Interstellar Travel Is Possible!

[@shinytentacles6242]

At this point we're the alien stalking another planet

[@joaquinmenendez2059]

Like they're going to listen. Man's human traits and attributes makes us the "Bad Guys" in any sci-fi movie. Bad enough discovering land extent beyond Antarctica will still make us the bad guys.

[@chillgoober]

@@shinytentacles6242 ikr 😂

[@Drumyguy]

Good point

[@charliechance2373]

I would not be surprised

[@GoogleDebunkerLiam]

We’re just the weird guys in the neighborhood

[@vincentrusso4332]

I thought the sun was our closest star.. damn Good Enough Diploma...

[@deadmine__666]

He meant "start" and not star 😂😂

[@1stDIEmond]

@CycloidalHeadache he said "Proxima Centauri is the closest start to us"

[@1stDIEmond]

@CycloidalHeadache I mean the uploader and can't you read?

[@Theonefreeman97]

​@@1stDIEmondIf you tried to spell "quiet kid" in your name you failed, not sure why anyone would want to fall themselves a quite kid nor a quiet kid but whatever

[@Craigchatto]

​@@Theonefreeman97 If you was trying to spell the word ( call ) instead of ( fall ) while mocking someone about their spelling then you my friend failed even greater. Loool maybe you answered your own question....... you said ( why would anyone fall them self that ) in instead of why would anyone call themselves that. That person might of made a innocent spelling mistake like you did. Looool I mean mocking someone for their incorrect spelling while spelling incorrect yourself is instant karma at its finest

[@MarkARoutt]

If i get to see quality pictures of another star in my lifetime i will be really happy.

[@tinycat8338]

Sad our life started just out of reach of anything else, eh?😅

[@kardona_3]

@@tinycat8338 “Born too late to explore the Earth, born to early to explore the stars”

[@RazorRed1251]

@@kardona_3 Late enough to explore the solar system

[@kardona_3]

@@RazorRed1251 true, but most people will just complain instead of trying to become an astronaut. Not saying that’s easily, I certainly couldn’t

[@Aaronn-je8cx]

at least we will see the first people to land on mars within the coming decades. i remember them saying by 2030 10 or so years ago, don’t know if we’ll go that soon. we might even get to see the *mostly* common civilian space journeys, really expensive at first but maybe going down to the price of a car at some point in our later years.

[@NoThisIsNotMe.]

"Closest start." Clever wording.

[@lordfabulous6198]

@s_o_m_e_o_n_e__e_l_s_e sarcasm.

[@stormtrooper8420]

@NoThisIsNotMe. Closest star to our solar system

[@scoutgabriel2011]

I can only imagine humans and aliens saying "HELP, AN ALIEN!" When they see each other

[@cream615]

depends on the situation.

[@TreyarchDevLookingForGlitches]

Nah America will be there demanding the oil

[@d12parson]

@@TreyarchDevLookingForGlitches so original! funniest joke ever! never heard that one!!

[@d.rodrickeamon6133]

In the science fiction Universe, this is very old tech. " Russell Saunders' “Clipper Ships of Space,” appeared in 1951, the first SF short stories and novellas featuring light sails of which I am aware..." Solar sails are 73 years' old.

[@TJ-dh2sr]

Watch Disney's "treasure planet" ... there are solar sails of a whole other kind 😂 I mean it's very inrealistic (as disney movies are), but i have a blast watching this one ... really enjoy it ... was a time before disney went to shit ...

[@d.rodrickeamon6133]

@@TJ-dh2sr Thanks Tj. Did you know that production assistants who worked for an animal "documentary" created the entire lemmings off cliffs story? I guess they don't all follow each other to their demise, unless a spinning Lazy Susan just out of camera is involved. Even in the old days, Disney had issues. ;-)

[@dickfitswell3437]

@@d.rodrickeamon6133 well these are Lazer sails

[@montyharder3663]

It was also a major plot element in "The Mote in God's Eye". An alien civilization that lacked the humans' jump drives sent a probe to another star by this method.

[@d.rodrickeamon6133]

@@montyharder3663 Yep, the "Moties" and their Crazy Eddie stories.... and what a real danger they presented to Known Space (well, the Niven half...).

[@dlbiggins]

10g probe slams into only "nearby" inhabited planet at 20% of light speed... Slow Interstellar war starts. 3 centuries later, peace breaks out... "WTF did you guys do that for?!?"

