From Earth to Proxima Centauri in 20 Years: The Project Breakthrough Starshot

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In 2016, the La Silla Observatory in Chile identified Proxima b, the closest exoplanet known to us today: it orbits in the habitable belt of its own star, Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf located 4.2 light years away. from us, in the direction of the Centaurus constellation.
Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri system, a triple system consisting of a yellow dwarf and an orange dwarf very close to each other and from Proxima. Proxima is a red dwarf, probably the most widespread stellar type in the Milky Way
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The Breakthrough Starshot, is a project , the goal is to move From Earth to Proxima Centauri in 20 Years.
According to statistics, it is estimated that Proxima Centauri produces flares of this magnitude at least five times a year. Evryscope, a series of small telescopes that observe the stars in the southern hemisphere, detected a superflare that made Proxima 70 times brighter in 2016.
The planetary system of Proxima Centauri have inspired several projects. Among the best known, the Breakthrough Starshot, also born from the Breakthrough Initiatives. Starshot is a research and engineering project announced in 2016 and born to develop a fleet of sailing interstellar probes and laser propulsion. It was founded by Yuri Milner, Stephen Hawking and Mark Zuckerberg. In 2017, NASA also proposed a probe to look for biosignatures on the planets around the stars of the Alpha Centauri system. The launch, taking place by 2069, would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission.
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Credits: Ron Miller
Credits: Mark A. Garlick / MarkGarlick.com
Credits: Nasa/Shutterstock/Storyblocks/Elon Musk/SpaceX/ESA/ESO
Credits: Flickr
#InsaneCuriosity #ProximaCentauri #Alphacentauri

[@InsaneCuriosity]

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[@jwarmstrong]

An interstellar dream when we haven't setup a base on the moon , mars & other planets moons - plus we need to search the Kulper Belt & Oort Cloud for rock/comets that might squish us in the next few decades

[@ciprianionpau4126]

I totally disagree! The US had less than 15 minutes in space when president JFK delivered his famous speech. 8 and a half years later, Armstrong walks on the Moon! Successfull (space) programs are based on fantastic dreams!

[@sakesithole6295]

@@ciprianionpau4126 yes you are totally on point!!

[@tauempire1793]

I mean we can as we've discovered 20 percent of the ocean and we are discovering more due to the advancement of technology, we have sent rockets and rovers to the Moon and Mars. The only reason we haven't established a base is because we don't need to currently meaning it would be a waste of resources in all fairness and we aren't exactly on the whole humanity is united spectrum. You's be surprised in what humans can fo in a decade to a 100 years we had hand made stone tools and dveloped all the way to electronics like this to making white boards. This shows that we definitely have a possibility to do this.

[@jayjayn007]

So it's great we're to go super speeds. BUT then there are aateroids/comets and space junk in the way! The issue when going hyper speeds is that you can't pull brakes and expect to slow down to avoid the collision. At such speeds even small rocks can be lethal to a spaceship

[@kremlinbasement7768]

@@ciprianionpau4126 Armstrong didn't see stars 😏

[@Ryan-ps5xc]

I know the Apollo astronauts had severe emotional and psychological issues upon returning to the earth. One became a recluse and others turned to alcohol and drugs. They found it to be psychologically damaging for a person to be so far away from earth. Even if the person knew he would be returning.

[@GadreelAdvocat]

Might be an idea to put a RTG laser satellite around Uranus to give solar sails a boost. If the craft is sent towards Uranus, due to Uranus rotation/tilt a satellite rotating around it could beam light continuously to the craft for as long as possible.

[@justinb.2510]

Definitely will have to be a ship built in space purely for deep space missions.

[@jamesdennis6120]

Can you imagine a miscalculation error that once there, the last photo that reaches us is one of intelligent life forms right before this crashes into their planet and destroys almost everything there, but somehow this space craft still held onto earthling dna that spawns us all again. Then the origins would be about a prehistoric humanoid species existed once before but an astroid must have came out of nowhere and wiped out most of the species, while the other portion was greatly affected due to exposure of some subsequent ice age (or catastrophic change in the environment) that wiped out almost all of the rest of the species there. Then the dna that survived from earth, over the millions of years of evolution, started adapting and incorporating the local lifeforms building blocks to survive; leading to dna that is quite similar to the local species. Enough to believe that we all had the same origin, but, we are unable to find enough data to suggest the original link after some point in our history tree. That would be nuts haha.

