Category Archives: Space Travel

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Its called quantum entanglement, its extremely fascinating and counter to what we believe to bethe known scientific laws of the universe, so much so that Einstein himself could not wrap his head around it. Although its calledquantum entanglement, thoughEinstein referred to it as spooky action at a distance.

Recent research has taken quantum entanglement out of the theoretical realm of physics, and placed into the one of verified phenomena.An experiment devised by the Griffith Universitys Centre for Quantum Dynamics, led by Professor Howard Wiseman and his team of researchers at the university of Tokyo, recently published a paper in thejournalNature Communicationsconfirming what Einstein did not believe to be real: the non-local collapse of a particles wave function. (source)(source), and this is just one example of many.

They did this by splitting a single photon between two laboratories, and testing whether measurement of it in one laboratory would actually cause a change in the local quantum state in the other laboratory. In doing so, researchers were able to verify the entanglement of the split single photon.

Researchers have since replicated this experiment over and over again, with results of entanglement seen at kilometres of distance. Below is a great visual depiction of what quantum entanglement from the film, What The Bleep Do We Know.

Space is just the construct that gives the illusion that there areseparateobjects Dr. Quantum

Sure, there are a lot of philosophies regarding what all of this stuff actually means, but, as Dr. Elizabeth Rauscher puts it, its a pre-curser to realizing that everything is connected, and that everything in the universe is one. What happens in what we call reality, is effecting something else in that same reality, its all touching. (source)

Whats happening here is that, either we are witnessing the transfer of information at a speed far greater than the speed of light, or even better, something completely instantaneous.

If all points in space are connected, that means vast distances between places are simply an illusion. Furthermore, quantum entanglement challenges Einsteins theory of relativity, but theories are developed to be tweaked and changed. Unfortunately, our world is plagued with secrecy, and you can learn more about that in an article about the black budget linked at the bottom of this article.

Rich was the second director of Lockheed Skunkworks from 1975-1991. Hes been called the Father of Stealth, having overseen the development of the stealth fighter, the F-117Anighthawk.Before his death, Rich made several shocking open statements about the reality of UFOs and extraterrestrials.

We already have the means to travel among the stars, but these technologies are locked up in black projects, and it would take an act of God to ever get them out to benefit humanity. Anything you can imagine, we already know how to do it. (1)

We now have technology to take ET home. No it wont take someones lifetime to do it. There is an error in the equations. We know what it is. We now have the capability to travel to the stars. (1)

There are two types of UFOs the ones we build and the ones they build. (1)

Where Quantum Entaglement Comes In

When Rich was asked how UFO propulsion worked, he said,Let me ask you. How does ESP work?The questioner responded with, All points in time and space are connected?Rich then said, Thats how it works!

Interesting to think about, isnt it? Perhaps the vast distances that exist between planets, solar systems and more isnt really as much of a barrier as we thought it was.

One of the sources is aerospace journalist, James Goodall, who wrote for publications such asJanes Defense Weekly, Aviation Week and Space Technology, and Interavia. He is an accomplished speaker specializing in the history, development, and operations of the worlds only Mach 3 capable, manned air breathing aircraft, the SR-71 family of aircraft. (1) (source)(source)(source)

He is also an author, as well as the Associate Curator at the Pacific Aviation Meseum, HI. He was also the restoration manager at the Museum of Flight in Paine Field, Everett, WA.