[@musicilike69]

Read Forever War? That happens. Centuries of fighting until evolving humans develop mind to mind and we can communicate. First thing said - why did you start this thing?

[@dlbiggins]

​@@musicilike69Ahhh, yes, I have a copy, and it must have been at the back of my mind, though I wasn't consciously thinking of it at the time.

[@non-ofyo-business3399]

It’s sad how accurate this is.

[@GullibleTarget]

Time dilation is going to complicate things😂

[@cinder-nu3pk]

Lmao well they probably won’t know where it came from so ITS OKAY.

[@aaronsouthard8366]

Under a few grams while still being able to: - maneuver for imaging and other sensors to get info about target. - power source - antenna with enough power to beam data back here - computing and storage -oh, and power Not happening

[@UltraGigaTeraChad]

Bro microcontrollers already exist, and they barely need energy

[@UltraGigaTeraChad]

The antenna is the only real issue tbh

[@boiledpepsi]

@UltraGigaTeraChad our species has some very intelligent people. we can figure it out, it just takes time.

[@DanishAhsanNajhan-m8w]

But for the power? What power it is?

[@EpikBulletYT]

@@DanishAhsanNajhan-m8w solar?

[@jakedaniels7676]

The universe is so massive that if it was theoretically folded on itself the chances of two stars colliding are slim to none

[@1gourangatv1]

@@jakedaniels7676 you know what else is massive?

[@halobustplayz]

Don't you dare

[@PapaRabii]

@@1gourangatv1 your mom

[@kissanruokaa]

@@1gourangatv1 your momma

[@ludovicschneider6190]

@@kissanruokaa well played 😀

[@markrowland1366]

New insight. Proxima is now seen as two stars. Keep up.

[@The_Second_greatest_ever]

I watched a documentary that had talked about light propulsion when I was a kid. At the time the used pulses of high intensity light but could only reach tens of feet in altitude. I told my dad about it and he gave me a hard time for years saying I was crazy and was confused or tricked. Guess the jokes on him now.

[@Will-dn9dq]

Knew a navy guy watched mermaids on discovery. Said "old sailers told me they were real I never believed." 😂 I'd not heart to tell him was fake

[@ErmackDaddy]

not "here's ny moment" 😂

[@Venmaylove]

@@The_Second_greatest_ever bo bodi

[@kurtasee2314]

The difference is in space there's no air resistance so that 10ft would prolly be enough to easily reach the moon really fast

[@frankcastlejr]

But at 20% light speed? It'll add another 80% more time on top of that. Sorry to burst your bubble. But he DID say 20% light speed. Not 100%

[@robrussell5329]

By my math, Proxima Centauri is only 1,672 times the distance Voyager has travelled. Voyage is 22 light hours from Earth. 22 x 1,672 = 36,784 light hours. That is equal to 4.2 light years - the distance to Proxima Centauri.

[@KevinS47]

Checks out, the guy in the KZbin short is wrong.

[@andrewdumniak7557]

You forgot Newton's theory about Einsteinativity

[@timothy098-b4f]

Yep, you’re correct. 4.2 light years is 24.6 trillion miles. Voyager 1 is 25 billion miles away-a bit over 1/1000 that distance.

[@Knifeprject]

He talking in a since of miles I believe idk he could still be wrong

[@bjoernf73]

Voyager 1 is at 22,5 light hours away, but let’s for simplicity say it’s 24 light hours = 1 light day. 4,2 light years is 4,2•365 = 1533 light days. So clearly something wrong with the narrators numbers. A similar short also say this kind of vessel may travel 10% the speed of light, not 20%.

[@Pneumonoulrta]

Here is how it’s made: Materials: -galvanized square steel -eco friendly wood veneers -bolts burrowed from your aunt How it is made: Make a solid frame out of the galvanized square steel, secure the steel with the bolts burrowed from your aunt. At last you cover the galvanized square steel frame with the eco friendly wood veneers. Congratulations you have made it 🥳

[@railworksamerica]

Lmao

[@vaisakh_km]

Still less than 20 grams

[@Pneumonoulrta]

@@vaisakh_km exactly

[@pekafanai1246]

damn david

[@Bruh-ir9jc]

Forgot about the childhood eagle

[@DanishAhsanNajhan-m8w]

I think we use the small & high efficiency camera, paper/aluminium foil for the base and some microphe + some message like Voyager 1 & 2

[@FreedomLovingLoyalist]

I've heard of this idea many years back, and It sounds cool imo.