[@johnnyblobani7700]

Holy crap

[@colton4145]

This happened to my buddy Eric one time

[@Mrjackietreehorn]

Not only would the astronauts not be able to return to Earth but they would not even reach their destination except for the final generation that is lucky enough to be born during that time. We’re taking about 6300 years traveling 7 hundredths of 1 percent the speed of light. 6300 years of human evolution in an environment like a tiny interstellar spacecraft would inevitably change the crews looks and everything that makes us thrive here on Earth. They would probably be smaller and weaker but maybe live longer. Very interesting concept to think about.

[@chandru8688]

Informative.. thanks 😀

[@Spooferish]

Question s, 1) How much time sail needs to reach to this speed? 2) What happens once sail reach out of solar system I mean less photons gonna reach sail means less acceleration. 3) what happens when it get close to Proxima solar system as compared to Sun as sail will receive more photons Proxima's Star on the opposite side then front 4) what happens if sale is created by Semiconductor single item so it generate electricity as well and use ionic thrusters to increase speed, will we able to increase its speed may be 99.999% and reach promixma B faster?

[@-TurkiFaisalMAlAyesh]

For question 1 it is supposed to reach that speed in 1 hour after the launch

[@olivierdeplanques708]

Good video. is it possible with quantum entranglement to communicate instantly with a space vessel in travel from earth to proxima?

[@Sedativ]

No. Decoherence stands in the way.

[@ibnorml]

​@@Sedativ For now. If it can be done eventually, it will be done.

[@rancidbeef582]

No, you cannot send information faster than light using entangled particles.

[@typicalmountainbiker]

@@rancidbeef582 why not

[@rancidbeef582]

@@typicalmountainbiker If Alice and Bob each have a box with entangled objects in a superposition of, say, 0 or 1, and Alice looks in her box, there is a 50% chance she'll see a 0 or 1. At that point, she will know what is in Bob's box too. But Bob won't know what is in his box until he opens it. At that point, he has no way of knowing if Alice has already opened her box or not, so for him it's still a 50% chance of seeing either. So no information is really sent. You could even do the same thing by randomly putting a left or right glove from a pair in the boxes, but not looking to see who got which until Bob is far away.

[@lean.1762]

Imagine if there is an alien race there that says the same thing about our solar system and that earth could have life, and then detecting a probe from that direction in that system

[@amangogna68]

Great video !

[@jr-pl9kj]

this is where warp drive or light speed drive like in star trek and star wars would be practical for maned space exploration, unmaned spacecraft would be the best solution for a no return mission. imo

[@oldschooldiy3240]

Interstellar travel for mankind is logistically impossible without a "FTL" star drive of some sort! It just takes too much to keep a human alive that would be impossible to provide in interstellar space!

[@sakesithole6295]

Unless the Alcaberre warp drive is fully operational by the next century

[@mrguy1073]

@@sakesithole6295 it won't be trust me the solar system will be enough for a long time believe me there are so many beautiful things in our solar neighborhood

[@ImSheJoh]

@@sakesithole6295 Can't say much about next century because we still are a type 0 civilization we still haven't reached to type 1 where we can harness the entire energy of earth let alone type 2 where we can use the entire energy of our sun so maybe in next 5 or 10 century we can achieve alcaberre warp drive but in the next century of something like that happening is next to impossible

[@phonyfelony3935]

hmm wonder how fast that thing would go to mars.

[@mrguy1073]

weeks days a mouth at most but it would have no way to slow down

[@HammerRocks]

If you're about to watch this video because of the clickbait title, The Project Breakthrough Starshot, then don't bother. There are better videos in KZbin that covers this project in greater detail. I watched this video as I thought this was an update on the status of The Project Breakthrough Starshot. Instead, the topic doesn't starts until 5:40 and the Project Breakthrough Starshot piece is covered for only a little over a 2 mins (out of a nearly 13 min video). There are better videos out in KZbin that covers the Starshot project in more detail.

[@jssomewhere6740]

The breakthrough star shot. Is something that doesn't look anything like sending people. So it is true that we must limit weight when getting off Earth. Yet as it has been shown by the space station we can assemble in space. Once out of the gravitational hold of the earth many things become possible. There can be a combination of sails, gravity assist, and other types of propulsion. This means the ship would not need as small as you describe. Really the biggest problem is Shields. Protecting the ship becomes exponentially more difficult the faster you go. Assuming that shields can be built. 10% LS is possible. If shields will protect even faster could be reached. Some of the same could be used to slow the ship. Also the same could be used to power a return trip. Some of the pieces of the puzzle are not at present an off the shelf item but they are in a stage close enough to be realistic. The ship could have gravity from spin or acceleration and deceleration. So it seems it's still some way off yet not traveling in the manner described. Your way would be beyond terrible and one way. I am forced to believe if we were to plan a trip it would be a round trip. So speed and shields are a must.