Goodall interviewed many from the classified black budget world (read more about that world here.) He claimed that some of his contacts told him thatwe have things out there that are literally out of this world, better than Star Trek or what you see in the movies. (1)

From his work alone, James Goodall knew Ben Rich well. In a video interview, Goodall stated that he spoke to Rich approximately 10 days before he died:

About ten days before he died, I was speaking to Ben on the telephone at the USC Medical Center in LA. And he said, Jim, we have things out in the desert that are fifty years beyond what you can comprehend. They have about forty five hundred people at the Lockheed Skunk works. What have they been doing for the last eighteen or twenty years? Theyre building something. (1)

Another source comes from John Andrews, who was a legendary Lockheed engineer. He had written to Rich, stating his own belief inUFOs, both manmade and extraterrestrial. Andrews has asked Rich if his own beliefs covered extraterrestrial as well as manmade UFOs. Richs reply was as follows:

Yes, Im a believer in both categories. I feel everything is possible. Many of our man-made UFOs are Un-Funded Opportunities. There are two types of UFOs, the ones we build, and the ones they build. (1)

In Richs reply, he underlined the U, F, and O in unfunded opportunities.

Thirdly, Jan Harzan, a senior executive with IBM, along with Tom Keller, an aerospace engineer who has worked as a computer systems analyst for NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory, discusses a talk Ben gave some time ago. OnMarch 23rd, 1993 at a UCLA School of Engineering talk where he was presenting a general history of Sunk Works, he said this:

We now know how to travel to the stars. There is an error in the equations, and we have figured it out, and now know how to travel to the stars and it wont take a lifetime to do it. It is time to end all the secrecy on this, as it no longer poses a national security threat, and make the technology available for use in the private sector. There are many in the intelligence community who would like to see this stay in the black and not see the light of day. We now have the technology to take ET home. (1)

Here is a video of Jan telling the story:

Its quite remarkable how many verified statements we have regarding UFOs (unidentified flying objects) andextraterrestrials from people who have held the highest positions possible within the government, military, academia, politics and more. To be honest, its overwhelming, and when you put all of those statements together with all of the previously classified documentation that has been released over the past few years, it paints a startling picture. Anybody who has done even a fair amount of research, and adheres to the philosophy of condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance, would not be able to deny this, and I have yet to come across someone who has done the research that still subjectsthis topic to the conspiracy theory realm.

If youd like to learn more about UFOs, a great place to start is by checking out what happens when they are tracked on military radar.

To view a fraction of some verified quotes, and documents, and more, you can sift through the exopolitics section of our website and browse through our heavily sourced articles there.

Below is an example, and a video Ive used many times before, as it is an extremely powerful statement. I apologize if youve seen it before, but it really hits home. There really is an abundant amount of evidence.

Below is a great lecture given by researcher Richard Dolan. A great place to start. I apologize if youve seen this content before, but we always have new readers visiting our site, so its important to constantly put this information out there for those new eyes.

A century from now, it will be well known that: the vacuum of space which fills the universe is itself the real substratum of the universe; vacuum in a circulating state becomes matter; the electron is the fundamental particle of matter and is a vortex of vacuum with a vacuum-less void at the center and it is dynamically stable; the speed of light relative to vacuum is the maximum speed that nature has provided and is an inherent property of the vacuum; vacuum is a subtle fluid unknown in material media; vacuum is mass-less, continuous, non viscous, and incompressible and is responsible for all the properties of matter; and that vacuum has always existed and will exist forever.Then scientists, engineers and philosophers will bend their heads in shame knowing that modern science ignored the vacuum in our chase to discover reality for more than a century.

The quote above comes from Paramahamsa Tewari, Inventor of whats called the Reactionless AC Synchronous Generator (RLG).

What he says above has been the subject of discussion within the realms of physics and astronomy for decades. At the turn of the nineteenth century, physicists started to explore the relationship between energy and the structure of matter. In doing so, the belief that a physical, Newtonian material universe that was at the very heart of scientific knowing was dropped, and the realization that matter is nothing but an illusion replaced it. Scientists began to recognize that everything in the Universe is made out of energy.

Quantum physicists discovered that physical atoms are made up of vortices of energy that are constantly spinning and vibrating, each one radiating its own unique energy signature. This is also known as the Vacuum or The Zero-Point Field.

Whats even more fascinating is that the stuff within this space can be accessed and used. This was experimentally confirmed when The Casimir Effect illustrated zero point or vacuum state energy, which predicts that two metal plates close together attract each other due to an imbalance in the quantum fluctuations(source)(source). You can see a visual demonstration of this concepthere.Before Casimir, these pockets of nothing were thought to be voids.

