SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
The BBC and the Guardian both carry stories about an unmanned interstellar spacecraft designed to reach the Alpha Centauri system "within a generation" (30 or so years).
The spacecraft would be miniaturised to the size of an average silicon chip, and be propelled by a solar sail which would receive a boost from a powerful laser on the Earth.
Milner's Breakthrough Foundation is running a project, backed by Hawking, to research the technologies needed for such a mission, which they think will soon be feasible.
takyon: The campaign is called Breakthrough Starshot. Breakthrough Initiatives also announced the release of initial observational datasets from the Breakthrough Listen 10-year SETI effort.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Stephen Hawking and Yuri Milner's $100 Million Interstellar Spacecraft Plan
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 47 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
spagmumps, n.:
Any of the millions of Styrofoam wads that accompany mail-order items.
-- "Sniglets", Rich Hall & Friends
(Score: 2) by Kell on Wednesday April 13 2016, @06:28AM
career-oriented gold-digging women
Hello, Obvious Troll. It seems unlikely to me that woman who is career-oriented (and thus earning an income) is somehow also going to be a "gold-digger" (ie. social parasite). The sort of women who is independent and self-motivated enough to get and keep a career is hardly going to be happy as a dependent wallflower.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.