[@lewis7515]

I don't think you need to worry about any of these problems for at least 2,000 years, so relax.

[@jssomewhere6740]

@@lewis7515 I don't feel the need to relax. If you have anything constructive to add please do. If your point is to say nothing well you've got that covered already.

[@lewis7515]

@@jssomewhere6740 What you feel you need is nothing to do with me and is nothing to do with the point being made - and, even if it were true that I'd said nothing, that would still have more value than the meandering nonsense of empty platitudes and barely-coherent rambling you've strung together, here. How's about that?

[@jssomewhere6740]

@@lewis7515 See this is the thing, you could have, after reading what I said, added something of value. I am apparently giving credit where none should be given. Sorry I didn't mean to over tax you. I should have realized that if you had something to say, that would added, you probably would have.

[@lewis7515]

@@jssomewhere6740 On this basis what the thing most closely resembles is just more of the exact, simple and selfsame, basic nonsense that you started with. At least you're consistent.

[@council4950]

One who goes would have to be very young so that when arrived. They would still be a young man or woman who can live there with knowledge learned on the way. And wouldn't die right away cuz of old age.

[@deesnutz5576]

Me thinks speed slows time somewhat... may help 🤷‍♂️

[@dritemolawzbks8574]

@@deesnutz5576 Their proper time would slow down, but if wouldn't be significant. An estimate would be close to 20 years passing on Earth and 19 passing for the vessel traveling to Proxima Centauri.

[@TJtheHuman]

What if a group of scientists and engineers made a subculture or even a tribe of people who always live and work on scientific outposts? Part of becoming an adult is meeting and maintaining the qualifications to live and work in a scientific outposts, especially raising a family there if you so choose. Maybe they would be the best for longterm space missions.

[@ckotty]

Thanks 👍🏽😘

[@anurag9385]

Any book recommendations for getting started?

[@davidrandell2224]

“The Final Theory: Rethinking Our Scientific Legacy “,Mark McCutcheon.

[@anurag9385]

@@davidrandell2224 thanks

[@BassedInVegas]

Why don’t we make this easy, for interstellar travel just use one of the saucers that are stored at Area 51. Although we probably are using them already.

[@kevingreen3781]

They probably already been to proxima B

[@dr.michaellittle5611]

It’s a actually a craft from Proxima billionaires

[@DALKINION]

Yep. I'm sure they've been further afield even

[@justinb.2510]

@@dr.michaellittle5611 Proxima B’llionaires

[@dr.michaellittle5611]

@@justinb.2510 👍👍👍

[@urothe7696]

response time up down would not be 4 years but 8 ! think before talk!

[@psychkosys]

I would love to live to see the first images of proxima sent back. I really hope I make it.

[@ap8409]

To get a space probe up to the speed required to get it there in 20 years would be kind of useless. It would be going so fast there would be no at to slow it down or stop it at Proxima. If you did a flyby again the speed would be so great, how would you get any photos?

[@jesusramirezromo2037]

I would assume Proxima Centaury's known dust cloud would slow down the probes when they are near the star

[@sazgarmuhammad8364]

this spacecraft project arrive to proxima centuri in 2060 then l will be 57 years old , l can see it , but the question is can we make faster starships then parker probe until 2060s? l hope we will arrive to proxima until 2100s

[@anaisroz]

Yeah, I want to explore proxima b.

[@williammay5300]

What about Alpha A and B?

[@armonrakhman3791]

We should send probes to all stars with in 12 light years from earth.

[@marufulislam4311]

when can we expect 4k or atleast 2k video in your channel??

[@InsaneCuriosity]

We hope as soon as possible

[@kovach1414]

if this project is carried out, most likely I will already be about 40 years old. now I'm 13, I dream of dying on another planet.

[@ERR0RR]

Your new intro is really epilepsy inducing

[@CutterMasterArt]

Sending humans is risky and with that comes a lot more to consider as it is mentioned in this video. One good solution would be to send Robots, using AI is a much more reasonable solution than sending humans. Robots can travel long distances without an issue, they can be shut down during the flight and turned back on when needed. They can create the habitat and the environment and report their progress time to time. More robots can be sent if needed. For now we need to work and develop intelligent robots to be able to accomplish this kind of mission for us. A return trip would also be more possible for robots.