Unfortunately, when contemplating the nature of our reality and what we perceive to be our physical world, the existence of the vacuum and and what lies within what we call space is very much over-looked. I find it amusing how were still searching for the God particle when a large amount of evidence points to the idea that most of what we refer to as reality is actually something we cant perceive with our physical senses!

No point is more central than this, that space is not empty, it is the seat of the most violent physics John Wheeler

Its quite confusing, which is why I am posting the video below of someone (out of many people) who spends their life researching and experimenting with these cool concepts.

Below is a video of Nassim Haramein giving a TEDx talk at USCD. Nassim currently leads teams of physicists, electrical engineers, mathematicians and other scientists to explore the frontier of unification principles and their implications. Harameins lifelong vision of applied unified physics to create positive change in the world today is reflected in the mission of The Resonance Project Foundation. He shares the developments of his research through scientific publications and educational offerings through the Resonance Academy.

Currently Nassim is focused on his most recent developments in quantum gravity and their applications to technology, new energy research, applied resonance, life sciences, permaculture, and consciousness studies. Nassim currently resides in Kauai compassionately raising his two young sons, and surfing the sunlit swells on the shores of the magnificent Hawaiian islands.

HERE is an example of some of his published research, with co authors, one of whom is Elizabeth A. Rauscher, an American physicist. She is a former researcher with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Stanford Research Institute, and NASA.

Space is actually not empty and its full of energyThe energy in space is not trivial theres a lot of it and we can actually calculate how much energy there is in that space and that reality might actually come out of it. Everything we see is actually emerging from that space.

Related CE Articles:

Distinguished Scientists Gather To Emphasize That Matter Is Not The Only Reality

Sources:

(1)Dolan, Richard. UFOs For the 21st Century Mind: New York: Richard Dolan Press, 2014(Historian, author, one of the worlds leading researchers on the topic of UFOs)

Related CE Article: Learn More About The Black Budget.

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Quantum Entanglement May Be Key To Long Distance Space Travel Ex Lockheed Exec Said It's Already Happening - Collective Evolution

The first results of the aptly-named Twins Study are in: Scott Kelly's year in space changed his DNA. It also made him taller! USA TODAY NETWORK

Astronauts Mark and Scott Kelly speak during the 2017 Breakthrough Prize at NASA Ames Research Center on December 4, 2016 in Mountain View, California.(Photo: Kelly Sullivan, Getty Images for Breakthrough Pr)

Space travel, it turns out, does more than make us weightless, it can even makethe endsof your chromosomes bigger.

The first results of a study delving into the impact space travel has on a person's body were released Monday. Appropriately named the Twins Study, the research looks deep into the effect galaxy travel had on astronaut Scott Kelly compared to his identical twin brother and former astronaut Mark.The brothers shared biological samples before during and after Scott's nearlyyear-long foray into space last year. The entire time, Mark was earth-bound.

Scott, when he returned to Earth, was a full two inches taller. But the preliminary results went far deeper. Here's what was found:

- Scott's telomeres on the ends of his chromosomesin his white blood cells lengthened while in space. Researchers said it could be attributed to increased exercise and his reduced calorie intake during flight. The telomeres shortened when he returned. Talomerestypically decrease in lengthas a person ages.

- The study found the level of chemical DNA modification slowed while in space but then returned to normal when returning to Earth.

- Scott's cognitive abilities in speed and accuracy slowed just slightly afterthe mission.

- Scott's bone formation slowed duringthe second half of his trip. Also, there was a spike in inflammation right after landing, which could be because of the stresses of re-entry.

- The study determined a stress hormone was "low normal" throughout the trip but increased over the course of the expedition. The study said the hormone, linked to bone and muscle health, was, "likely impacted by heavy exercise countermeasures during flight."

