There's a star nearly 5 light-years from Earth. Stephen Hawking is sending a spacecraft to it

a reply to: TrueBrit

What will the effect be, of an object the size of an iPhone 6 impacting a planet at one hundred million miles per hour?

Don't know and it doesn't matter as it seems the probes will be the size of a postage stamp.

I mean, if the thing is durable enough to survive the effects of the mind boggling cold of space for the duration of the journey, without getting beaten all to crap by debris and energetic particles during its passage through our solar system (Oort Cloud, Kuiper belt, all those nasty radiation issues and so on) then it must be built pretty damned sternly.

Well Voyager made it so it is possible, but we have to remember this is still early in this endeavor so they will have somethings to overcome, but what the end result is what I am interested in.

Bold move considering that Alpha Centauri Bb isn't 100% confirmed yet and can't be for a few more years until the stars separate a bit more from our perspective.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

Maybe Stephen Hawking should consult Astr0 first.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

The paper wadding in a blank cartridge leaves a gun barrel far slower than this proposed device will be travelling. It will still make a mess of anything too close to the gun barrel! Yeah, sure, once air resistance builds up, slowing it down, it stops being dangerous, but slowing down from the pedestrian pace a wad moves in an atmosphere, is a very different proposition than slowing down from one hundred million miles an hour.

Hehehe...

How many of these have already burned up in our atmosphere as 'space junk'?

off topic, but i started a thread with a link to the live feed of the broadcast and it got shut down, and this one stays up? I don't understand. not trying to whine. just not sure if i understand the way posts work?

on topic, we'll see if this plan really comes to fruition, a lot of it seems nearly impossible, but hey, what's several million dollars?

Hrmm... this comes to mind.
not sure why.

A Curiosity of Spirit


hell of an interesting story too.

Makes me wonder how many micro probes may have visited Earth. Maybe technology we haven't even envisioned.

I sincerely think this is wasted effort pissed away in a non beneficial direction....

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

Is this story real? I thought our nearest star was Proxima Centauri, not Alpha Centauri...

Confused

a reply to: TrueBrit
Entirely feasible.Remember , the sails and the laser will not be deployed until space is reached. The aim will be constant as both will be fixed. Also , they will probably use the old tried and true method of planet fly-bys in the slingshot method. Once at top speed , there will be no need for further use of either as the craft will travel on at that speed until reaching its goal.

I think mankind should invest and focus on befriending one of the races visiting here from beyond Earth. There's no need to invest billions of dollars and many years in reinventing what others already have.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

Clarify please? Your title says he IS sending....and only WANTS to send one....given his expressed negative concerns regarding contact...which did you mean?

Interesting idea still....thanks.

originally posted by: Jonjonj
a reply to: tsurfer2000h

Is this story real? I thought our nearest star was Proxima Centauri, not Alpha Centauri...

Confused

You are correct.

originally posted by: primespickle
It wouldn't even need to communicate back necessarily. We could just send millions of these devices out in every direction. Try to make it indestructible and put information on it saying where we are. Maybe someone out there will find one of them eventually.

That would be great to alert a hostile alien race to where we are.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

Thanks for the link, I never noticed anything in the OP, I noticed policy mentioned as one of the hurdles.

It's why I figured the laser would be ground based... It's got great potential as a WMD.

a reply to: tsurfer2000h

I love 'go large' science where someone has a big idea and goes for it.

With ever increasing processor speeds and better power storage, I wonder how they plan to build progress into their projections? For example, if they're thinking of a Samsung S7 CPU, it'll be looking super-slow within the next five years. They'll have to estimate where the technology will be in, say, five years to allow for the on-board systems and software.

Power would presumably be sourced from the laser and some on-board battery would retain a back-up charge. Again, battery life would presumably have different values in the near future. Even solar cells will be be better.

Cameras are always improving and it wasn't ten years ago when 2mp was hunky-dory; today we're averaging five times that on entry-level phones. Digital cameras can be compact and the CMOS tech would transfer without the bulk of the camera chassis.

I know they aren't sending an actual phone. I'm thinking about what's top-end right now and the phone industry probably have most of the best examples of that.

a reply to: Gothmog

First of all, I highly doubt that sling shot manoeuvres are going to help when the whole idea is to propel the object, with a laser, up to one hundred million miles per hour. And as for being fixed...no. Simply no.

Look, the objects cannot be fixed, because they, the ground station and the objects themselves AND their target are not fixed but moving in space and time. The planet is rotating for one thing!

I think many forget this is what they want to do, so much of it is still in the planning phase there is alot that needs to be worked out.

Heck it may not even work, but you have to give them credit for thinking about an very ambitious endeavor.

As for what the nearest star is to Earth...take that up with those who wrote the article as I am just bringing you the story.

a reply to: Kandinsky
Not entirely correct.
-Processor "speeds" (if you mean cycle time) stagnated ten years ago around 4 GHz then they just started adding more cores and cache, that did not make your CPU faster per se but gave it more bandwith to work with.

Although, that does not mean it´s faster. And it does not mean there aren´t any higher than 4GHz, it´s just getting too energy dense. Even at the current range of 22nm, the gate thickness is so thin, they have gone to "high k" material and FinFET structures. Gate thickness is around five or seven atoms, already, the gates leak electrons.
Yes you can probably go to 7 or 5nm with special materials but at a certain point it gets too unstable.

That´s why with graphite, scientists are certain the 100GHz mark is doable.

Solar cell are much more efficient in space, the technology is already ripe.