{"id":19410,"date":"2016-04-12T21:01:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-12T13:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/billionaire-yuri-milner-unveils-100-million-start-on-starshot-mission-to-alpha-centauri\/"},"modified":"2016-04-12T21:01:29","modified_gmt":"2016-04-12T13:01:29","slug":"billionaire-yuri-milner-unveils-100-million-start-on-starshot-mission-to-alpha-centauri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/billionaire-yuri-milner-unveils-100-million-start-on-starshot-mission-to-alpha-centauri\/","title":{"rendered":"Billionaire Yuri Milner unveils $100 million start on Starshot mission to Alpha Centauri"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_243353\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-243353\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-243353\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-spacesail-630x453.jpg\" alt=\"Light sail\" width=\"630\" height=\"453\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-spacesail-630x453.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-spacesail-768x553.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-spacesail.jpg 945w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-243353\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An artist\u2019s conception shows how a laser beam could propel a light sail outward toward Alpha Centauri. (Credit: Breakthrough Starshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fueled by an initial $100 million from Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, a&nbsp;team laden with big names laid out a multi-decade plan to send flurries of smartphone-sized probes to the Alpha Centauri system, powered by laser-driven light sails.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the first time in human history, we can do more than just gaze at the stars,\u201d Milner said today at a New York news conference where the&nbsp;Breakthrough Starshot&nbsp;project was unveiled. \u201cWe can actually reach them. It is time to launch the next great leap in human history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"icon-quotes-left\"><\/span>&nbsp;If we are to survive as a species, we must ultimately spread to the stars.<span class=\"icon-quotes-right\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the plan will require billions of dollars more in funding&nbsp;\u2013 and much more planning as well. But the Starshot team boasts some top-drawer supporters: In addition to Milner, the board includes British physicist Stephen Hawking and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.<\/p>\n<p>During the news briefing, Hawking noted that&nbsp;life on Earth faces risks ranging from asteroid strikes to human-caused catastrophes. \u201cIf we are to survive as a species, we must ultimately spread to the stars,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The project\u2019s executive director is Pete Worden, who previously headed NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center. Today he said he\u2019s already spoken with NASA officials about the plan. \u201cThey\u2019re very eager to support us,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Worden also announced that another project backed by Milner and Hawking, Breakthrough Listen, is releasing the first batch of&nbsp;data from its radio- and optical-based search for signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. Radio data from the Green Bank Telescope&nbsp;will be made available for citizen scientists to analyze using Berkeley\u2019s SETI@home software.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re going to make this all available to the public,\u201d Worden said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Breakthrough Starshot Animation (Clip)\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/wMkWGN1G6Kg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Starshot project calls for developing a new breed of interstellar \u201cnanoprobe,\u201d consisting of a credit-card-sized, camera-equipped StarChip and an ultra-thin light sail weighing just a fraction of an ounce. Each nanoprobe would be&nbsp;built for less than the cost of a smartphone, the project\u2019s organizers said in a concept description.<\/p>\n<p>Thousands&nbsp;of folded-up probes would be&nbsp;rocketed&nbsp;into space and dispersed to unfurl their&nbsp;sails. Then a&nbsp;100-gigawatt&nbsp;battery of laser-equipped antennas, known as the Light Beamer, would shoot powerful light beams at the sails. The phased-array lasers would fire&nbsp;a minutes-long blast at each probe,&nbsp;propelling them to 20 percent of the speed of light.<\/p>\n<p>Starshot\u2019s advisers figure that it would&nbsp;take 20 years to develop the fleets of nanoprobes. Once they\u2019re launched, the probes would have to travel for another 20 years to reach Alpha Centauri, which is 4 light-years away.<\/p>\n<p>During the trip, the nanoprobes would use miniaturized lasers to send imagery and other data back to Earth. The Light Beamer antenna array would be converted to receive rather than send signals. It would take four years for those signals to make their way back to Earth from the Alpha Centauri flyby.<\/p>\n<p>The pictures should be good enough to reveal variations&nbsp;on any planets in the Alpha Centauri system, and potentially signs of life, Milner said.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_243407\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-243407\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-243407\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-milner-630x406.jpg\" alt=\"Yuri Milner and StarChip\" width=\"630\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-milner-630x406.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-milner-768x495.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-milner-1240x799.jpg 1240w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/160412-milner.jpg 1576w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-243407\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Russian billionaire Yuri Milner shows off a prototype for a chip-sized probe that could be sent to Alpha Centauri. (Credit: Breakthrough Starshot)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Milner acknowledged that the plan will stretch the world\u2019s technological&nbsp;capabilities. \u201cThere are major engineering challenges to solve,\u201d he said. For example, the plan assumes that electronic miniaturization trends will continue over the next 20 years. The plan&nbsp;also assumes the world\u2019s nations will permit the construction of a potentially satellite-killing&nbsp;laser&nbsp;array that Dr. Evil would envy.<\/p>\n<p>Although the mission plan sounds incredible, Breakthrough Starshot is likely to get a boost of credibility from its backers, starting with Milner. The Russian entrepreneur and philanthropist has a net worth estimated at more than $3 billion, due in part to his early investments in Facebook and Twitter. Starshot\u2019s managers and advisers include Martin Rees, Britain\u2019s astronomer royal; theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, who came up with a nuclear-powered plan for interstellar travel in the 1960s; former NASA astronaut Mae Jemison, who heads the 100 Year Starship Project; and Ann Druyan, astronomer Carl Sagan\u2019s widow and the keeper of the \u201cCosmos\u201d flame.<\/p>\n<p>Harvard astrophysicist Avi Loeb, who chairs Starshot\u2019s advisory committee, voiced confidence that the project would yield results.&nbsp;\u201cWe don\u2019t see any showstoppers, any deal-breakers, based on fundamental physics principles,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"lsembed_1460486086\" src=\"\/\/livestream.com\/accounts\/18650072\/events\/5143435\/videos\/119250258\/player?width=631&amp;height=355&amp;autoPlay=false&amp;mute=false\" width=\"631\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An artist\u2019s conception shows how a laser beam could propel a light sail outward toward Alpha Centauri. (Credit: Breakthrough Starshot) Fueled by an initial $100 million from Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, a&nbsp;team laden with big names laid out a multi-decade plan to send flurries of smartphone-sized probes to the Alpha Centauri system, powered by laser-driven [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3752,3753,4652,3755,3756],"class_list":["post-19410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-alpha-centauri","tag-breakthrough-starshot","tag-interstellar-flight","tag-stephen-hawking","tag-yuri-milner"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}