- Two dominant bacterial groups were more prevalent in Scott when he was in space versuswhen he was on Earth.

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman

Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2jS3plM

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First results on Scott Kelly after year in space reveal space travel changes DNA - USA TODAY

When astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after nearly a year on the International Space Station, he was 2 inches taller than his twin brother, astronaut Mark Kelly. When Scott left for the mission, he and his earthbound brother were the same height.

What happened? Scientists at NASA are poring over the data compiled from the Twins Study, information that benchmarks Scott and Mark Kellys genomic and physical markers before and after Scotts yearlong mission on the space station.

So far weve learned that being in space for prolonged periods does have an effect on the chromosomes, bone structure and even the content of the culture in an astronauts gut. Scotts DNA and RNA underwent hundreds of mutations in space that gradually returned to normal once he was back on Earth.

Scott Kelly exhibited declining bone density, but a healing hormone kicked in during his exercise regimen on the space station. Still, his cognitive abilities and muscle dexterity showed signs of having slowed a bit once he returned to Earth.

That will be a factor to consider when astronauts land on Mars after six months traveling through space. Setting up their living environment on the planet will present both physical and mental challenges.

NASAs plans for manned missions to Mars in the 2030s are still in the early stages. The rival civilian space programs that have popped up are shooting for a Mars mission in the early-to-mid-2020s. Whoever gets to Mars first will be better prepared for the challenges of space travel thanks to the Twins Study.

Continue reading here:

Celestial bodies: The Kelly twins offer a vital sign for space travel - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Forbes

Is This Buzz Aldrin-Inspired Locomotive The Future Of Space Travel? Forbes Last summer Charles Bombardier unveiled the Solar Expressan imagined vehicle that would ferry cargo and passengers from Earth to Mars in less than two days. The radical notion drew a great deal of buzzmost notably from Buzz Aldrin, who praised the ...

Read more:

Is This Buzz Aldrin-Inspired Locomotive The Future Of Space Travel? - Forbes

Science Daily

Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown ... Science Daily In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ... Small sailing probes could be used to study nearby exoplanet -Science Recorder all 4 news articles »

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Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown ... - Science Daily

Space travel can do more than make you weightless - it can change your DNA.

The first results of a study delving into the impact space travel has on a person's body were released this week.

Appropriately named the Twins Study, the research looks deep into the effect galaxy travel had on astronaut Scott Kelly compared to his identical twin brother and former astronaut Mark. The brothers shared biological samples before during and after Scott's nearly year-long foray into space last year. The entire time, Mark was earth-bound.

Scott, when he returned to Earth, was a full two inches taller. But the preliminary results went far deeper. Here's what was found:

- Scott's telomeres on the ends of his chromosomes in his white blood cells lengthened while in space. Researchers said it could be attributed to increased exercise and his reduced calorie intake during flight. The telomeres shortened when he returned. Talomeres typically decrease in length as a person ages.

- The study found the level of chemical DNA modification slowed while in space but then returned ot normal when returning to Earth.

- Scott's cognitive abilities in speed and accuracy slowed just slightly after the mission.

- Scott's bone formation slowed during the second half of his trip. Also, there was a spike in inflammation right after landing, which could be because of the stresses of re-entry.

- The study determined a stress hormone was "low normal" throughout the trip but increased over the course of the expedition. The study said the hormone, linked to bone and muscle health, was, "likely impacted by heavy exercise countermeasures during flight."

Continue reading here:

Space travel changes DNA, study finds - STLtoday.com

GETTY

The new pods will see space travellers hibernate, bringing science fiction movies such as Interstellar and the recent Passengers movie, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt, to reality.

As humanity gears up to colonise other planets the sleeper pods will help with the extremely long journeys.

Mars, which is the closest planet to Earth and the top of the interplanetary travel destinations, will take six months to travel to with current technology.

Pluto, on the edge of the solar system, took nine and a half years to reach in the fastest, unmanned, spacecraft.

