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Will We Visit Another Star in Our Lifetime?

There is a moment I remember when I was old enough to appreciate stars for what they were, and I have admired their beauty and profoundness ever since. It is fascinating to think that some of the stars we see could host planets and moons holding life. A distant neighbour could be looking at our sun right now, as a star in their night sky.

Our nearest star is Proxima Centauri, situated 4.25 lightyears away in the star system Alpha Centauri. Though it’s the closest to us, it’s still so unimaginably far away. To put this distance into perspective, NASA aims to launch the Parker Solar Probe next month that will become the fastest moving man-made object. After using repeated gravity assists from Venus, it will enter an egg-shaped orbit around the Sun and will study its outer corona. At its closest point to the Sun, it will be travelling 200 kilometres per second. At this speed, you could complete an orbit around the Earth at the equator in 3 minutes and 24 seconds. However, this is only 0.07% the speed of light and it would take 7000 years at this pace to reach Proxima Centauri.

This is where Breakthrough Starshot comes in. This is a mission that aims to travel to Alpha Centauri in just 20 years.

The Ships

To get there, tiny ships called ‘sprites’ will be used. These are 3.5 centimetre squares, each weighing 4 grams. Professor Avi Loeb, chair of the advisory committee for the mission, says they have to be this small because they need to travel at about 20 per cent the speed of light to get there this quickly. They carry radios, sensors and computers, and are powered by sunlight.

The Journey

In June 2017, the sprites were put into Earth’s orbit. They will need huge momentum to reach speed, so they have attached sails which are 4 metre squares. These will act like boat sails, but instead of wind providing thrust, a 1 kilometre square on Earth packed with lasers will. The lasers will focus on the sails one at a time, which should propel each one to the aimed speed in 10 minutes.

The scheduled flight date is 2036, so should arrive in 2056. A thousand will be sent on the journey as at this speed, a collision with a speck of dust would destroy a sprite. The hope is that at least a few will make the journey. Despite the risks, Loeb insists that the wait will be worth it, so there is good reason to be optimistic.

Costs

The laser array will use up to 100 gigawatts for each sail it propels, equal to peak electricity consumption in France at 7 o’clock in the evening. However, the cost of the mission, estimated at $10 billion, is surprisingly low compared to other budgets. NASA’s for 2018 is $19.1 billion, and the cost of the International Space Station has been $150 billion. Going further, the US federal budget for 2018 is well over $4 trillion. Loeb stated that each sprite only costs tens of dollars to make. Taking a small sum from any of these budgets isn’t ally to ask, especially considering its significance for humanity.

Planetary Colonisation

Breakthrough Starshot is a huge leap into developing humanity as a space colonising species. There is a planet orbiting inside the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri called Proxima Centauri b. This means that liquid water could exist there, which has proven to support life. The sprites could take pictures of the planet that might reveal oceans and land. If it shows to be habitable in this way, it will become the primary focus of future human colonisation efforts in our galaxy. It also opens up the possibility of extra-terrestrial life living there. All of our science fiction fantasies of aliens could become a reality when we reach this planet.

My Thoughts

When I discovered this project, I was speechless. This is something astronomers dream about.

Researching space has engrained into me the idea that everything out there is unreachable. It’s incredible that it’s only a 20 year journey, a blink of an eye when being familiar with space and how long things take to happen.

Breakthrough Starshot signifies the time we’re living in and how far we’ve come in terms of scientific technology in such a short amount of time. For all of you who are old enough to witness the launch of this incredible journey and who will be able to see its climax, you should feel very honoured just like me. This mission may answer the question of whether we could live on another planet or if aliens exist relatively close by. It could open up a new solar system for us to explore. It is an attempt to find another world that one day, our descendants could inhabit. If it pulls through, humanity will look back to missions like this one as the events that allowed them to experience a new world, a place to call home.