Human beings have not hesitated to develop great advances throughout their history to discover the world that surrounds them: first they did it on Earth, where there are not too many virgin corners to explore; And, since the last century, it has set its sights on the stars. The stellar system closest to the Sun is Alpha Centauri , and around one of its three stars – the red dwarf Proxima Centauri – it orbits the exoplanet Proxima b, which could meet the conditions to host life and is 4.2 years away. light from the Earth, so it has aroused the interest of the scientific community.
In April of last year, astrophysicist Stephen Hawking explained, within the framework of the international Breakthrough Starshot initiative, that, working in collaboration with NASA, they intend to build nanoships the size of a butterfly – called StarChips – and equipped with sails. solar, which could make the journey from Earth to Alpha Centauri in just twenty years (compared to the thousands of years it would take such a journey to a standard ship of today).
In this project, Hawking has the support of the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and the Russian magnate Yuri Milner, and, in one of his first steps, he has just launched the smallest satellites in history into space, which would come to sit the foundations for this future interstellar journey towards Alpha Centauri, although the technological challenges faced by those responsible for this initiative are not scarce in order for that ambitious moment to arrive.
About the size of a stamp
These minisatellites that have just been launched, and which have received the name of Sprites, are the size of a postage stamp – with a plate of just 3.5 square centimeters and an approximate weight of only 4 grams – and they gather in their miniaturized electronics sensors, computers, solar panels and radios.
It was on June 23 when Breakthrough Starshot launched two of these minisatellites transported as secondary loads by two satellites: the Latvian Venta and the Italian Max Valier. Both Sprites are linked to the outside of their respective satellites and, according to their ground stations, located in California and New York, radio signals have been received from the Venta – which can also be picked up without too much difficulty by radio amateurs from all over the world – and they are trying to establish communications with the Max Valier, which could have had a problem with its radio antenna.
Despite this latest setback, Zac Manchester, project manager and aerospace engineer and researcher, was optimistic about the mission: “Our main goal was to demonstrate that a Sprite’s power and communications systems could work in space; those are the basic data we need to move forward. From our perspective, this experiment has been one hundred percent successful, “he told Scientific American magazine.
If mass-produced, these very low-cost nanosatellites could be deployed and networked to create a sensor system unprecedented in space exploration, without the need to expose larger and much more expensive spacecraft in this endeavor by man. of getting to send ships, one day, interstellar distances.
Sprite minisatellite image: Zac Manchester
Proxima b surface image: ESO / M. Kornmesser