GETTY

By lowering the average body temperature (37 degrees celsius) to around 32 degrees celsius, the heart rate and blood pressure are also lowered, inducing a state of sleep.

Medical professionals already use the tactic to treat sufferers of cardiac arrest and heart failure so that they have more time to asses the damage.

GETTY

The patients usually stay in a comatose state for up to four days, but Spaceworks the firm developing the pods using a method it calls therapeutic hypothermia believes that it could make the state last for months.

John A. Bradford, president of Spaceworks, told Quartz: Our goal is to get from days and weeks to months.

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Describing the pods, he said: There would be some robotic arms and monitoring systems taking care of [the passengers].

Theyd have small transnasal tubes for the cooling and some warming systems as well, to bring them back from stasis.

Spaceworks says that it will begin testing the pods on animals as early as next year with human testing to follow in space and aboard the International Space Station.

Continue reading here:

Humans to be FROZEN IN TIME for space travel as scientists move to COLONISE other planets - Express.co.uk

Spaceflight changes astronauts brains, according to a new study that analyzed scans of people who traveled to space and back.

Researchers looked at MRI scans from 27 astronauts. Thirteen had flown on the Space Shuttle for a couple weeks, and 14 had spent about six months on the International Space Station. What they found was that the volume of grey matter in the astronaut brains actually decreased.

"We found large regions of gray matter volume decreases, which could be related to redistribution of cerebrospinal fluid in space," Rachael Seidler, a professor of kinesiology and psychology at the University of Michigan, said in astatement. "Gravity is not available to pull fluids down in the body, resulting in so-called puffy face in space. This may result in a shift of brain position or compression."

But thats not the full story.

They also detected increases in grey matter in the space travelers brains in the regions that are tied to leg movement and sensation. Astronauts, of course, use their legs differently in microgravity than they do down on Earth.

NASA DISPLAYS APOLLO CAPSULE HATCH 50 YEARS AFTER FATAL FIRE

The results are evidence of the brains plasticity that it changes in response to a persons environment or actions, like learning something new. And not surprisingly, the researchers saw the biggest changes in the space station astronauts brains, compared to Shuttle crew members, because they had spent the most time in space.

"In space, it's an extreme example of neuroplasticity in the brain because you're in a microgravity environment 24 hours a day," Seidler said in the statement.

NEW SATELLITE SENDS 'JAW-DROPPING' IMAGES OF EARTH

This study, published in the journal Nature Microgravity, is certainly not the only one to look at how space travel affects the human body. NASAs famous twin study in which astronaut Scott Kelly spent about a year in space while his identical twin brother spent that time back on Earth is just now producing some initial results, the space agencyannouncedMonday.

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Space flight changes astronauts' brains, research reveals - Fox News

Therapeutic Hypothermia

Manned, long-term, deep space missions are an exciting prospect, but one that remains in the realm of distant possibilitiesparticularly because we dont have all the technological innovations needed to make it happen.

One major consideration is the time it takes to reach the destination. Mars, which is at the top of various space programs go-to destinations for manned missions, is about six months if travel time away from Earth. If we wanted to explore even further, keep in mind that New Horizons, the fastest spacecraft to leave Earth, took nine and a half years to reach Pluto.

Science fiction conveniently sidesteps this challenge by putting the space explorers into deep sleepa state of suspended animation. But slowing the human metabolism down while ensuring that a person will stay alive for extended periods is a lot easier said than done.

Spaceworks however, led by John A. Bradford, is proposing to use a method they refer to as therapeutic hypothermia. The process involves cooling the body a little below the normal body temperature (37 C), to slow down heart rate and blood pressure. This process is already being used in the medical world. By bringing the body temperature of patients undergoing treatment for cardiac arrest or traumatic brain injuriesdown to 32 and 34 degrees Celsius, doctors have more time to address the issues.

The method normally allows patients to stay in stasis for about 2-4 days, but has worked for as long as two weeks. Spaceworks not only believes they can extend this for months, but also that they can create the technology needed to automate the process and apply it for deep-space missions.

