NASA thinks that the technologies needed to launch an interstellar probe to Alpha Centauri at a speed of up to 0.1c could be ready by 2069:
In 2069, if all goes according to plan, NASA could launch a spacecraft bound to escape our solar system and visit our next-door neighbors in space, the three-star Alpha Centauri system, according to a mission concept presented last week at the annual conference of the American Geophysical Union and reported by New Scientist. The mission, which is pegged to the 100th anniversary of the moon landing, would also involve traveling at one-tenth the speed of light.
Last year, Representative John Culberson called for NASA to launch a 2069 mission to Alpha Centauri, but it was never included in any bill.
Meanwhile, researchers have analyzed spectrographic data for the Alpha Centauri system and found that small, rocky exoplanets are almost certainly undiscovered due to current detection limits:
The researchers set up a grid system for the Alpha Centauri system and asked, based on the spectrographic analysis, "If there was a small, rocky planet in the habitable zone, would we have been able to detect it?" Often, the answer came back: "No."
Zhao, the study's first author, determined that for Alpha Centauri A, there might still be orbiting planets that are smaller than 50 Earth masses. For Alpha Centauri B there might be orbiting planets than are smaller than 8 Earth masses; for Proxima Centauri, there might be orbiting planets that are less than one-half of Earth's mass.
In addition, the study eliminated the possibility of a number of larger planets. Zhao said this takes away the possibility of Jupiter-sized planets causing asteroids that might hit or change the orbits of smaller, Earth-like planets.
(For comparison, Saturn is ~95 Earth masses, Neptune is ~17, Uranus is ~14.5, and Mars is ~0.1.)
Planet Detectability in the Alpha Centauri System (DOI: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9bea) (DX)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday December 20 2017, @11:49PM (2 children)
There's a mach number in the rocket nozzle, especially if you're burning something with oxygen.
The only way this has a hope of working is with plasma-ion, or EM drive, or preferably something better than either of those has even begun to promise.
Aero-braking on the other end down from 0.1C would be bold, and potentially very rude to the locals.
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(Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:11AM (1 child)
Which locals? And which aero target?
Sounds like there are a lot to choose from, Do you choose some big gas ball planet, or the first planet that radiates a non natural radio wave?
Or do you program it to calculate a grand tour and aero-brake a little here and a little there.
All your calculations are going to have to be all done on board with computers that by then live only in historical documents, presumably shielded by feet of lead, and powered by a long lived nuclear reactor.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday December 21 2017, @04:37AM
It's a fun problem, if you have a Billion $+ budget.
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