The One World Observatory in New York (USA) has been the chosen setting for the presentation of the ambitious and multimillion-dollar space exploration project called “Breakthrough Starshot” . Russian billionaire Yul Milner and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking have been involved in this interstellar mission (and ultimately Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also decided to embark).
What is this “Stellar Shot” about?
The objective is to send a small ship, a robotic space probe weighing just a few grams that will travel at 20% of the speed of light, at about 215 million km / h through space, propelled by a “sail” with a beam of light. His destiny will be none other than to conquer the Alpha Centauri star system, the closest star to the Sun; located about 4.37 light years distant.
How much will the mission cost?
The Breakthrough Starshot project starts with an initial budget of 100 million dollars and will be led by the former director of the NASA Ames Center, Pete Worden, as well as an international committee of experts. One of the most striking characteristics of this scientific initiative is that it will not only be a global collaboration purpose, but that all data will be available to the public with free access.
“ If we are successful, a flyby mission could reach Alpha Centauri some 20 years after its launch, and send back images of any planet that could be discovered in this (three-star) system. Albert Einstein once imagined himself riding on a ray of light, and his thought experiment led him to the theory of special relativity. Now, a little over a century later, we have the opportunity to achieve a significant fraction of that speed, and only in this way will we be able to reach the stars on the time scale of a human lifetime. It’s exciting to be involved in such an ambitious project , ”says Stephen Hawking.