[@dumitrulangham1721]

It would be interesting if life there and if so I think we call it tukun after whale in avatar 2

[@jacobsings]

...I would never want to leave earth forever!

[@souryajitrana5009]

this misson is about sending small space ships only a few cm in size not people

[@sprinter768]

Interstellar travel will be limited to robots. It would be inhumane to ask people to live their whole lives in space and probably unfeasible anyway.

[@filmsandshows8]

20 years? I think it is 500 years.

[@maxwalker1159]

Interesting

[@chrisw1462]

The title of your video suggests it's supposed to be about Project Breakthrough Starshot. But you spend the first half the video on discovery of and conditions on Proxima B, then _Less Than Two Minutes_ on the Project itself. Then off to pure speculation on human spaceflight. Maybe you should have named it, "We're Just Rambling On About Space Stuff".

[@davidczajkowski5956]

Interstellar travel is about 200 years off imo, unless space travel is totally overtaken by independent companies and not the likes of NASA. I would love to see even an unmanned probe make the trip in the next 20-40 years.

[@-TurkiFaisalMAlAyesh]

I’m tired of seeing people seeing humans as nothing more than slightly intelligent apes and not believing they will achieve anything

[@lennyrose5852]

Idk, if Spacex and potentially other independent companies are on the ball then maybe we’ll make a trip by the early 2100s

[@icarus387]

Private space companies will play a significant role in the development of future space travel. They might even be the juggernauts that surpasses any national space agency with a big presence in interplanetary space.

[@christophergreenwood2457]

Why don't they just build a lazor that sits in front of the sun so the sun would power it and you could send space craft to other planets in our own solar system a lot faster

[@niezdecytowana.k.a.2conten835]

Maybe *Not* so fast? We 1rst have to fix things of *ourself!*

[@MrBorceivanovski]

We are going to polute the whole Galaxy the Milky Way #&#

[@toniusbarth]

And, what about to break? You stop to push?

[@mosdesigner1]

With all shit going on the world i would not mind going to proxma b

[@TheKingOfSexyness]

Sounds like you're saying "Pronxima Centauri"....

[@protectork9831]

Just our luck . Closest star is shit hole just like closest planet Mars

[@IoanesRakhmat]

Why they not first create other forms of Homo sapiens, e.g., Homo sapiens as LIGHT ORGANISMS who can fly themselves at the speed of light, and then start in a new way infinite spacetime exploration? Thinking out-of-the-box is the way for human beings to becoming the intergalactic species.

[@mukonank783]

I feel like this sail will experience resistance in the heliosphere, slowing it down significantly or even stop it.

[@kjellin3818]

Whats a heliosphere?

[@mukonank783]

@@kjellin3818 I was trying to explain bt I think watching a video will help you to understand it better and appreciate it. But basically it's sort of a wall or layer made up of the solar winds released by the sun. Instead of the particles from the solar wind to continue moving to interstellar space some of them collide with particles released by other stars which ends up just making sor of a wall. If we didn't have it, strong rays from interstellar space would have reached our planet and possibly overpowered the planets magnetic fields and just end all life. But it's a really cool thing and it was only proven when the voyagers passed it.

[@thiswhoweare1949]

It's a place where you could say outer most layer of the sun's atmospheric layer of the sun

[@Prizzlesticks]

Try cutting down on 'write it in the comments' lines. Trust your audience, if interested in your content, will be interested in answering the questions without the extreme repetition of that line. It makes you sound less educational, less sincere, and less engaged, which I assume are all the antithesis of what you'd like your channel to be.

[@murrayzichlinsky7475]

But maybe it does have a magnetic field

[@racooninmytree]

Send me in i want to take the trip

[@lexluthor5655]

Why don't we build a space ship that can be shot out like slug from a barrel. Sort off like a huge 12 gauge shotgun space ship. 🤔 it could be a ship with 2 propulsion systems one for small travel and the shotgun blast for long distances.

[@supercoolmunkee]

*Video in title:* We can reach Proxima Centauri in 20 years *In the video:* We can reach Proxima Centauri in 30 years So which one is fact?

[@InfiniteDesign91]

Maybe in 300 years we can plan sending something there.

