Breakthrough Starshot Initiative *Live Feed HAS ENDED*

[rodion_herrera]

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

Breakthrought Starshot Initiative is a project to send NanoProbes to Alpha Centauri. Watch now!

Edited April 12, 2016 by rodion_herrera

[Robotengineer]

*Watches people talking about SETI*—> *Glances at chat*—> *Wonders if we count as intelligent life forms*

Edited April 12, 2016 by Robotengineer

[PB666]

I had the same thought for a star ship many years ago, the idea of supplying energy from lasers.  Thevproblem is getting sufficient acceleration within a window of time that would be relevant. They intent to accelerate at 600000  m/s using a powerful laser from earth, theoretically possible, technically difficult given the strenth snd bulk of materials required to sustain such forces. Carbon fiber and titanium rotors can sustain the force and could be test beds, but for tethering a PL to a sail.. The second problem is targeting from earths imperfect surface through an inperfect atmosphere to something that is moving at 0.1c at great distances, remember the ship is pulsed once a day, it travels 80 minutes between sun an earth about 120 minutes to mars, we are talking about targeting between Earth with a laser to kuiper belt objects as part of the final accelerations from the Earths surface through the atmosphere.  Techically that is a pretty tall order. 

[rodion_herrera]

Live feed has ended. For those who are completely blank on this, this was a live press con on the Breakthrough Starshot Initatives Project, outlined here:

http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/4

[Canopus]

I would never have thought that i could potentially see pictures of Planets in another Solar system in my lifetime. This is pretty exciting.

[insert_name]

10 minutes ago, Canopus said:

I would never have thought that i could potentially see pictures of Planets in another Solar system in my lifetime. This is pretty exciting.

we have a decent cloud map of Kepler 7b already

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-7b

[rodion_herrera]

Replay of the entire PressCon can now be viewed here (duration: 1 hour and 17 mins): http://livestream.com/breakthroughprize/starshot/videos/119250258

[PB666]

19 minutes ago, rodion_herrera said:

Live feed has ended. For those who are completely blank on this, this was a live press con on the Breakthrough Starshot Initatives Project, outlined here:

http://breakthroughinitiatives.org/News/4

I see that each pulse is for a single ship, apparently pearch in an inclined geo orbit, fired upon by massive laser, since AC is in southern sky it woukd have to be a southern high altitude point. 

 

Better idea, move ISS into super GSO orbit mount laser on ISS, expand the solar arrays when retired, fill the iside with lithium ion batteries, and fire on ships from point blank range using say 10,000 g instead of 60,000 g. Alternative move the ISS to L1, easier to get to from earth lower omega, more stable targeting. 

 

[HebaruSan]

18 minutes ago, insert_name said:

we have a decent cloud map of Kepler 7b already

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-7b

Quote

Jonathan Fortney, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, said: "These clouds may well be composed of rock and iron, since the planet is over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (500 degrees Celsius)."

That blew my mind. Iron clouds! If only it could also support a lead zeppelin.

[AngelLestat]

Well, I am an advocate to beamed sail propulsion since long ago and I am trying to explain and share this perspective with the forum since 2012. 
Lately I change my idea to interstellar solar sail probes, they achieve less speed  (7% c) but they can brake on destination using the same sun dive technique and you dont need a laser array.
The only thing that solar light pressure it may not be so constant and uniform as a laser array, but the acceleration is also weaker.

My idea was also based in cheap and redundancy, with similar development time.

But yeah... no propellent methods with high acceleration was always the way to reach the stars, at cheap cost and with a development time line which has useful intermediate applications. 

 

55 minutes ago, PB666 said:

Better idea, move ISS into super GSO orbit mount laser on ISS, expand the solar arrays when retired, fill the iside with lithium ion batteries, and fire on ships from point blank range using say 10,000 g instead of 60,000 g. Alternative move the ISS to L1, easier to get to from earth lower omega, more stable targeting. 

A laser in GSO can put at risk to the half of earth, also the cost increase a lot.

[Spaceception]

OMG!! We might get a signal from a man-made interstellar probe in 40 years!

http://gizmodo.com/astronomers-found-evidence-for-exoplanets-70-years-ago-1770485757

 

[Frybert]

Duplicate threads merged.

[daniel l.]