[@AdAstra_McGill]

“Proxima Centauri…is over 6 million times the distance Voyager 1 has flown.” Incorrect. The distance to Proxima Centauri is 268,770 AU, where an AU is the distance from the earth to the sun. Voyager 1 has travelled 163 AU. So, Proxima is 1650 times further than the distance Voyager 1 has traveled.

[@nwoDekaTsyawlA]

@@AdAstra_McGill Yes that figure also strucked me as odd. A quick check reveals the correct relation. Of course it's still a big difference but 3 orders of magnitude less.

[@michael.forkert]

_That pseudoscientific bamboozlers is lying._ 😂

[@vueport99]

Despite your revised calculation.... It's still meaningless since human lifespan won't allow us to travel that far.... And survive

[@AdAstra_McGill]

@@vueport99 Why not?

[@vueport99]

@@AdAstra_McGill I dunno if you're trying to be funny or what. But how long do you think you'll live? Voyager was launched in 1977. Do you think you can live another 1600x that duration?

[@Azazel-nl]

When i was about 11 years of age i told my friends that the sun is also a star They don't believe it

[@S41L0R]

bro were u friends with 4 yr olds

[@Azazel-nl]

@S41L0R no they just don't know it

[@S41L0R]

@@Azazel-nl who tf are these lobotomites? I swear they taught that in like 2nd grade

[@Azazel-nl]

@@S41L0R I don't really know Maybe they didn't pay attention But I guess it's the reason why they didn't go to English medium school

[@erictrott6553]

"3 Body Problem" already figured it out.

[@goose_president5504]

Well Yes but detonating nukes isn't the best idea in space depending on how close the nukes is to Earth it could wipe out an entire country's power grid for some time because it creates a massive EMP (electromagnetic pulse) which probably could fry the camera on board. We detonated a nuke in space it didn't end well it knocked out Hawaii's power grid for a bit. And then you'd be breaking multiple nuclear arms treaties doing that and then the funding it would probably cost over a trillion dollars to do

[@STURYANPHUAYEWLIANG]

Where you getting 300+ nukes and the materials that can survive 300 nuclear blasts from?

[@WASIURPA]

​@@STURYANPHUAYEWLIANGthe soviet union?

[@tylerclark5086]

Remember kids, not everything you see on the internet and on TV is true.

[@tylerclark5086]

@@TotallyNoAim 3 body problem did not in fact, figure it out

[@_vortech_]

How do you slow it down one you get it up to that speed. Also, spotless there be a time dislocation issue once achieving those speeds, thus lengthening the time it takes for the probe to communicate back to us?

[@Boop__Doop]

Better idea (much harder though) Step 1: dismantle mercury Step 2: make billions of kilometer wide mirrors with ion thrusters for manuvers Step 3: launch a solar sail Step 4: point all the mirrors at the solar sail. Congratulations you have successfully launched molten slag at near light speed at another star, no need to thank me

[@BigRalphSmith]

No. We didn't "just find" this. Solar sailing is a concept with a long history, dating all the way back to an idea Johannes Kepler shared with his friend Galileo Galilei in 1608.

[@jmorrison5206]

Then Keppler whipped out his laser and said, “how close to the speed of light do you think can we accelerate this interstellar hunk of junk, Gal?”

[@BigRalphSmith]

@@jmorrison5206 Lasers as pushers are also an "old" idea. No, not Kepler old but also didn't "just find" it.

[@dlbiggins]

And Niven and Pournelle (among others) were writing well-researched stories based on the technology right back in the 1970s. Down to and including detailing exactly why a solar sail cannot tack against the solar wind. And including the need for lasers.

[@bestdjaf7499]

Yes, but the closer you get to that star system (3 stars), the more opposite force would be applied to the sail. And just the interstellar wind. * It would be blown off course. And the lazers would be useless at those distances. Also the dust would rip the sail into shreds. It's one particle in 1M cubic/meters. So in every million meters you might encounter at least 1 particle. And at that speed, it's like shooting nukes at the sail. So probably nothing would be left on its arrival.

[@BigRalphSmith]

@@bestdjaf7499 Once a sail has been accelerated, it is rotated slightly to present it's edge profile to it's direction of travel. This minimizes any forward resistance of the sail. Also, a sail uses the star it is approaching to brake. Solar sails don't "tack" the way a wind sail does. Yes, a sail is expected to take damage over time but you are overestimating the damage. Also, your estimate of particles vs area is averaged which doesn't account for the distribution of said particles being less in interstellar space than near stars. "Interstellar winds" apply magnitudes less force on a sail than a star even out to light years away. Yes, eventually a sail would disintegrate but it's effective life would be much longer than you seem to think.

