NASA starts mission planning to visit Alpha Centauri - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#14874632
https://futurism.com/after-moon-mars-nasa-wants-head-alpha-centauri-2069/

The above link is to be of many news announcements about this.


Far too early to know what propulsion system will be used. There is a possibility of collaboration with Breakthough Statshot. This means laser sail propulsion.

Personally, I don’t like it due to the inability to decelerate. I want instruments deployed in all neighbouring stars systems within a few parsecs so to enable lengthy investigations and possibly insitu additive manufacturing of additional infrastructure.

Maybe a combination of laser and nuclear propulsion would work, with the nuclear component being used for deceleration and orbital insertion.
#14874633
This is great news. Within a few centuries, we might be out there among the stars, putting our boots to Xeno necks and planting the flag for the Terran Empire on every blasted alien hellhole we find. :up:
#14874636
Well, that’s right. Why drop bombs on foreigners when we can drop bombs on xenomorphs?

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630235-400-spacecraft-built-from-graphene-could-run-on-nothing-but-sunlight/


I found this article of interest. This idea could be modified such that the laser propulsion could fire clouds of graphene and so creating a gas tube of electrons along the path of the probe. If the probe had a positively charged gas cloud immediately behind it with microwaves (maser) adding the power, could we create an enormous linear accelerator?Again, nuke rocket for deceleration. If that charged cloud could be sustained, we would have a neat little highway to the stars.
#14874947
foxdemon wrote:https://futurism.com/after-moon-mars-nasa-wants-head-alpha-centauri-2069/

The above link is to be of many news announcements about this.


Far too early to know what propulsion system will be used. There is a possibility of collaboration with Breakthough Statshot. This means laser sail propulsion.

Personally, I don’t like it due to the inability to decelerate. I want instruments deployed in all neighbouring stars systems within a few parsecs so to enable lengthy investigations and possibly insitu additive manufacturing of additional infrastructure.

Maybe a combination of laser and nuclear propulsion would work, with the nuclear component being used for deceleration and orbital insertion.


Not going to happen. The energy requirement for any reasonably sized payload is absurd, more than the entire electricity output on Earth. Then you actually have to build lasers to transmit all that power. It's a pipe dream.

P.S. Deceleration is conceptionally possible with laser sails by deploying a reflector sail that flies by the target. Makes it technically even more difficult though.
#14874996
@Rugoz What you say is true. We lack the infrastructure in solar system. Perhaps we need to content ourselves this century with a nanoprobe taking a snap shot as it passes through the star system. It is but symbolic.

In the mean time, we need more energy. Back on planet Earth, huge amounts of electricity are needed to replace hydrocarbons. The move into space will be driven by the need for energy. Possibly orbital solar followed by Mercury Lagrange point solar power stations. Maybe even harvesting anti matter.

As populations rise we will need to think about expanding into space. Earth/sun Lagrange point habitats might be the go, using Venus as a place to grow ingestible hydrocarbons (ie: farming).

But with another century or so of building solar infrastructure, we will have the surplus power to drive interstellar missions.

Tragically Alpha Centauri is so close yet the really juicy looking stars are so far. The solar analogues are much further away, some nice options at 40 to 200 light years. We have no idea yet whether those systems might have habitable world’s we could colonise. But it would be a significant achievement to reach them.

Our expansion to the stars will take many centuries at least. As the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.
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