Yuri Milner a russian venture capitalist has announced plans to send probes to alpha centauri, He wants to send hundreds of tiny laser propelled solar sails, They would take twenty years to reach alpha centauri and four years to send back data, And the time for photos and experiments would last only one day. But im hoping to see a beauty shot of two stars dancing around each other with a third sitting out in the distance  

http://www.popsci.com/yuri-milner-wants-to-blast-thousands-little-spaceships-to-alpha-centauri

Edited April 12, 2016 by daniel l.

[Butterbar]

Before team pessimism gets here, I will wish him the best of luck in all aspects.  It's good to see that not all people see the world through only profit margins, and if he is successful, then humanity has taken a great stride forwards to becoming a spacefaring civilization.  

[Frybert]

3 hours ago, Frybert said:

Duplicate threads merged.

And again.

[HebaruSan]

25 minutes ago, Frybert said:

And again.

It does make the forum much more readable, so thanks, your efforts are appreciated.

[YNM]

Wish them luck ! While I often agree with pessimist, much like how most inventor doesn't even know economy well, maybe inventions won't be here if we always restrain ourselves to economic point of view...

[Empiro]

I hope the idea takes off. One thing I like about the idea is that after the initial design phase, it can be done incrementally. It's not an all-or-nothing endeavor.

Maybe we don't immediately build a giant array that allows a probe to get to 20% light-speed. Maybe we don't build a probe that is small enough to weigh 1 gram. We can instead build a modest sized array, and a larger probe, and maybe propel it to .1% light speed. That would still be sufficient to explore the outer planets, perform flybys of 90377 Sedna and many other KBOs (like the possible Planet 9) within months or years instead of decades.

[PB666]

37 minutes ago, YNM said:

Wish them luck ! While I often agree with pessimist, much like how most inventor doesn't even know economy well, maybe inventions won't be here if we always restrain ourselves to economic point of view...

Luck, the good is they are not saying next year, or the year after, they are saying lets start assembling the chain of resources now and in twenty years enough stuff should be in place where it is doable, while i critique what there plan is today, theygive themselves a chance to modify it and evolve, as any such projects evolve.

What i am keen on is that they say they will set intermediate goals, such as targets in our system, planet 9 as a potential example, so if they can do this in five or ten years, then we can see the progress and see what their self-critical process. 

The most important thing is the process not the exact details of the  plan, the process as i see it is to take the most mass conscious technology and couple it to a based energy supply is one way to handle the problem, see other thread, you don't have to take the energy supply or the reaction mass with you. The bad news its only suitable for fly-bye. 

If they are going to pulse 100 ships, i would have it that first the ships were sent out and reported back at intervals, so that if there are problems in communication or viability they don't find out after the nanoprobes have traveled for 20 years. 

[Shpaget]

I don't see how a "gram scale" probe (whatever that means) can be capable of transmitting a signal powerful enough for our ground stations to interpret, from light years away.

I'd also like to see their concept for attitude control. 

[Canopus]

4 hours ago, Shpaget said:

I don't see how a "gram scale" probe (whatever that means) can be capable of transmitting a signal powerful enough for our ground stations to interpret, from light years away.

I'd also like to see their concept for attitude control. 

The Japanese IKAROS Spacecraft controlled its attitude through changing the reflectivity of LCD panels in the Sail. Maybe they will use a similar method https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKAROS. Gram scale probably means that it weighs no more than a kilo. As for communication i think they said that the probe will use a small laser that can be picked up by the Laser emitter on earth which can be used in reverse as an optical telescope.

Edited April 13, 2016 by Canopus

[p1t1o]

10 hours ago, Butterbar said:

Before team pessimism gets here...

You rang? Sorry Im late, busy day...

Another interstellar project that requires a super-weapon to be built, not going to hold my breath.

[1of6Billion]

https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover/status/719924081655611392

Edited April 13, 2016 by 1of6Billion
no embedding

[Robotengineer]

3 hours ago, 1of6Billion said:

https://twitter.com/SarcasticRover/status/719924081655611392

When I hear wheelchair-bound genius I think of this guy:

Spoiler

Not Stephen Hawking. After all, Stephen Hawking's chair is not your average wheelchair. 

Edited April 13, 2016 by Robotengineer

[Darnok]

So if we would build Moon base with huge laser and target someone on Earth we could kill her/him?

Would it be possible to destroy or damage car (Tesla), planes, rockets, missiles and satellites from Earth or Moon orbit, with such strong laser and so precise targeting system?

EDIT: disabling power grid for cities from orbit would be possible?

Edited April 13, 2016 by Darnok