[ExI] Breakthrough Starshot - To The Stars!

Giulio Prisco giulio at gmail.com
Wed Apr 13 08:11:06 UTC 2016


On on the 55th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's pioneering space flight,
Breakthrough Starshot is launching preparations for the next great
leap: to the stars.

Internet investor and science philanthropist Yuri Milner and physicist
Stephen Hawking announced the Breakthrough Starshot initiative, a $100
million research and engineering program to seek proof of concept for
using light beams to propel gram-scale "nanocraft" to 20 percent of
light speed. A possible fly-by mission could reach Alpha Centauri
within about 20 years of its launch.

The program will be led by Pete Worden, the former director of NASA
AMES Research Center, and advised by a committee of world-class
scientists and engineers. The board will consist of Stephen Hawking,
Yuri Milner, and Mark Zuckerberg. A mission to Alpha Centauri mission
could be feasible in a few decades.

Watch the recorded webcast of the launch event. Read about
Breakthrough Starshot at The Atlantic and Centauri Dreams.

http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/4

http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/Initiative/3

http://livestream.com/accounts/18650072/events/5143435

http://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/04/yuri-milner-zuckerberg-starshot-interstellar-centauri/477669/

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=35402



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