Finally there is solid proposal to send space probes to our nearest neighboring star, Alpha Centauri, thanks to the Russian billionarie Yuri Milne who is willing to foot US100 million bill for Stephen Hawking and his team to come out ways to send the spaceships to the star in the shortest time!
It will not be something like New Horizon which could travel only 13.78km/s with a weight of 478kg. It will comprise a colony of chip-like mini-spaceships less than 10kg with all the nano sensors and cameras plus sails propelled by laser light from Earth at a speed of 60,000km/s. The mini-spaceships are expected to reach Alpha Centauri in 30 years. Information sends back to Earth will then take 4.3 years.
Look like by 2100, we shall be able to know anybody out there!
Sound Exciting!
But, do not be too optimistic! There are still too many unknowns and uncertainties in the technology as well as in the space.
Let's do hope that ONE of the group survives the technology failures, asteroids clash, magnetic disturbance, supernova explosion, gravity interference, etc and finally reach the destination, will we be able to slow it down so far away? Or just another flyby!
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