[@junaidmoody8342]

Doesn't it really make a difference

[@gamingandtechnologywithjun777]

S I want to go to proxima

[@TanRicky321]

I read this project won’t complete until the mid 2030’s 😒

[@pinklickpony7162]

It's amazing how quickly the time will pass. 🙂

[@justinb.2510]

I wish you guys used more visual numbers and comparisons rather than just the narrator saying so.

[@dothvideos3990]

😱😱😱

[@jasoncole9769]

People will be kicking themselves in few weeks if they miss the opportunity to buy and invest in bitcoin

[@jasoncole9769]

Investing in cryptocurrency is one of the best chance

[@bbcnews.1190]

Stocks are good crypto is better

[@amberwashington3350]

Yeah My first Investment with Edward Martin's me profits of over $24,320 US dollars and ever since then he has Been delivering

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[@christianmeyer9891]

He's obviously the best I invested 2000USD with him and in 9 days I made a profit of 9101USD

[@lukakrajina9192]

There are faster ways to die then to travel 20 years into space .....if u hate life so much why go through all the trouble why not just finish now?

[@FuriouslyFurious]

Not impossible, but we would definitely need a gigantic city like ship with some sort of artificial gravity. We're getting steps closer every year with the cost saving measures of sending mass into orbit with reusable rockets.

[@baarni]

Yeah Breakthrough Starshot will never happen....

[@anthonydilullo5794]

And what the f do u do when u get to Àlpha Centari by the way......turn around ? Vome back ?

[@rolypoly4920]

No, you wouldn't be coming back. The system would be your new home. The objective would be to mine and build bases around the system and populate them with more people. So overseeing your mining/construction bots and making babies, basically.

[@jameshonore1072]

by 2069!?!?!?!?!?! screw that! make it happen now! give these people the funding to make it happen !

[@ibnorml]

As long as the speed of light remains the limit to the speed of travel, the only viable way for humanity to travel to the stars is by very large, million-people generational ships that replicate the Earth's environment, including gravity. By the time we build that (100 years? 200 years?), humanity will be used to living in such a structure because they will be commonplace in our solar system. In fact, by that time human stellar exploration is a thing, it will be the reverse what we plan now (colonizing planets) in that the inhabitants will live on the ship and explore to the surface of the exo planet, but then return to home on the structure and continue on exploring further into space (ie. unlikely to set up a permanent colony on a newly discovered planet).

[@InfiniteDesign91]

Much like 500 or 1000 years

[@djminos2759]

You can travel faster than light if you stretch space time

[@ldubt4494]

Nonsens. Humanity is making less and less children, there is no need to send millions of people to far away star Systems. A terraformed mars is probably enough. Other star system will be purely for science. Not even for resources, because the solar system already has more resources than we will ever need in hundreds if not thousands of years. At most humanity might set up on a planet in the alpha centauri system if theres something terraformable.

[@kirstyc2176]

uuhhh, there's also the ethics of sending 98 - equal men and women to space to "breed"? what if some people change their mind? what about how horrible a life it is for the children? what about if they end up interbreeding? a birth goes wrong and there's not enough medical help? - so many negatives shows it's not really feasible, and would in fact be very cruel.

[@RaymondNok]

At least pronounce it right. It's with the accent on the O.

[@jeizache]

yaaap ☕

[@hammybunghole4275]

I,am calling total BS

[@cropunisher5879]

Just a dream

[@hujjatullahsahib380]

The Universe was created by God precisely for humans to foray within it. But are humans worthy of this Divine permission given their deplorable track record of having ruined their current role as custodians of Earth itself ?

[@dbrew2u]

Humans are to busy at the moment destroying Earth to be consumed by Interstellar Space Travel . Lets concentrate on fixing Our Home Planet before moving on shall we ?

[@goticofre]

We are always going to have problems here on earth, Is impossible to give all of them a solution, that fact shouln't stop us to reach improvements in other areas p.d. Sorry for my broken english

[@timminh468]

Earth is beyond repair/fix, time to move out and start all over, this time run the world wisely.

[@ok0_0]

earth is not destroyed or being destroyed, even if we let global warming run its course we'll only increase the surface temperature by about 1.5 centigrade, it's not the end of the world (literally), it just has some bad possible repercussions for people that live on the coast really.

[@anurag9385]

Any book recommendations for getting started?

[@oceanlawnlove8109]

Small answers to big questions, brief class on astronomy by Neil d Tyson, online classes

[@anurag9385]

@@oceanlawnlove8109 thanks