[@jackdare]

No breakthrough needed just obnoxiously HUGE LASERS 🤠

[@misfit7707]

My idea: use the square cube law to our advantage. We’ll never be able to get the sail that light, BUT by making it bigger, the weight may matter less and less. The surface-area to weight ratio can be brought down low enough by just making it really *really* freaking big, and eventually we may be able to use the sun as our propulsion, instead of a laser.

[@alexmcqueensr2243]

Shhhhhh! I'd share my idea too but look what happened to those poor people who made the water engines. If they want ideas they need to stop killing people cause they had an idea😂

[@Yellow_300]

Yeah, we used the Sun and the Laser because the only thing moving that is Light that is travelling across space(Our Laser, Sun's Protons, Other planet's Protons)

[@CrazyPengion]

@@alexmcqueensr2243 Tbf there isn't a multi-trillion interstellar travel market currently, at worst you'll be called a nerd

[@thebclpoonilli3098]

the laser would have to emit from a relatively, stationary place to the launch area. and it would need to try to avoid gravitational wells. idk really

[@glennrishton5679]

The part I havent understood about the starsail/laser idea is that in this case as the sail approaches Proxima and Alpha Centauri the photons from those stars will be opposing photons from any laser that might be able to follow as well as the sun. If I remember something I read correctly the power required for the multiple lasers is a large percentage of the total power generated on earth now.

[@Kaymef]

Aluminum foil and a go pro?

[@Whataboutit]

Fastest go pro ever!

[@Kaymef]

@@Whataboutit+company bragging rights

[@XquizitRush]

I read about this decades ago in a SciFi book called 'The Mote in Gods Eye' by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. I highly recommend.

[@bobdionne4625]

Yes I have an idea. Change the parameters. We've been tracking Voyager One for forty five years. So what if it takes longer for Starshot to make the trip. Make it bigger. It's worth the wait

[@tovekauppi1616]

I believe the idea is that by waiting until the technology is good enough to get close to 20% of light speed we’d probably end up taking the picture earlier because of the significant reduction to travel time.

[@NickH-o5l]

What if we put lasers in the asteroid belt to speed up the solar sails more than 20%

[@DavidSmith-vr1nb]

​@@NickH-o5l That's an awful lot of effort for a tiny fraction of the distance. Perhaps you meant the Kuiper belt, but that's even more effort for what is still a negligible fraction of the journey.

[@plainText384]

​@@NickH-o5l Putting a giant laser array on the surface of earth is enormously easier than putting the same array on the moon or a asteroid. And the speed of the probe is largely going to be determined by the solar sail and the probe mass anyway. Putting the laser array into space allows you to use wavelengths to which the atmosphere isn't transparent, but I doubt that's actually a significant benefit.

[@nerys71]

The problem is our lifespans suck. And it's very politically difficult and culturally difficult to fund a project for which both the money people and the voters will not see the result inside their lifetime this is the reason for the 30-year goal The people who vote for it the people who pay for it will still be alive to see the result and that's how you get support for it could we go larger? Of course we could and it would take exponentially longer to get there now you're beyond the lifespan of the people paying for it and the people voting for it and they lose interest and the project never gets off the ground.

[@mufasachainbreaker7757]

Laser will need to be space based, still they are really on to something

[@mannysanfeliz9872]

Agreed. Need a little energy dispersion as possible. Also going to need a lot on energy. Question? What if you Instead of speeding it up with lasers..you sped it up with particles fired from a Particle accelerator? An orbiting p.a.

[@tovekauppi1616]

@@mannysanfeliz9872that would probably just damage the probe? The advantage of a laser is that you could have many particles each with a relatively small amount of energy. Also, I believe lasers are much more efficient, so less total energy is needed to power them compared to a particle accelerator.

[@ecospider5]

@mannysanfeliz9872 Photons have no mass so they won’t destroy most things. A particle has mass. It’s going to do some damage to a craft that’s super delicate

[@mufasachainbreaker7757]

@@mannysanfeliz9872 TIE engines use a principle whereby mass is fired from the ship. The fuel that supplies the energy doesn't have to be on the ship if it is powered remotely by the lasers. The mass of the ship would still be affected by needing to carry the ions to be released. Long distance particle streams would be much more difficult to use than lasers and would have limited benefit with greater costs in terms of both complexity, risk, and reliability than the sail system.

