Breakthrough Starshot

"Starshot" redirects here. For the clay target, see Starshot (target). For the video game, see Starshot: Space Circus Fever.

On 24 August 2016, ESO hosted a press conference to discuss the announcement of exoplanet Proxima b at its headquarters in Germany. In this picture, Pete Worden giving a speech.

Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named Starchip,[1] to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri star system 4.34 light-years away. It was founded in 2016 by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking, and Mark Zuckerberg.[2][3]

A flyby mission has been proposed to Proxima Centauri b, an Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its host star, Proxima Centauri, in the Alpha Centauri system.[4] At a speed between 15% and 20% of the speed of light,[5][6][7][8] it would take between 20 and 30 years to complete the journey, and approximately 4 years for a return message from the starship to Earth.

The conceptual principles to enable this interstellar travel project were described in "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight", by Philip Lubin of UC Santa Barbara.[9][10] Sending the lightweight spacecraft involves a multi-kilometer phased array of beam-steerable lasers with a combined coherent power output of up to 100 GW.[11]

  1. ^ Gilster, Paul (12 April 2016). "Breakthrough Starshot: Mission to Alpha Centauri". Centauri Dreams. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  2. ^ F, Jessica (14 April 2016). "Stephen Hawking, Mark Zuckerberg, Yuri Milner Launch $100M Space Project Called Breakthrough Starshot". Nature World News.
  3. ^ Lee, Seung (13 April 2016). "Mark Zuckerberg Launches $100 Million Initiative To Send Tiny Space Probes To Explore Stars". Newsweek. Retrieved 29 July 2019.
  4. ^ Chang, Kenneth (24 August 2016). "One Star Over, a Planet That Might Be Another Earth". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 August 2016.
  5. ^ Staff (12 April 2016). "Breakthrough Starshot". Breakthrough Initiatives. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  6. ^ Overbye, Dennis (12 April 2016). "Reaching for the Stars, Across 4.24 Light-Years; A Visionary Project Aims for Alpha Centauri, a Star 4.37 Light-Years Away". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  7. ^ Stone, Maddie (12 April 2016). "Stephen Hawking and a Russian Billionaire Want to Build an Interstellar Starship". Gizmodo. Retrieved 12 April 2016.
  8. ^ Staff (12 April 2016). "Breakthrough Initiatives – Breakthrough Starshot". Breakthrough Initiatives. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
  9. ^ Lubin, Philip (2016). "A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight". Journal of the British Interplanetary Society. 69: 40. arXiv:1604.01356. Bibcode:2016JBIS...69...40L. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 17 September 2017.(file available at University of California, Santa Barbara here Archived 17 April 2016 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 16 April 2016)
  10. ^ Hall, Loura (7 May 2015). "DEEP IN Directed Energy Propulsion for Interstellar Exploration". NASA News. Retrieved 22 April 2016. NASA is pleased to hear that Professor Lubin has received external funding to continue the work started in his NIAC study.
  11. ^ "Breakthrough Initiatives". breakthroughinitiatives.org. Retrieved 25 December 2017.