Unlike the cryo-chambers depicted in films however, where row upon row of space travelers are left in suspended animation in individual pods, Spaceworks is conceptualizing an open chamber that allows the crew to go into stasis in shifts.

There would be some robotic arms and monitoring systems taking care of [the passengers]. Theyd have small transnasal tubes for the cooling and some warming systems as well, to bring them back from stasis, Bradford describes an interview with Quartz.

This not only addresses concerns of adding too much weight to a spacecraft, but also ensures that there will be people awake to manage possible emergencies and conduct standard monitoring.

As for the long-term health effects of space travel, Spaceworks is trying to find ways of incorporating exercise into stasis. The team is looking into using electrical stimulation, which is already used to aid physical therapy. Having this technology in place also solves a lot of logistical issues for manned space missions. With crew members awake, you have to factor in the volume of food, water, and air needed to keep them alive for months and years at a time. It could also help manage the psychological impact of long-term space travel and hopefully lower the risk of space crews succumbing to depression, claustrophobia, or anxiety.

According to Spaceworks, they are due to begin animal testing next year, with human testing set to follow after in space and on the International Space Station.

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A Real Life Hibernation Chamber is Being Made For Deep Space Travel - Futurism

February 1, 2017 Interstellar journey: The aim of the Starshot project is to send a tiny spacecraft propelled by an enormous rectangular photon sail to the Alpha Centauri star system, where it would fly past the Earth-like planet Proxima Centauri b. The four red beams emitted from the corners of the sail depict laser pulses for communication with the Earth. Credit: Planetary Habitability Laboratory, Univesity of Puerto Rico at Arecibo

In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of the speed of light to reach the Alpha Centauri star system within 20 years. The problem of how to slow down this projectile once it reaches its target remains a challenge. Ren Heller of the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gttingen and his colleague Michael Hippke propose to use the radiation and gravity of the Alpha Centauri stars to decelerate the craft. It could then even be rerouted to the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and its Earth-like planet Proxima b.

In the recent science fiction film Passengers, a huge spaceship flies at half the speed of light on a 120-year-long journey toward the distant planet Homestead II, where its 5000 passengers are to set up a new home. This dream is impossible to realize at the current state of technology. "With today's technology, even a small probe would have to travel nearly 100,000 years to reach its destination," Ren Heller says.

Notwithstanding the technical challenges, Heller and his colleague Michael Hippke wondered, "How could you optimize the scientific yield of this type of a mission?" Such a fast probe would cover the distance from the Earth to the Moon in just six seconds. It would therefore hurtle past the stars and planets of the Alpha Centauri system in a flash.

The solution is for the probe's sail to be redeployed upon arrival so that the spacecraft would be optimally decelerated by the incoming radiation from the stars in the Alpha Centauri system. Ren Heller, an astrophysicist an astrophysicist working on preparations for the upcoming Exoplanet mission PLATO, found a congenial spirit in IT specialist Michael Hippke, who set up the computer simulations.

The two scientists based their calculations on a space probe weighing less than 100 grams in total, which is mounted to a 100,000-square-metre sail, equivalent to the area of 14 soccer fields. During the approach to Alpha Centauri, the braking force would increase. The stronger the braking force, the more effectively the spacecraft's speed can be reduced upon arrival. Vice versa, the same physics could be used to accelerate the sail at departure from the solar system, using the sun as a photon cannon.

The tiny spacecraft would first need to approach the star Alpha Centauri A as close as around four million kilometres, corresponding to five stellar radii, at a maximum speed of 13,800 kilometres per second (4.6 per cent of the speed of light). At even higher speeds, the probe would simply overshoot the star.

During its stellar encounter, the probe would not only be repelled by the stellar radiation, but it would also be attracted by the star's gravitational field. This effect could be used to deflect it around the star. These swing-by-manoeuvres have been performed numerous times by space probes in our solar system. "In our nominal mission scenario, the probe would take a little less than 100 years or about twice as long as the Voyager probes have now been travelling. And these machines from the 1970s are still operational," says Michael Hippke.

