping 25trillionmiles away , in just 20 years .
OK , a 20 - yr journey maysoundlike a long - fanny time . But debate even our quickest - flying spaceship ( New Horizons ) would take ten of one thousand of years to get there , these probes will be movingfast . We ’re talking whirr - past - Mars - in - an - 60 minutes , swing - past - Pluto - in - a - Clarence Day fast .
So how the Scheol will this all work ? Well , it ’s complicated , but here ’s a jot : frickin ' optical maser beams .
Screenshot via YouTube
So here ’s the deal with this mission : it ’s calledStarshotand it involves a mothership that orbit the Earth , housing a fleet of smaller spacecrafts ( we ’re talking iPhone - sized , and weigh a few Hans C. J. Gram ) . The mothership deploy these crafts , one per day for hundred of days . Once deployed , each craftsmanship and its contemplative " sail " align itself with a elephantine Earth - based laser , and hold off there in position until the optical maser balance beam is turned on .
Now for the really cool part . The optical maser light beam would behave as a powerful propellor and send the craft throttling toward Alpha Centauri at about one - fifth the speed of light , or roughly 100 million MPH . There ’s no tattle what wild and screwball deep - blank space obstacle might wander into its path , but by sending C out into the majuscule beyond , the odds that at least one makes it all the way there whole are greatly improved .
Scientists have long dreamed of interstellar travel and the possible boon of information it would give us ( what ’s up , aliens ? ! ? ) , but actually getting there in a fairish amount of time has always been the biggest challenge . But in just 20 years from when they get their laser boosts , these Guy – packed with tiny onboard computing gadget and a two - megapixel television camera – would reach their destination and set out compile data point and photos . It would then take another four or five twelvemonth for us to get what they ’re seeing ( that ’s how prospicient any transmitting between us would take ) but what ’s a few spare years when we ’re talking to somethingtrillionsof miles away .
Screenshot via YouTube
So who is this random Russian hombre anyway ? Well , he ’s certainly no unknown to moonshot place plans . Just last year , the billionaire tech investor ( who , coincidentally , was named after Yuri Gagarin , the first human to journey into space)poured $ 100 million into another ambitious project : the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligence activity . Of of course , throwing lashings of money at something does n’t mean it ’s a sure thing that we ’ll actually see a slip to the stars happen in our life-time , but Milner ’s have quite a team in plaza already to help channelise thing in the right direction . In summation to Hawking , he ’s recruited Mark Zuckerberg to sit on the circuit card of director , and the project lead will be the former conductor of NASA ’s Ames Research Center . That ’s not to advert a expectant cast of other sheer - name adviser including Nobel Prize - come through uranologist and even Carl Sagan ’s widow .
But let ’s be actual , $ 100 million is basically pocket modification when it come to space change of location , especially when it involves something as ambitious as traveling to stars . For his part , Milner enjoin his money ’s simply meant to fund an initial round of drinks of research and development , and hopefully pull together enough excitement to tempt in other mysterious - pocketed investors and possibly even international space programs .
Joe McGauleyis a older author for Thrillist . He bets New Horizons is feeling pretty insecure about its speed the right way now .
