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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: 4, Insightful) by Snotnose on Wednesday December 20 2017, @11:52AM (7 children)
Congress can barely let NASA stick to a 4 year plan, no way will a 50 year plan come to fruition.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday December 20 2017, @11:57AM (4 children)
An arrival date of July 4th 2075 might work - play heavilly on the jingoism and 'patriotism'. That would require launching in 2035 at 0.1c.
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:00PM (2 children)
2076 even :)
Why can't I edit - I can on hackernews!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:06PM (1 child)
If editing is allowed it should track the changes so everyone can see what someone changed.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday December 20 2017, @11:10PM
Or not actually post the comment until the editing period ends.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:00PM
2075? One of us read the summary wrong. Please see my post below. .1c or 1c???
(Score: 3, Touché) by mhajicek on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:20PM (1 child)
Not much point in planning beyond the singularity.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday December 21 2017, @12:12AM
That's the Jehovah's Witness philosophy... especially for financial planning: we're all gonna die tomorrow.
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