The video will load shortly

Theoretically, the autonomous, active light sail proposed by Heller and Hippke could settle into a bound orbit around Alpha Centauri A and possibly explore its planets. However, the two scientists are thinking even bigger. Alpha Centauri is a triple star system. The two binary stars A and B revolve around their common centre of mass in a relatively close orbit, while the third star, Proxima Centauri, is 0.22 light years away, more than 12,500 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth.

The sail could be configured so that the stellar pressure from star A brakes and deflects the probe toward Alpha Centauri B, where it would arrive after just a few days. The sail would then be slowed again and catapulted towards Proxima Centauri, where it would arrive after another 46 years about 140 years after its launch from Earth.

Proxima Centauri caused a sensation in August 2016 when astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) discovered an exoplanet companion that is about as massive as the Earth and that orbits the star in its so-called habitable zone. This makes it theoretically possible for liquid water to exist on its surface water being a key prerequisite for life on Earth.

"This finding prompted us to think about the possibility of stopping a high-velocity interstellar lightsail at Proxima Centauri and its planet," says Ren Heller. The Max Planck researcher and his colleague propose another change to the strategy for the Starshot project: instead of a huge energy-hungry laser, the Sun's radiation could be used to accelerate a nanoprobe beyond the solar system. "It would have to approach the Sun to within about five solar radii to acquire the necessary momentum," Heller says.

The two astronomers are now discussing their concept with the members of the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, to whom they owe the inspiration for their study. "Our new mission concept could yield a high scientific return, but only the grandchildren of our grandchildren would receive it. Starshot, on the other hand, works on a timescale of decades and could be realized in one generation. So we might have identified a longterm, follow-up concept for Starshot," Heller says.

Although the new scenario is based on a mathematical study and computer simulations, the proposed hardware of the sail is already being developed in laboratories today: "The sail could be made of graphene, an extremely thin and light but mega-tough carbon film," Ren Heller says. The film would have to be blanketed by a highly reflective cover to endure the harsh conditions of deep space and the heat near the destination star.

The optical and electronic systems would have to be tiny. But if you were to remove all the unnecessary components from a modern smartphone, "only a few grams of functional technology would remain." Moreover, the lightweight spacecraft would have to navigate independently and transmit its data to Earth by laser. To do so, it would need energy, which it could harness from the stellar radiation.

Breakthrough Starshot therefore poses daunting challenges that have so far only been solved theoretically. Nevertheless, "many great visions in the history of mankind had to struggle with seemingly insurmountable obstacles," Heller says. "We could soon be entering an era in which humans can leave their own star system to explore exoplanets using fly-by missions."

Explore further: Image: Hubble's best image of Alpha Centauri A and B

More information: Heller, R., & Hippke, M. (2017) "Deceleration of high-velocity interstellar sails into bound orbits at Alpha Centauri", The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 835, L32, DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/835/2/L32

The closest star system to the Earth is the famous Alpha Centauri group. Located in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), at a distance of 4.3 light-years, this system is made up of the binary formed by the stars ...

ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. Such planets could be the ...

A very rare gravitational lensing event, set to occur in 2028, has been predicted by a team of French astronomers led by Pierre Kervella of the CNRS/Universidad de Chile. It will provide an ideal opportunity to look for evidence ...

Scientists are preparing to unveil a new planet in our galactic neighbourhood which is "believed to be Earth-like" and orbits its star at a distance that could favour life, German weekly Der Spiegel reported Friday.

The hunt for exoplanets has been heating up in recent years. Since it began its mission in 2009, over four thousand exoplanet candidates have been discovered by the Kepler mission, several hundred of which have been confirmed ...

With the completion of New Horizons' Pluto fly-by, its primary mission, should we now set our sights even higher, ambitiously taking aim at other star systems? If so, Alpha Centauri would probably be considered as the best ...