[@mannysanfeliz9872]

@@mufasachainbreaker7757 agreed..but what if you only used it at the start..and continued with lasers after? Like firing it like a rail gun and then following up with the laser?

[@listonheinz9103]

Taking a photo of Proxima Centauri after a 30 year journey with a camera that weighs a fraction of a gram? That photo will look like absolute 💩 I can promise you that.

[@Siduy]

And it will be blurry cuz of how fast it's zooming by 💩💩💩

[@anukrathnayake]

tbh a phone camera is like 2g and it can record in FHD. but yeah the quality may not look that good. for the first images I would expect imaged of 360p or less but later there may be images of 720p or higher. this is a really ambitious project and I want it happen.

[@CheeseApprentice]

What do you propose? We go on a thousand year journey instead? It's all we can really do and if correct calculations are done I'm 90% sure we can make it just go into orbit around one of the planets

[@anukrathnayake]

@@CheeseApprentice yeah, I assume that proxima centauri will act as the brake for slowing down with an opposite force. and a couple gravity assists of the planet to slow the spacecraft down.

[@CheeseApprentice]

@@anukrathnayake fr its not like they are just gunna send shit into space, there are years of calculations made beforehand and checked many times over

[@hemojr]

'The Mote In God's Eye' (highly recommended) used this device 50 years ago and it was already a fairly hackneyed SF device by the time Niven & Pournelle used it in 1974

[@XquizitRush]

I just commented on this before I saw this post. Great book! The sequel 'The Gripping Hand' as well.

[@obolstudios5154]

“Proxima Centaurus is the closest star to us” The sun: “do those Morons have dementia?”

[@Motormike2025]

They have been figured out how to make it to other planets. We go through wormholes and black holes. We also have flying saucers and spaceships that can go.

[@near2196]

@@Motormike2025 unfortunately no, no, no and no

[@cream615]

we are able to send rovers to other planets NEARBY, but everything else you said is nonsense.

[@mistrsportak9940]

Wormholes aren't even confirmed to exist and black holes aren't a way to travel. While I love Interstellar, you shouldn't use it for getting such information

[@raphaelgarcia9576]

Nanotech to maximize performance and minimize weight. Micro camera, micro transmitter, etc. You could then use a series of them that could relay the signal back to us.

[@SpeezyOTB]

Sounds like too many points of failure for the money it would cost then the quality would degrade each time it’s transferred

[@victor_dmitry]

@@SpeezyOTB so launch millions of them simple

[@MIN0RITY-REP0RT]

And what slows it down once it gets there? And what guidance system controls the Nano camera to focus on the star and any planets? And what Nano radio gear will transmit the photos back to Earth?

[@nickelblaclllkjhyukj]

Any info sent back would take way to long and most likely by the time it gets here we either already gone there ourself or we already extinct

[@Rust-bucket]

The star will slow it down

[@Rust-bucket]

Turn it around and use its light to slow down enough to get into orbit

[@user-zs8eg4mu8t]

Yes, this is why I say it is a scam.

[@panagiotisdrivas8011]

It doesn't really need to slow down, just fly by image a planet and transmit the data back to earth. Last time I heard about this concept the plan was to launch hundreds of such probes, not just one.

[@M0AI-MOAl]

Aerogel is very very light, it could be difficult to get a lot and make it fit correctly, but it’s ver very very light

[@jaysonwallker1648]

You would have to be able to make aerogel out of the newly discovered "super diamond"

[@SherLock55]

My understanding is that yes it's very light but incredibly brittle, in order to make it not so brittle we have to increase it's density and of course by doing so we increase it's weight.

[@wesleyEddyJr]

How do you slow down?

[@Whataboutit]

You don’t. 😅

[@wesleyEddyJr]

Hard to land at destination while going at light speed.

[@m.r.2066]

Ian Crossland, slamming through the door. Winded, desperate, gasping: GRAPHENE!!!

[@hobbyaddictionz337]

@@m.r.2066 this is accurate, graphene could very much be used

[@krakenslaper1996]

I got it...put a mirror on the moon that shines the Lazer back to earth...it will let our solar panels work at night...the money wasted on this could solve a lot of earth based problems.

