Sarah Knapton
Fri, 5 January 2024 a
An artist's impression shows the planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System - European Southern Observatory
A swarm of tiny spacecraft could travel through interstellar space to reach our nearest star beyond the Sun, under plans being funded by Nasa.
Florida-based Space Initiatives is proposing sending thousands of miniature probes to Proxima B, a potentially habitable planet in the Proxima Centauri star system which is nearly 4.3 light years (or 25 trillion miles) from Earth.
With current technology, it would take around 30,000 years to reach the system, but scientists believe the nano-craft could be fitted with tiny sails and pushed by laser beams.
Professor Stephen Hawking proposed a similar idea before his death, who suggested that a 100 gigawatt beam of light could accelerate the tiny craft to speeds of 100 million miles per hour.
It would cut the journey time to around 20 years, and once there, the swarm could sweep over Proxima B, looking for signs of alien life, or even civilisations.
The idea has been picked out for funding by Nasa’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) programme which fosters pioneering ideas, and in the past, has led to developments like the Ingenuity helicopter, currently being flown on Mars.
Nasa’s Innovative Advanced Concepts programme has led to developments such as the Ingenuity helicopter, which currently being flown on Mars - Joel Kowsky/NASA
Thomas Eubanks, of Space Initiatives Inc, said: “Tiny gram-scale interstellar probes pushed by laser light are likely to be the only technology capable of reaching another star this century.
“We presuppose availability by mid-century of a laser beamer powerful enough to boost a few grams to relativistic speed, lasersails robust enough to survive launch, and terrestrial light buckets big enough to catch our optical signals.
“Then our proposed mission is to fly by our nearest neighbour, the potentially habitable world Proxima b, with a large autonomous swarm of 1000s of tiny probes.”
Although Voyager One has ventured outside the Solar System and is currently in interstellar space, no spaceship has ever reached another star system.
However, even if the swarm reached Proxima B and found signs of life, the huge distances mean it would take at least eight years for a signal to return to Earth.
The team hopes to begin testing swarms of laser-powered nanobots closer to home, such as around the Moon and in the Solar System.
Other projects selected for funding were an electric plane that could take off and land on Mars and a sample return mission to Venus using a solar aircraft.
‘NIAC inspires space-tech ideas’
Fauna Bio, a Californian company, has also been given a grant to study hibernating animals on board the International Space Station (ISS) to see if astronauts could be placed in torpor for long journeys without suffering health problems.
“The daring missions NASA undertakes for the benefit of humanity all begin as just an idea, and NIAC is responsible for inspiring many of those ideas,” said Jim Free, Nasa Associate Administrator.
“The Ingenuity helicopter flying on Mars and instruments on the MarCO deep space CubeSats can trace their lineage back to NIAC, proving there is a path from creative idea to mission success.
“And, while not all these concepts will fly, NASA and our partners worldwide can learn from fresh approaches and may eventually use technologies advanced by NIAC.”
No comments:
Post a Comment