The CO2 level in Mars' primitive atmosphere 3.5 billion years ago was too low for sediments, such as those found by NASA's Curiosity exploration vehicle in areas like the Gale Crater on the planet's equator, to be deposited. ...

(Phys.org)A European team of astronomers led by Oscar Barragn of the University of Turin in Italy reports the discovery of a low-mass warm Jupiter extrasolar planet orbiting a nearby K-type main-sequence star. The newly ...

A giant black hole ripped apart a nearby star and then continued to feed off its remains for close to a decade, according to research led by the University of New Hampshire. This black hole meal is more than 10 times longer ...

Galaxies today fall roughly into two categories: elliptically-shaped collections of reddish, old stars that formed predominantly during a period early in the history of the universe, and spiral shaped objects dominated by ...

An experimental Japanese mission to clear 'space junk' or rubbish from the Earth's orbit has ended in failure, officials said Monday, in an embarassment for Tokyo.

(Phys.org)A team of space researchers with members from Yale University, MIT and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has found a bump in X-ray readings from the Chandra-X-ray observatory that appears to be ...

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100grams is also pretty ambitious (as it includes the weight of the sail). Graphene weighs 0.77milligrams per square meter. So 100k square meter sail already 77g If you add any kind of reflective layer this will be WAY over the 100g mark. And you need some structural elements to make sure it doesn't collapse under the pressure of the radiation for accelerating/decelerating it.

The StarChip probe package is envisioned at a few grams with a 'compact laser for data transmission'. However I've not seen anyone mention how such a small laser can transmit data over 4 light years.

Sure, the 100 gram useless piece of space junk will be a $100Mil monument to the dumbass ego. Hopefully no aliens will notice it (only 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000012 chance they will, as no one lives in Alpha Centauri system).

What level of drag do you get from this size sail, from the thin interstellar medium? How do you compensate for the unknown medium and wind particulates drag near proxima?

Yes, to say the least, this presented concept is problematic. The asteroid belt contains sufficient kinetic energy to send a much larger probe out at as high or higher speed with far greater safety. Why don't they use that? Asteroids are just sitting there waiting for someone clever enough to start bouncing things around, so to speak. The physics is Newtonian for crying out loud.

I really have no idea how such a small probe can pack all of the systems needed for this probe to be worth while. How is it generating power, storing it, keeping itself warm. What about redundant systems for when a cosmic particle crashes through the probes electronics? Can the probe receive over the air software updates in order to fix the software glitch the system will no doubt be launched with. Can we really track this probe to sufficient accuracy in order to perform corrective trajectory manoeuvres? What bit rate can you achieve from such a tiny, low powered (where's the power coming from) laser? Is it possible to point lasers so accurate we can hit this probe from Earth, 4 light years away??? Surely bi-directional communication is required. Better not need to update the probe in a hurry, 4 years is some savage communication lag!!!!! Unfurling and furling of the sail repeatedly and probe stabilisation during the process...... GOOD F_cking luck with that!!!!!!

Even the swarm-antenna idea doesn't quite work as at the speed and how they are being sent they would only remain in a viable configuration for a tiny amount of time.

This article is about a much slower speed mission which I think might be impractical based on limited attention span of civilization. Also the possibility that we'll have much better propulsion systems before the probe could get there - the probe could find itself being passed by tourist ships on the way to the same destination. 😉

The gravitational focus concept is fascinating because it implies low power interstellar communications are possible. Alas, still limited to lightspeed.

You can graph the time it takes at which a probe (or manned craft) could get there. You can also graph the time it takes each time we double the capabilities of our thrust systems. By those graphs it currently makes no sense to launch, because technological advance will make a craft that is launched *later* arrive there earlier.

We shouldn't be concerned with how we get information back with technology we could make now. We should look to how to get information back at a time when we are close to the break-even point of "travel time vs. tech advance"

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See the article here:

Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown at Alpha Centauri - Phys.Org