[@christopherboston1708]

I've always said with solar panels that we use on earth a mirror above solar panels to concentrate the light producers more energy in just a small space great thinking 🤔

[@oskey5301]

I don't like to ruin someone's party or rain on somebody's parade. But Life on Earth does need nightime for its development. Imagine if it was daytime throughout the Earth? Plants need to photosynthetize in the day and rest in nightime. Better yet why don't we devise a better more efficient storage system made to be used at the peak hours in the nightime? I'm sure we already have the Technology. It could even be quite simple and not costly. Perhaps it's the monetary interests which keep us from making the leap.

[@peeperleviathan2839]

This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. “Waste electricity making a laser to then redirect the laser backwards to generate less power than what the laser consumes”

[@fastral7769]

My reply somehow got deleted, but in short, Mirrors don’t reflect all light, so lasers will burn them. Lasers also lose focus over distance when not in a vacuum. This happens very rapidly in the atmosphere of Earth. If lasers were so convenient, they would be heavily used in militaries everywhere. Solar panels also do not absorb 100% of light. They will be burned by the laser too(Most commercial solar panels are under 20% efficiency). I guess that wasn’t very short.

[@fastral7769]

@@christopherboston1708Yeah, most solar panels can’t handle that much. Most of the sun’s energy is still wasted on heating up the panel with current technology. The focused sunlight will damage/destroy the panels.

[@gitpicker9933]

29 years in and a meteorite smashes it all to pieces

[@gitpicker9933]

@TornikeJS u realize how hard you jus contradicted urself right? 🦑

[@Seieiemon]

If we want to transfer data back from it we will need to be sending smth like 100 of them a day so that the signal could reach one and another back to earth.

[@user.noob.editor]

Space is really amazing, i want to study more about space ❤❤

[@bigkick86]

This was announced near 20 years ago!haha

[@vanderhaat1470]

Lol im pretty sure Captain Picard did this on an Star Trek next gen episode

[@_Enzo_.]

My idea is just raise the damn budget for NASA so that they can research new things more efficiently

[@thatonecommie8351]

exactly, but nooo we need more tanks and ships and jets

[@fmlazar]

@@thatonecommie8351 And more tax cuts for the rich.

[@familyplans3788]

I dont know why it needs to be so light! you Launch it with a rocket and then once its going you use the solar wind to push it! it wont be a lot of force but it will keep accelerating the probe so it will just keep getting faster and faster , a couple of gravity assists and bobs your uncle , they did this with Mariner 10 back in the day , using just it solar panels (which are tiny)

[@godfreyogwuche2209]

You won't be able to build a laser powerful enough to accelerate a heavy probe

[@familyplans3788]

@@godfreyogwuche2209 you wont need a laser at all, you simply use sunlight to push it along , after the initial rocket blast to push it , the tiny tiny push of the suns rays will keep it accelerating to very high speeds

[@shadmansudipto7287]

@@familyplans3788 if it's too slow it will take more time than the lifetime of the electronics.

[@familyplans3788]

@@shadmansudipto7287 if youre talking about the batteries then maybe , depending on what they use and if you need to keep track of it, That said the Voyagers have been aloft for 45+ years , and thats with very old electronics , Personally i would launch towards the Sun and get the mother of all gravity assists Yes we would have radiation problems but if we sent it at night then that cures that problem

[@peeperleviathan2839]

@@familyplans3788solar wind isn’t gonna get anything up to 30% the speed of light, that’s why a laser is required

[@brazenshrey]

How are we planning to stop the spaceship?

[@nichols6778]

Also we need a system to slow it down once there

[@SimonsAstronomy]

How do you slow down? 😂

[@tovekauppi1616]

You don’t. It would presumably take as many pictures as it could from as close as it could and then sent those back to Earth. Then it would simply continue until we lost track of it.

[@mediaworldwide9848]

Stick your leg out and dig in your heels like Fred Flintstone.

[@SimonsAstronomy]

@@tovekauppi1616 like Voyager but 1000x more crazy

[@Rust-bucket]

Or use the stars light slow down into orbit

[@SimonsAstronomy]

@@Rust-bucket thats a really good idea

[@austinbixler8662]

Wtf is with the bots WAI?😂

[@Hungary_0987]

No idea, reported thsm tho

[@ryugamerstv]

dang bro at 59,958,491.6 meters per second is crazy

[@ChristianRehtorik-je1sd]

There are TECHNOLOGICAL breakthroughs! Felix interview STAN DEYO!!

