How to get us to another star system 40,000 billion kilometers from Stephen Hawking Earth

Stephen Hawking is supporting the plan to send a small spacecraft just to the iPhone to another star system in just a generation.

They will move trillions of miles, farther than any previous spacecraft.

A $ 100 million research program to develop "spacecraft" the size of computer chips proposed by billionaire Yuri Milner, then received support by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Interstellar travel has long been a dream of many people, but there are still clear technological barriers.

Solar sail.

But Professor Hawking told BBC News that the dream could be made earlier than we thought.

"If we want to survive as a species, we obviously have to reach far more distant stars , " he said.

Astronomers believe there is still an opportunity for an Earth-like planet to orbit one of Alpha Centauri's star systems. But we will know more than that in the next two decades from terrestrial astronomy and the universe.

"Technology development in the last two decades and the future will make this a reality in just one generation."

Professor Hawking is backing for a project from Milner's Breakthrough Fund, a private organization that funds scientific research that is thought to be too ambitious by government sponsors.

Expert group

The organization has evaluated a group of scientific experts to see if it is possible to develop a spacecraft that can travel to other stellar systems in just one generation and resubmit the information.

The nearest star system is about 40 trillion km away. Using current technology will take about 30,000 years to get there.

The expert team concluded that just a little more research and development, making spacecraft can reduce travel time to only 30 years is possible.

"Even a few years ago I once said that traveling to another star system at such a speed is unimaginable," said Dr. Pete Worden, who is leading this project. He is the president of the Breakthrough Award Fund and former examiner of NASA's Ames Research Center in California.

Professor Hawking thinks interstellar travel can transform itself from a dream to a reality.

"But the expert team has come up with an idea that might be possible because of the development in technology ."

The idea here is to minimize the size of the spacecraft by just one chip used in electronic devices. Thousands of tiny spacecraft will be launched into Earth orbit. Each ship will have a solar sail.

This is like a sail on a boat - but pushed by light rather than by wind. A giant laser from Earth will provide powerful repulsion, traveling them and reaching speeds equal to 20% of the speed of light.

It sounds like science fiction but Yuri Milner, who was named by Yuri Gagarin by her parents, believed that it was technically feasible to develop these spacecraft and go to other star systems only in our life cycle.

"The story of humanity has always been great leaps and bounds," he said. "Fifty-five years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first person to fly to space. Now we are preparing for the next leap - to the stars."

Challenging work

There are still many issues to overcome before the first spacecraft capable of interstellar travel is erected.

They will include tiny cameras, devices and sensors that can fit into a chip, develop a solid solar sail that can withstand a powerful laser for minutes and figure out how to send images and information of the new star system to Earth.

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting, a researcher at Surrey Space Center and the head of Surrey Satellite Technology in Guildford, wishes to participate in this project.

30 years ago he founded a company that reduced the cost and size of satellites.

"A lot of the things we did in the 1980s are thought to be very eccentric, but now small satellites are in vogue. This project (project to another star system) is now an idea. It sounds crazy but technology is still evolving and now it is not crazy at all, simply difficulties , " he said.

Voyager 1 is still a human being making the longest journey from Earth.

Professor Andrew Coates of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, of the University of London, agrees that the project will be challenging, but not impossible.

"There will be obvious difficulties to address issues such as cosmic radiation and dust from the environment, device sensitivity, interaction of high-power lasers with the Earth's atmosphere, ship stability. and energy supply ".

"But this is an idea worth considering to see if we can really go to other star systems only in the life cycle of mankind."

But Professor Hawking believes that what used to be a vain dream can and must become a reality in just 30 years.

"Nothing is more desirable than the stars. It's not wise to keep all of our eggs in a delicate basket , " he said.

"Life on Earth will face dangers from astronomical events like asteroids or a meteor."