[@ZAR556]

Space Sailing, Discovery Era Lovely

[@Skeletor_the_annoying]

Hear me out. Aerogel. Aerogel was invented by nasa and weighs almost as much as AIR. It would be so light, a blow would cause it to go 70 PERCENT the speed of light.

[@roach5606]

You don't need propulsion past orbit. An object in motion stays in motions unless an opposing force acts upon it. If you sent a space ship into space at 500mph it will remain at that speed

[@user-zl1vf4me1p]

Guys I have a question, if speed of light is the maximun velocity... acceleration has no limits right? In the sense that with an instant of infinite acceleration you would go from zero to lightspeed. My other question, in the vacuum of space if you keep accelerating to the speed of light a normal rocket should reach it giving it the sufficient amount of fuel and thrust, right?

[@Whataboutit]

Those are some good questions! 1. If inertia doesn’t exist you can get infinitely close to light speed but will never reach it fully. 2. Yes. As long as the acceleration force is not too strong. That’s how Ion thrusters reach great speeds. By steadily accelerating further and further. There are concepts that would be able to reach a considerable portion of relativistic speeds. It is possible. Just needs a lot of work.

[@user-zl1vf4me1p]

@Whataboutit that was incredibly fast for a response

[@Divyanshu_dhakad]

Yeahh I have heard about this in 2020 something.. They're still working on it

[@Bro_Editz001]

Elon Musk be like : Let's do that

[@lanceislateagain]

Solar sail? "I've been looking forward to this." - Count Dooku

[@transpirater3768]

This isn’t a new concept it’s been “being worked on” for a very long time. This thing about this kind of tech is that relaying information over lightyears of space is very difficult and a lot can go wrong. Not to mention deceleration is risky and hard to predict in interstellar soace

[@anonydun82fgoog35]

So uh, how do they plan on slowing down once they get there. Either that or how much actual data do they think they will gather in the hour or so they spend in the other system as they blow through it close to light speed?

[@KaiCyan-su1er]

I would say make it from an extremely light material n also possibly make it fairly thin as well hope this helps 👍

[@gurandurine]

To keep the mass of the Breakthrough Starshot spacecraft below a few grams, engineers employ the following strategies: 1. Minimalist Design: The spacecraft, or starchip, includes only the most essential components-communication, power supply, and navigation-miniaturized using advanced microfabrication technologies. 2. Lightweight Materials: Ultra-lightweight materials such as silicon for the chip and thin-film structures for solar sails reduce overall mass. 3. Integrated Functionality: Combining multiple functionalities into single components (e.g., using the solar sail as an antenna). 4. Power Efficiency: The craft relies on external energy sources, like laser propulsion, eliminating the need for heavy onboard power systems. 5. No Fuel: Propulsion is achieved through powerful ground-based lasers instead of carrying propellant. This extreme miniaturization allows the spacecraft to achieve relativistic speeds while keeping the mission feasible.

[@lekoraxx5406]

Yes I have an idea 💡🤓 Add adaptive synthetic mass reducers that are reactive to the charge of atoms. Also counter gravity nano atoms will help. I studied yappiology.

[@MM2.K0]

But I thought that the faster you go the slower time is around you (or is that just a myth)

[@osopapi6061]

I sent my plans in 40yrs ago, but it got dismissed. Now you talk about it in this video.

[@accidentalGamer69]

Genuine question, how do we plan to slow it down once it has reached the destination?

[@petecomps7260]

I assume that it will take a decade or more to accelerate the light sail to 0.2c. That would let the craft arrive at the star in "less than 30 years." However, it would then take 4 years for the signals to reach earth, so the pictures would take "less than 34 years."

[@corey396]

Make it from goo with particles suspended in it that freezes in space

[@pikaskew]

Sure, we could use aerogel for a lot of it if it’ll hold up in space. But the real issue is having enough power to beam back data from that distance.

[@someguy8412]

Because the length of time it will take to send, as well as receive signal for the probes. The safest course would be to send multiple probes, a year a part from one another.

[@johnfrancistrillana5068]

Mylar, Polyimide, and Graphene can be used for the sail.

[@Krzemieniewski1]

in one episode of star trek there was a motif of a ship powered by a solar sail. It was a long time ago and the concept existed

[@Kaminari_Kitsunokami]

I don't know i'm personally more interested in Tabby's star after finding out that there is roughly a twenty percent decrease in luminescence periodically and then shortly thereafter goes back to full some scientists speculate that there could potentially be a Dysonsphere is wrapped around it absorbing the radiation it emits

[@galacticknight55544]

I hope so. I hate being in such a vast universe and being unable to explore it.

[@A203gfcolr]

We should use aerogel since it weighs pretty light and it’ll be able to reach fast speeds

[@TheOnlyIbby]

Correct me if I’m wrong but it takes 4 light years to get to Alpha Centauri. 20% of it is 1/5. If we use indirect proportion, it will take 4 x 5 = 20 years to get to Alpha Centauri not 30.

[@DJ2024-t4j]

20% is max speed and will take a decade to get up to 10% speed

[@captainawesome9458]

Keeping it under a few grams is easy we gotta transport a brain fitted with a small supercomputer that can take photos of the system. The transportation will have to install energy booths along the way of the solar flair to amplify the speed by levels so that it doesn't lose momentum. It will be very difficult that part.

[@moabird6983]

and some still think we went to the moon in 1969 . . .

[@nostrum6410]

also the problem of the shade being torn to bits extremely quickly

[@GregoryHammerstein-i7k]

Under the Maas of a few grams I have an idea ! Use fiber optic webbing that reflects heat but reflects the lazer between the strands of webbing

[@Ceereeal]

Voyager 1 is about 0.96 light-days away from earth currently, and Proxima Centauri is 4.2 ly which is about 1534 light-days, so it’s only about 1600 times further than the distance Voyager 1 has traveled. Not sure where the 6 million times came from especially since it’s 3 orders of magnitude off 😭

[@wisdomseeker420]

Make reflective aerogel infused with that shiny reflective ore stuff. And there you go.

[@Jonathan-c9h9g]

I got an idea💡!!! Use foil 👍

[@anomalytm05]

How... what about maneuvering?

[@kayttajanimi0]

I think he forgot to mention how unbelievably large those solar sails need to be.

[@Agrim_raj7]

This might become possible. The price and size of satellites is going so low exponentially. Ut might be possible. But one rhis is atill problem and that is there isnt a miniature nuclear power module yet. How would we be able to power that ai

[@mlgn0sc0p3r5]

Thanks man, she said 4.2 light years was tiny and laughed 🥲

[@KirankumarPrajapati-g6i]

use aero gel as the frame and put the foil. another method is they can make the frame out of plastic.

[@PrabuddhaDas-ks9mz]

Use a light enough carbon compound to make a huge satellite, use silicon for circuits, rest every exchangable thing with the compound alternative and make a huge laser (likely as big as a pond) this can cost a lot of energy and time but i think that'll do

[@XxCrispyCreamxX]

it would only work if the sails large enough and we can lower light distortion and spread, or not over powering the laser and burning the light sail .

[@Catlover8467]

Just if anyone is wondering, 4.2 light years is about 3 football pitches

[@_TheGalaxyGaming]

Idk if this would work from how thin it is but maybe use aerogel because it basically weights the same as air

[@danielash1704]

Maybe we can vibrate a large amount of reflective material and increase the pressure of light plasmas to get a couple billion refractional waves like a golf ball demples on a flat surface

[@gorlithia]

Breakthrough Starshot sounds like a Pokémon Z-move

[@MrJello8bw]

Sounds like a harry potter spell

[@jjsharp2002]

This is actually how science works Instead of the way of Corporate Boxing to keep everything secret ... knowledge must be shared

[@theirishman8518]

If we manage to do that, before that probe gets there we will already have technology to send another probe that is heavier and that is faster that will make it there before the first probe gets there

[@topquark22]

Great, but how would you slow it down once it gets there?

[@speeddemonx9995]

Material hasn't been made yet but it's a super-light air based mesh.

[@NonSenseMcGee]

The biggest problem with this isnt getting there and getting images. Its time dilation. Even going 20% the speed of light, if it took 30 years to get there, many more would pass here on Earth. So getting the images may take 30 years for the ship, but getting them back to earth would take a LOT longer.

[@Serega_Breghko]

The biggest problem about it, is that we don't know any material, which can withstand such high temperatures. Yeah, electronics can withstand acceleration even 100000 G-force, like in moddern army technologies, but what material can withstand those temperatures? That's the biggest question.

[@peeperleviathan2839]

Don’t use infrared light?

[@TallinuTV]

No, Felix, we haven't "just found" this, the idea has been around for decades.